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ByKathleenHennessey and Lisa Lerer TheAssociatedPress NEW YORK Energizedbya final batch of primary victo- ries, Hillary Clinton is set- ting out on the difficult task of uniting her fractured Democratic Party for the five-month presidential bat- tle with Republican Don- ald Trump. Fellow Demo- crats urged Bernie Sanders to end his all-but-hopeless challenge to her, but still tried to give him space to make that difficult decision. "Let him make that deci- sion. Give him time," Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday when asked if it was time for Sanders to halt his effort. Sanders vowed to con- tinue to his campaign to the last contest in the Dis- trict of Columbia next Tues- day. But about half his cam- paign staff is being laid off, two people familiar with the plans said Wednesday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly about the layoffs. Clinton cruised to easy victories in four of the six state contests Tuesday. With each win she further solidified Sen. Sanders' de- feat and dashed his already slim chances of using the last night of state contests to save his flagging bid. The victories allowed Clinton to celebrate her long-sought "milestone" — the first woman poised to lead a major political party's presidential ticket. Standing before a flag-wav- ing crowd in Brooklyn, the former secretary of state soaked up the cheers and beamed. "Barriers can come down. Justice and equality can win," she said. "This campaign is about making sure there are no ceilings, no limits on any of us. This is our moment to come to- gether." Clinton had already se- cured the delegates needed for the nomination be- fore Tuesday's contests, ac- cording to an Associated Press tally. Still, Sanders had hoped to use a victory in California to persuade party insiders to switch their allegiances. Sanders picked up wins in Montana and North Dakota, but Clin- ton won substantially in California. Clinton's victory in Cali- fornia assured her a major- ity of pledged delegates — those chosen in primaries and caucuses. That's nota- ble because Sanders has ar- gued that his White House bid remained viable as long as he stood a chance of win- ning a majority of those delegates. He would have needed a landslide Tuesday to reach that goal. Sanders is under intense pressure from top Demo- crats hoping to coax him gently out of the race, win over his voters and turn to the task of challeng- ing Trump, the presump- tive GOP nominee. Sanders planned to meet separately Thursday with President Barack Obama and Sen- ate Minority Leader Harry Reid. While Reid has stopped short of publicly calling for Sanders to drop out, other senators were less re- strained Wednesday. Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida said Sanders should "stand down" and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire said would like to see him wind down his candidacy sooner rather than later. The president is expected to endorse Clinton in the coming days. He called both Clinton and Sanders after voting wrapped up late Tuesday. There were signs Sanders was listening to Democrats. In his typically passionate remarks, the socialist fire- brand repeatedly noted late Tuesday night that "we are in this together" and argued that a tenet of his campaign was that "we will not allow right-wing Republicans to control our government." As the Democratic race was wrapping up, Republi- cans were unraveling anew. Despite handily winning GOP contests in Califor- nia, New Jersey, New Mex- ico, South Dakota and Mon- tana, Trump was in dam- age control mode over his ethnicity-based attacks on a Hispanic judge that had party leaders in fits. After one senator rescinded his endorsement and House Speaker Paul Ryan called the comments "racist," Trump sought to calm wor- ries with a rare, scripted victory speech for his new batch of primary wins.. "I understand the re- sponsibility of carrying the mantle and I will never, ever let you down — too much work, too many peo- ple, blood, sweat and tears," Trump said, reading from a teleprompter at a rally at one of his golf courses in suburban New York City. "I will make you proud of your party and our move- ment, and that's what it is, is a movement." Despite Ryan's concerns about Trump's remarks, the speaker reaffirmed his sup- port in a closed-door meet- ing with fellow GOP law- makers Wednesday. It was Ryan's first meeting with House Republicans since endorsing Trump last week after initially withholding his support. A Ryan aide said the speaker told his colleagues he would continue criticiz- ing the billionaire when needed. Ryan's remarks were greeted by applause, according to the aide, who spoke on condition of ano- nymity to describe the pri- vate remarks. Clinton now has 2,184 pledged delegates — or more than half of the 4,051 total. Sanders has 1,804. When including super- delegates, or party officials who can back any candi- date, Clinton's lead is much bigger — 2,755 to Sanders' 1,852. It takes 2,383 to win. Clinton crossed that thresh- old Monday, according to the AP tally Sanders and some in his army of die-hard supporters expressed frustration about the survey. As he addressed supporters in Los Angeles, the crowd chanted "Media is corrupt." Both Clinton and Trump made overtures toward an energized and passionate pool of voters. Trump noted he and Sanders both oppose the president's Pacific Rim trade deal, and he sympa- thized with frustration for having "been left out in the cold by a rigged system of super delegates." Clinton thanked the sen- ator for driving the debate over economic mobility and income inequality and tried to show she absorbed some of his message. Mostly, she expressed empathy of a can- didate who knows the bitter taste of defeat. Still, it was her night to celebrate. Her campaign produced a video to introduce her speech, chronicling wom- en's rise in politics from the suffragettes through Clinton's own concession to speech to then-Sen. Obama, eight years ago. Then, she had thanked supporters for helping her put "18 million cracks" in the "highest, hardest glass ceiling." Associated Press writers Ken Thomas in Los Angeles and Julie Pace and Erica Werner in Washington contributed to this story. PRESIDENTIAL RACE Ti me t o ba ck t he w in ne r? C li nt on , Tr um p tr y to u ni fy p art ie s JULIOCORTEZ—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, le , is greeted by supporters as she arrives to a presidential primary election night rally, Tuesday in New York. By Lisa Lerer and Julie Pace The Associated Press NEW YORK For two weeks in February, Hillary Clin- ton's campaign appeared on the brink of falling into an all-too-familiar pattern. Her razor-thin win in Iowa and crushing defeat in New Hampshire to Ber- nie Sanders sparked ques- tions about her weaknesses as a candidate and second- guessing about her oper- ation. A flood of "helpers" — the derisive term some aides use to describe the legion of Clinton friends and allies outside the cam- paign— wanted to offer ad- vice. Press reports began popping up about an inter- nal shakeup. "We were worried," re- called Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Clinton backer. "We thought this will be re- ally a test, can she with- stand everyone talking in her ear?" It was a test Clinton would pass. Withinweeks,shestarted opening a delegate lead that would never close. Her cam- paign team remained in- tact, displaying discipline that surprised veterans of the Clintons' past politi- cal operations. After vic- tories March 15 primaries, aides celebrated at the cam- paign's Brooklyn headquar- ters with a boozy, late-night dance party, confident that Clinton had put the nomi- nating fight out of reach for Sanders. For Clinton, those were the moments when she fi- nally shed the ghosts of her failed first White House run in 2008, a cursed campaign that repeatedly buckled and ultimately collapsed under pressure. "We just stuck together," said Robby Mook, Clinton's campaign manager and a target of early shakeup ru- mors. "That was a really galvanizing and important moment for the campaign." In many ways, Clinton's 2016 success was a redemp- tion story, the tale of how a flawed candidate overcame some of her failings. But the campaign also underscored that Clinton can't help be- ing her own worst enemy. The question now is which Clinton — the reha- bilitated policy wonk or the reflexively defensive politi- cian — will win out as she faces perhaps her most un- predictable challenge: Don- ald Trump. Nearly two years before announcing her candidacy, Clinton commissioned an extensive evaluation from a team of Democratic con- sultants. They made the fol- lowing recommendations: Clinton would have to run a more disciplined, frugal operation. She'd need to fo- cus far more on winning delegates. And she would have to overcome questions about her authenticity. On two of those three fronts, Clinton found a winning formula in her primary campaign against Sanders. Gone were the old Clin- ton hands, with their war- ring fiefdoms. Mook, a young operative known for inspiring fierce loyalty among his staff, prided himself on thriftiness. Aides say Clinton was fixated on the campaign's delegate operation, des- perate to avoid one of the most glaring mistakes from 2008. While Clinton captured more votes that Barack Obama in that race, his operation mastered the complex delegate allocation process that ultimately gave him the edge. So Clinton hired the man who built the system that defeated her, delegate guru Jeff Berman. Last summer, Berman began locking down crucial superdelegates for Clinton. By November, Clinton had public support from nearly half the superdele- gates, according to an As- sociated Press count. That gave her 15 percent of over- all delegates she would need to win the nomination before voting even started. Even with her campaign on more solid footing, noth- ing prepared Clinton for the challenge she would face from Sanders. A rumpled 74-year- old from Vermont, Sand- ers quickly began draw- ing massive crowds around the country and announc- ing eye-popping fundrais- ing totals. His supporters appeared to be drawn as much to his populist economic mes- sage as his raw authentic- ity, which stood in sharp contrast to Clinton's care- fully scripted style. Revelations about the private server she used at the State Department sad- dled Clinton with new questions about her trust- worthiness even before she officially launched her cam- paign. Her sudden pivot on issues such as trade seemed to underscore that she was willing to shift positions to match the political mo- ment. And, perhaps her biggest problem: Some voters sim- ply didn't like her. In an effort to solve the likeability issue, Clinton's campaign tried to put her in situations where she'd play to her strengths, maximiz- ing one-on-one interactions in smaller settings and pol- icy-heavy roundtables. And unlike in 2008, when she all-but-ignored her gender, Clinton owned her historic status. Karen Finney, a cam- paign spokeswoman, said Clinton "had a real vision about how she wanted to do the campaign and what works best for her." At times, that meant walking away from her hus- band's legacy as president, including the 1994 crime bill that is blamed for mass incarcerations, particularly among minorities. Clinton went on to draw massive support from black primary voters. PRESIDENTIAL RACE Pa th t o Vi ct or y: H ow C lin to n learned from '08 campaign missteps | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2016 8 A