I'm with her: Obama

US President Barack Obama formally endorsed Hillary Clinton as his preferred successor yesterday, arguing there has never been “someone so qualified to hold this office.”

“I know how hard this job can be. That's why I know Hillary will be so good at it,” he said in a video message released by Clinton's campaign just after Obama met at the White House with her Democratic primary opponent, Bernie Sanders.

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"Tens of millions of Americans made their voices heard. Today I just want to add mine," Obama said in the video.

"I don't think there's ever been someone so qualified to hold this office."

“I am with her. I am fired up. And I cannot wait to get out there and campaign for Hillary,” he added.

The endorsement was long expected but is nonetheless a shot in the arm to the Clinton campaign and could end concerns about party unity after a bitter contest.

Obama's backing will give Clinton a potent surrogate on the campaign trail. After nearly eight years in the White House, Obama is still one of the country's most popular politicians.

His approval ratings among black, Hispanic, young and liberal voters are stratospheric.

Obama and Clinton will hold their first joint campaign appearance in Wisconsin next week, the campaign also said.

Together, the announcements trumped what appeared to be a day of careful diplomacy between senior Democrats and Sanders as he made his way around Washington to meet with Obama and other party leaders after Clinton secured the Democratic nomination this week.

After meeting with Obama for about an hour, Sanders struck a somewhat conciliatory tone toward the former secretary of State and thanked the president for his impartiality during the primary but offered no clarity about his plans to either drop out of the presidential race or back Clinton.

Sanders' chances of becoming the Democratic nominee are nearly nonexistent, dependent solely on a dramatic swing of support from superdelegates away from Clinton. But he entered yesterday's meeting with Obama and a later one with Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid with some bargaining chips, aware of Democrats' desire to avoid any whiff of intraparty dissent.

Reading a prepared statement outside the West Wing after his visit with Obama, Sanders cataloged the familiar list of issues that have driven his grass-roots campaign and that he said he would “take to the Democratic National Convention” next month.

But, in a nod to what Democrats want from him - to throw his support to Clinton as she embarks on her general election campaign, Sanders quickly attacked presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump. Sanders said it was “unbelievable” to him that Republicans would nominate a figure “who makes bigotry and discrimination the cornerstone of his campaign.”

“Needless to say, I am going to do everything in my power — and I will work as hard as I can — to make sure that Donald Trump does not become president,” he said.

Sanders reaffirmed that he would contest the lone remaining Democratic primary, on Tuesday in the District of Columbia, primarily to argue for the city's right to full congressional representation.

Then he said he looked forward to speaking with Clinton about how to beat Trump “and to create a government which represents all of us, and not just the 1%,” his rallying cry for months on the campaign trail.

Obama had already congratulated Clinton for securing the nomination this week.

But he went further in the prerecorded video message, saying she had “the courage, the compassion and the heart to get the job done.”

Noting their history as political rivals, he said her decision to serve in his administration was “a testament to her character.”

“From the decision we made in the Situation Room to get Bin Laden to our pursuit of diplomacy in capitals around the world, I have seen her judgment, I've seen her toughness, I've seen her commitment to our values up close," he said.

Clinton welcomed the vote of confidence: "Honored to have you with me, @POTUS I'm fired up and ready to go!" she tweeted, echoing one of Obama's own campaign rallying cries from 2008.

In that election Obama bested Clinton to become the first black president.

They later made peace, as Clinton became Obama's first secretary of state.

Now Clinton is trying to make history of her own by becoming the first female president.

Standing in her way is bombastic businessman Donald Trump, who shocked the world by becoming the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

Just after the endorsement, Trump tweeted: “Obama just endorsed Crooked Hillary. He wants four more years of Obama—but nobody else does!”