Reid (D-Nev.) dismissed suggestions from Sanders and his supporters that he should become the nominee if he finishes with a plurality lead ahead of the rest of the candidates but short of the 1,991 delegates needed to secure the nomination outright. Reid even suggested that a group of moderate candidates, trailing Sanders overall, could assemble a coalition ahead of the Democratic convention in July in Milwaukee to hand the nomination to someone else.

“Here is how I feel about this: I do not think that anybody — Bernie Sanders or anyone else — should simply get the nomination because they have 30 percent of the delegates and no one else has that many,” Reid said in an interview in his office at the Bellagio, where he has a post with the MGM Resorts Public Policy Institute. “Let’s say that he has 35 percent. Well, 65 percent he doesn’t have, or that person doesn’t have. I think that we have to let the system work its way out. I do not believe anyone should get the nomination unless they have 50-[percent]-plus-one.”