I THINK HE SHOULD RUN THIRD-PARTY MYSELF: DNC chief: No pressure on Sanders to quit the race.

The Democrats’ election chief said Wednesday that party leaders fully expect Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to remain in the White House race through the entire primary season.

“We have 14 primaries remaining and, you know, our expectation is that this primary will run through its normal … process,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), head of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), told reporters in the Capitol.

Sanders is trailing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by a wide margin in the delegate race, a gap that increased considerably on Tuesday after Clinton’s lopsided wins in a handful of Atlantic Coast primaries. While Sanders took Rhode Island, Clinton won Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

Those dynamics have led some Democrats to call on Sanders to step aside so party leaders can focus their attacks on Republicans and the general election in November. But Wasserman Schultz applied no such pressure on Wednesday, saying the DNC is fully capable of overseeing the long primary contest while preparing for the eventual showdown with Republicans.

“June 7 is our last day for primaries, and … the decision of the candidates at that point will be theirs,” she said. “So we’re at the same time managing the primary nominating contest, making sure that … it’s handled in a neutral way. Alongside that we’re preparing for the general election.”

Wasserman Schultz also dismissed the notion that the long primary will harm the party in November.

“We walk and chew gum at the same time at the DNC,” she said.

Hmm, that’s not what Gen. Mattis says about Obama. But if I were a GOP strategist I’d have operatives all over social media enouraging Bernie to go third party, and encouraging his supporters to follow him out of the Democratic Party.