When Sanders finally decided to suspend his campaign Wednesday, Biden was ready with honeyed words — 758 to be exact. He lauded the Vermont senator, mentioned their wives and even borrowed a slogan from his rival’s campaign.

“I’ll be reaching out to you. You will be heard by me. As you say: Not me, Us,” Biden wrote in a ready-to-go statement on Medium that read more like an encomium than a eulogy.

The two men spoke midday and had a friendly conversation, said aides, who went out of their way to avoid sniping at Sanders. Then Biden ended the day the way it began, kicking off a virtual news conference about unemployment and jobs with more praise for Sanders.

“He's inspired and energized millions of supporters, especially young voters, to join him in championing a progressive vision for our country. And he didn't just run a political campaign, he created a movement, and that's a good thing for the nation and for our future,” Biden said.

“This is about beating Trump. It’s not about ego,” said one Biden adviser, noting with relief that the campaign and the Democratic National Committee can now easily strike up a joint-fundraising agreement, the DNC can start paying for Biden staff and the party’s messaging can be concentrated in support of the former vice president for the next seven months.

Sanders’ move also clears the way for former President Barack Obama to come off the sidelines and support Biden along with former first lady Michelle Obama.

“Remember, she’s the one who’s popular with swing women,” said Jim Messina, a former Obama adviser. “If I was him, I’d offer her the VP.” (Messina said he believed there’s “no way she’d take it. None” — a sentiment that Biden expressed in February.)

Sanders, too, is mindful of 2016 and wanted to avoid the toxic dynamic that characterized his fraught relationship with Clinton four years ago, advisers said. In contrast, Sanders and Biden have a chummy relationship born of years of serving together in Washington.

“Bernie obviously has more affection for Biden than he did for Hillary and the stakes are clearer now,” said former Obama adviser David Axelrod.

Sanders congratulated Biden Wednesday in his remarks, and referred to him as “a very decent man.”

“There was always personal animosity between Bernie and Hillary, and the opposite has been true of Bernie and Biden,” said Joe Trippi, a veteran of Democratic presidential campaigns. “It’s both the personal relationship and the lessons of 2016, or the ghosts of 2016 or whatever you want to call it.”

Personal relationships aside, though, Sanders ultimately looked at the delegate math and realized there was no path forward. And with all campaigning effectively shut down, Sanders no longer had the big enthusiastic crowds to generate any energy.

“There’s no mass movement without the masses,” a Sanders adviser said. “But a lot of this unity is in Biden’s court. Bernie’s followers care about policy. They want to see him push meaningful reform. They’re not just going to vote for Biden because Bernie says so.”

Sanders didn’t completely quit and endorse Biden. Sanders is holding on to his delegates as he did in 2016 and plans to remain on the ballot through the nominating convention "where we will be able to exert significant influence over the party platform,” he said.

Former advisers to Clinton’s campaign said it’s helpful that Sanders suspended his campaign in April instead of June, as he did in 2016. But the mistrust is still there from the 2016 convention, which exposed the giant rift between Sanders’ committed supporters and the Democratic establishment.

“Bernie still has delegates showing up at the convention. He can still leverage the platform process and the floor process. He still has tools in his toolbox,” said a Clinton adviser, who didn’t want to speak on record to vent frustrations with Sanders.

“We bent over backward for Bernie in 2016,” the adviser said. “Go back and compare what Bernie got at the ’16 convention to what Hillary got in ’08. Bernie got a whole night for himself. We had Paul Simon come in and do a whole musical tribute for him. He got a prime time speaking slot. He had his surrogates speaking and some of them had said not-so-savory things about Hillary. He got a sky box. Hillary didn’t get that in ’08 and didn’t ask for it.”

The 2016 convention had another unique twist: Russian hackers had intermediaries release hacked DNC emails that showed how party officials privately favored Clinton. It led to the resignation of DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

As in 2016, Biden’s campaign recognizes there’s still an ideological divide that could be tough to bridge. Biden has a long record of legislating and campaigning as a moderate, in deed if not in tone. Sanders is a committed leftist, and his vocal supporters were so upset on Twitter Wednesday that one prominent boosters channeled a Fidel Castro speech by saying “History will absolve Bernie Sanders.”

Some progressive groups pointed to Biden’s persistent weakness with young voters and urged him to move even farther left, appoint Sanders’ advisers to key positions and endorse Medicare for All, a non-starter for Biden.

“With young people poised to play a critical role deciding the next president, you need to have more young people enthusiastically supporting and campaigning with you to defeat Trump,” said an open letter to Biden signed by Alliance for Youth Action, Justice Democrats, March for Our Lives Action Fund, NextGen America, Student Action, Sunrise Movement, and United We Dream Action. “Exclusively anti-Trump messaging won’t be enough to lead any candidate to victory. We need you to champion the bold ideas that have galvanized our generation and given us hope in the political process.”

Robert Gibbs, a former adviser to Obama, said the extra time Biden has, relative to Clinton, is invaluable.

“Biden gets a head start on pulling the party together now - if he had to wait until June, July or August that could have been catastrophic,” Gibbs said, adding that there’s a “necessity to get younger voters who have supported Bernie onto Team Biden...any moment wasted not working on that would have threatened his chances of success in November.”

Trump reacted to the news of Sanders’s campaign suspension by continuing his longstanding effort to drive a wedge between the Democratic factions, saying on Twitter that he can’t imagine prominent Sanders supporters like New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez “supporting Sleepy Joe!”

“Wow, Bernie is unwilling to give up his delegates, and wants more of them! What’s that all about?” Trump said in the second of three tweets on the subject.

“Bernie Sanders is OUT! Thank you to Elizabeth Warren. If not for her, Bernie would have won almost every state on Super Tuesday!” Trump wrote. “This ended just like the Democrats & the DNC wanted, same as the Crooked Hillary fiasco. The Bernie people should come to the Republican Party, TRADE!”

The Republican National Committee blasted out an email to reporters that said Sanders had won the ideological war in the party by pushing Biden too far left.

Former Obama adviser Ben LaBolt said “Trump’s Twitter meltdown” was a sign that the party’s unity this early is a threat to his reelection. He pointed out that Sanders and Biden already appeared to be working in concert to bridge gaps on policy and bring their followers together.

“November is a life-or -death decision,” LaBolt said, adding that 2016 “looms over the party, the candidates and the voters.”