Bernie Sanders Hung Out with President Obama at the White House Wednesday

On Wednesday, with the Iowa caucuses looming, presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders was at the White House for a quick chat with Barack Obama, as CNN reports. It's the first time Sanders and the president have gone face-to-face in the Oval Office since the Vermont senator's big surge in the polls.

Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said the pair probably talked about Obama's "own experience running for president," and how the current rivalry between Sanders and Clinton is "good for the Democratic Party."

The meet comes a few days after a Politico interview with Obama gave the impression that the current president was buddying up with his former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Obama pointedly rejected any comparison between his 2008 campaign and Sanders' own long-shot bid.

But after the presidential hang, Sanders told reporters it was "productive" and shook off the idea that Obama was choosing a side.

"What the president has tried to do, what Vice President Biden has tried to do, is to be as evenhanded as they could be," he said, dismissing the idea of tension.

The 45-minute chat was over around lunchtime, with Obama hurrying to a meeting with Biden at 12:30 and Sanders scurrying off himself, perhaps to decide whether to drop an anti-Hillary attack ad before Iowans kick things off on Monday.