Coming off a sweep of three caucus victories this weekend, a confident Bernie Sanders said the Democratic race is turning in his favor, and refused to lay off rival Hillary Clinton despite party pressure wind down his campaign.
“Clearly we have the momentum,” the Vermont senator said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” after winning the caucuses in Washington, Alaska and Hawaii.
The senator from Vermont trails Clinton in the delegate count 1,712 to 1,004, and has far fewer superdelegates backing his campaign.
But that doesn’t seem to dampen Sanders’ determination. When asked if he should listen to members of the Democratic Party and start to lay off the attacks on Clinton, Sanders kept harping on campaign finance, one of the hallmarks of his campaign.
“The reason we’re doing well is that we are talking about the real issues facing the American people. And campaign finance is one of them,” Sanders said. “We have raised now 6 million individual campaign contributions averaging $27 a piece. That’s unprecedented in American political history.”
“Secretary Clinton has super PACs; she has raised some $15 million at least from Wall Street, money from the fossil fuel industry, and the drug companies,” Sanders continued. “Do I think the American people need to know? That, is that an important issue? I think it is.”
Sanders then broadened his critique of Clinton, the former secretary of state and senator from New York.
“Our vote’s on the wall. I voted against the war in Iraq. She voted for the war in Iraq. That’s an important issue. I am opposed to continuation of fracking. She supports fracking. Those are important issues,” Sanders said. “That’s what a campaign is about. I do not run negative ads, but clearly contrasting my position with Secretary Clinton’s is what a campaign is supposed to be about.”
Sanders argued that he may convince superdelegates supporting to Clinton to defect to his campaign, reasoning that his momentum would convince them that he is best positioned to defeat Donald Trump or any of the other Republican candidates in the general election.
