Sen. Bernie Sanders said that he and his populist message can beat Hillary Clinton in the race for the Democratic Party’s White House nomination.
The Vermont independent, who is running as a Democrat, said that growing income inequality, deepening climate change and a hijacking of the political process by well-heeled private donors all show the country needs a new vision.
“I think we are living in a very strange moment in American history,” Sanders said Sunday on CBS’ “Face of the Nation,” adding, “We need strong and bold leadership.”
Free college education and guaranteed healthcare for all citizens are elements of democratic socialism the U.S. can borrow from states like Sweden and Denmark, said Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist.
“We can learn a whole lot from some of those countries,” he said. “Those systems are better.”
“It’s fair to say that I am perhaps the most progressive member of the United States Senate,” said Sanders. Unlike Clinton, the former secretary of state, Sanders said he won’t be creating a super PAC and that if he becomes president, Supreme Court justices will have to pass his “litmus test” of stating they will roll back the 2010 Citizens United decision, which opened the floodgates for so-called “dark money” donations.
Sanders isn’t going to outspend Clinton — in the week since announcing, his campaign has netted 90,000 contributions at an average of $43.
“I think we are going to raise the kind of money we need to run a strong and winning campaign,” Sanders said.
