Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders declined Sunday to join calls for rival Hillary Clinton to release transcripts from her paid speeches to big banks.
In a wide-ranging interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper that aired Sunday morning, the Vermont senator also criticized a Clinton surrogate and predicted the New Hampshire primary would be a close finish.
“Do you think she should [release the transcripts], and what do you think would be revealed in those transcripts?” Tapper asked Sanders during a special, commercial-free edition of “State of the Union.
“No idea,” Sanders said. “I have no idea what she said and I think the decision as to whether or not to release it is her decision.”
“You don’t have a position on it at all?” Tapper asked.
“No,” the Vermont senator said.
Sanders’ comments come after he criticized Clinton over her ties to Wall Street at MSNBC’s Democratic debate Thursday night.
Clinton, who said Thursday that she will “look into” whether she would release the transcripts, is under pressure on the issue from many fronts. Even Symone Sanders, a spokesman for Sanders’ campaign, called for the transcripts to be released before Tuesday’s primary.
Also in the interview with Tapper, Sanders ripped on David Brock, who leads the pro-Clinton super political action committee Priorities USA.
“I happen to like Hillary Clinton, but I am astounded by some of the people that she has hired, including David Brock,” Sanders said. Brock, who once was against the Clintons in the 1990s, has become a major backer of Clinton and has been attacking Sanders.
“David Brock, people will remember, used to be a real right-wing guy who was attacking people like Anita Hill,” Sanders said. He was responding to Brock’s criticism that a Sanders TV ad did not feature enough African-American and Latino faces and thus “Black lives don’t matter to Bernie Sanders.”
“This is an African-American law professor who tried to do the right thing, and he admitted it. He said, ‘I lied about her.'” Sanders added, “I just don’t understand where the Clinton people are coming from hiring somebody like that. Every day, you know, they’re attacking us in one way or the other.”
Sanders, who is ahead in most New Hampshire polls, predicted Tuesday’s primary will be close, in what may be a bid to manage expectations. He said he will be ready for South Carolina right after.
“We think it’s gonna be a close election, we’re working really hard,” Sanders told Tapper. “Don’t make me nervous, and don’t jinx me.”
