Sen. Bernie Sanders said Hillary Clinton is getting a bit ahead of herself. The senator from Vermont said on ABC News’ This Week that his Democratic opponent is “jumping the gun” by claiming she will definitely be the Democratic presidential contender. “We’re going to have to do very, very, very well in the remaining nine contests,” Sanders recognized before adding, “I think we have a shot.”
On CNN, Sanders appeared to get a bit frustrated with host Jake Tapper when he asked whether he wasn’t misleading his supporters when he downplayed that Clinton had won “roughly 54 percent” of pledged delegates. “No,” Sanders fired back, “I assume that most of the people who come to my rallies can do arithmetic.”
The senator from Vermont went further, saying that the current rules to pick a presidential nominee need to change. “Some 400 of Hillary Clinton’s superdelegates came on board her campaign before anybody else announced,” Sanders said. “It was an anointment.”
Sanders also called on Clinton to “keep her word” on holding a debate ahead of the June 7 California primary. “We are hoping that Democratic National Committee will ask her to keep her word and allow that debate to go forward,” Sanders said on CBS’ Face the Nation.
Clinton, for her part, took a more conciliatory tone, saying on NBC’s Meet the Press that Sanders has “every right” to end his campaign however he chooses. She did say though that it is a bit too simplistic to think that current polls would give you an accurate idea of how Sanders would do in a general election. “I don’t think he’s had a single negative ad ever run against him,” Clinton said. She added that her campaign is willing to listen to Sanders’ demands “when he’s ready to talk.”
