Clinton: Sanders ‘doesn’t consider himself to be a Democrat’

by Jesse Byrnes - 04/06/16 9:16 AM ET

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says rival Bernie Sanders does not identify as part of the Democratic Party, even though he’s running to be the party’s standard bearer.

“I think he himself doesn’t consider himself to be a Democrat,” Clinton told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Wednesday.

{mosads}”Look, he’s raised a lot of important issues that the Democratic Party agrees with, income inequality, first and foremost,” she said. “But it’s up to the Democratic primary voters to make that assessment.”

Clinton touted her own experience in the party, saying: “I’ve been in the trenches for a long time, and I believe in electing Democrats up and down the ticket.”

The former secretary of State’s comments came hours after she questioned Sanders’s Democratic credentials in a Politico podcast published Wednesday.

“Well, I can’t answer that,” Clinton said when whether she thought Sanders was a Democrat.

“He’s a relatively new Democrat, and in fact I’m not even sure he is one — he’s running as one. So I don’t know quite how to characterize him. I’ll leave that to him,” she added.

Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, has represented Vermont in the House and Senate as an Independent. He declared last year that he was committed to the Democratic Party when he decided to run for its nomination.

“I made a decision in this presidential election that I will run as a Democrat. I am a Democrat now,” Sanders said during an interview in November on ABC News.

Sanders won the Wisconsin primary on Tuesday, giving him seven wins in the last eight contests, including Democrats Abroad constituency of American expats. But he still faces an uphill battle in the race for delegates to lock up the nomination, with the Clinton campaign this week describing their lead as “nearly insurmountable.”

“He had a good night last night, and I give him credit for that. But I’m still significantly ahead in the popular vote and delegate race,” Clinton said during her “Morning Joe” appearance Wednesday morning. She noted how she ended her own campaign in 2008 and endorsed Barack Obama.

“President Obama had an insurmountable lead and it stayed that way. But at the end of it, I said, ‘Look, we are going to join together to elect Barack Obama president.’ I made that very clear,” Clinton said.

“I endorsed him, I nominated him, I told my delegates that they should support him — and I’m hoping to unify the Democratic Party at the end of this process when I have been able to clearly achieve the nomination.”

Clinton said later when asked directly whether she thought it was time for Sanders to drop out, “I’m the last person who would tell anybody to walk away from a campaign. … I think it’s up to Sen. Sanders.”

Updated at 9:37 a.m.

Tags Barack Obama Bernie Sanders Hillary Clinton