Sanders: If We Enter Convention with Momentum, the Superdelegates Will Join Us

‘In every national poll ... we do better than Hillary Clinton’

MADDOW: “Let me ask you about something that’s actually based in your fund raising theory of the case here, one of the things that has been stunning about your campaign is how many small donors you have, how people have been willing to give to you again and again and again in small amounts. You’ve raised so much money and have shown such fund raising prowess, obviously you could — no matter what happens in primaries and caucuses, you could stay in this race indefinitely, you’re never going to run out of money. You are right now behind in the delegates. Because you won’t have that kind of constraint on your campaign, though, I wonder if — if you can imagine a scenario in which you’re still behind Secretary Clinton in terms of delegates but you went all the way to the convention this summer and tried to make a case for yourself by basically persuading the superdelegates to support you instead of her. Is that something you can imagine doing?”
SANDERS: “Well, here is the scenario. Secretary Clinton has done phenomenally well in the Deep South and she has picked up a whole lot of delegates there. We are now moving beyond the south. We’re moving west where we think the terrain favors us. West Coast is probably most progressive region of the United States of America. We think we have a good shot, can’t guarantee it, of winning a whole lot of states, of winning a whole lot of delegates, of perhaps [winning] California, state of Washington, Oregon, many of the smaller states and winning New York state. We think if we come into the convention in July in Philadelphia, having won a whole lot of delegates, having a whole lot of momentum behind us, and most importantly perhaps being the candidate who is most likely to defeat Donald Trump, we think that some of these superdelegates who have now supported Hillary Clinton can come over to us. Rachel, in almost every poll, not every poll, but almost every national matchup poll between Sanders and Trump, Clinton and Trump, we do better than Hillary Clinton and sometimes by large numbers. We get a lot more of the independent vote than she gets. Andfrankly and very honestly, I think I am a stronger candidate to defeat Trump than Secretary Clinton is and I think many secretary — many of the superdelegates understand that.”
MADDOW: “I just want to be super clear with you about that — just to make sure I understand, are you saying that even if you were behind in pledged delegates, I know you think you won’t be, but if you were behind in pledged delegates you would still take that case all the way to the convention and try to convince the supers?”
SANDERS: “Well, we’re going to do the best we can in any and every way to win. But I think when you have states, for example, say in New Hampshire where we won by 22 points, in other states where we won by 25 or even 30 points, I think it is not unreasonable for the people of those states to say to their superdelegates, ‘Hey, how about representing the people of our state and the outcome of the caucus or the primary.’”
MADDOW: “I’m just going to — I’m going to push you and just ask you one more time, if — I’ll actually ask you from the other direction, if one of you — one of you presumably — presumably there won’t be a tie. One of you presumable will be behind in pledged delegates heading into that convention. Should the person who is [behind] in pledged delegates concede to the person who is ahead in pledged delegates in Philadelphia?”
SANDERS: “Well, I — you know, I don’t want to speculate about the future and I think there are other factors involved. I think it is probably the case that the candidate who has the most pledged delegates is going to be the candidate, but there are other factors. And the other factors will be the strength of each of us in taking on the Republican candidate. What I think is most important to all of the delegates, including the superdelegates, is that we have a candidate who will win and not allow Donald Trump to end up [in the White House.]”

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