Bernie Defends Impractical Path To Victory: 'People Who Come To My Rallies Can Do Arithmetic'
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders argued on Sunday that he was the better choice for the party's nomination even though he had received fewer votes that Hillary Clinton.
CNN host Jake Tapper asked the candidate over the weekend if he was misleading his supporters by downplaying the fact that Clinton has "roughly 54 percent" of the pledged delegates.
"It seems unlikely that you'll actually achieve the majority of the pledged delegates," Tapper noted.
"I assume that most of the people who come to my rallies can do arithmetic," the candidate quipped. "If I have 46 percent, she has 54 percent. The point that I was making is there's something absurd when I get 46 percent of the delegates that come from real contests -- real elections, and 7 percent of the super delegates."
"I am the stronger candidate because we appeal to independents, people who are not in love with either the Democratic or the Republican Party," Sanders insisted.
Tapper observed that the Sanders campaign's goal was to "secure a majority of the pledged delegates."
"Should we assume that means that you believe the candidate who has the majority of pledged delegates by the end of this process should be the nominee?" the CNN host wondered.
"I understand that it's an uphill fight to go from 46 percent where we are today to 50 percent in the nine remaining contests, I got that," Sanders admitted, adding that super delegates should take an "objective look at which candidate is stronger."