Bernie Sanders: ‘Maybe I Would've Been Elected President'

And he argued that the pressure he applied to Clinton made her better equipped to challenge a populist like Trump

Bernie Sanders flatly rejected the idea that he played any role in costing Hillary Clinton last week's election, telling an audience in Washington, D.C., Wednesday night that he actually made her a better candidate and possibly could have beat Donald Trump himself, NBC News reported.

"I say to those critics, number one, that you can argue the exact reverse, that maybe I would have been elected President of the United States," he said to cheers while being interviewed by Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne on stage at George Washington University.

Dionne pressed the Vermont senator on criticism that he damaged Clinton during their primary campaign by drawing out the race and telling supporters that his rival was corrupt and that the system was rigged.

Sanders rejected the notion out of hand. "The presumption behind that question is, I guess, we should anoint candidates for president," he said, noting that stolen emails released by WikiLeaks showed the Democratic National Committee was "not a neutral force" in the primary.

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