Bernie Sanders: Democratic Primary 'Just A Dumb Process'
WASHINGTON (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Sen. Bernie Sanders is not a fan of the Democratic primary process.
In an interview with CBS' "Face the Nation," the Democratic presidential candidate called it a "dumb process."
"What has upset me, and what I think is -- I wouldn't use the word 'rigged' because we knew what the rules were -- but what is really dumb, is that you have closed primaries, like in New York State, where three million people who were Democrats or Republicans could not participate," Sanders told "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "You have a situation where over 400 super delegates came on board Clinton's campaign before anybody else was in the race, eight months before the first vote was cast. That's not rigged, I think it's just a dumb process which has certainly disadvantaged our campaign."
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Sanders said there is still a chance he ends up with more pledged delegates than former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
"We knew when we were in this, that we were taking on the entire Democratic establishment. No great secret about that. And yet we have won twenty states, we're in California right now, I think we have a good chance to win here. I think we have an uphill fight, but there is just a possibility that we may end up at the end of this nominating process with more pledged delegates than Hillary Clinton," Sanders said.
According to CBS News, Clinton has secured 2,310 of the 2,383 delegates needed for the nomination. Sanders has 1,536 delegates.
Sanders' comments come as Democratic officials rejected his request to remove two high-profile Clinton supporters from leadership positions at the party's summer convention.
Sanders' presidential campaign said in a letter Friday to the Democratic National Committee that Dannel Malloy, Connecticut's governor, and Barney Frank, a former Massachusetts congressman, couldn't be relied upon to perform their roles "fairly and capably while laboring under such deeply held bias."
Malloy is Platform Committee co-chairman. Frank is co-chairman of the Rules Committee.
Democratic officials responded to Sanders' request on Saturday, saying in a letter that Malloy and Frank were elected under party rules and that Sanders wasn't alleging any violations of that process.
The DNC says it reviewed the challenge, found it failed to meet the criteria and "we are compelled to dismiss it."
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