Sanders unsure about Hillary, boasts he's 'doing great'

Bernie Sanders says he doesn't know whether the presidential campaign of Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton is in trouble.

But "our campaign is doing great," he declared.


"People are responding to our message that something is wrong when the middle class of this country continues to disappear, people are working longer hours for lower wages, and almost all of the new wealth and income is going to the top 1 percent," the independent senator from Vermont told host Martha Raddatz on Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "That is not the type of country, not the type of economy that the American people want or deserve, and I think they’re prepared to support somebody who’s going to take on the billionaire class and make an economy for ordinary people, not just for the people on top."

Sanders, who is seeking the White House as a Democrat, didn't dispute a report fromBloomberg Politicson Friday that Clinton has already secured one-fifth of the necessary delegates to win the Democratic nomination, nor did he take issue with aNew York Timesreport that cited skepticism of his candidacy from party insiders.

"These Democratic leaders are not dumb. What they want and what I want is to make sure that we do not see a Republican gain control over the White House," he said. "And I think as these leaders look around the country and see the kind of energy and see the kind of huge turnouts we’re getting, seeing the kind of young people who, for the first time, are getting involved in the political process, see the kind of working people who are coming out to our events, I think what these leaders — maybe not today but in a couple months will say, you know, we want to win."





He declined to say whether he'd encourage Vice President Joe Biden to get into the race, remarking that it's Biden's decision.

On foreign policy, Sanders said he would be more judicious with the use of drone strikes as a means of military force, pointing to his votes against the first Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, urging regional cooperation in the Middle East.

"You can argue is that there are times and places where drone attacks have been effective. There are times and places where they have been absolutely countereffective and have caused more problems than they have solved," Sanders said. "When you kill innocent people, what the end result is that people in the region become anti-American who otherwise would not have been," he said. "So I think we have to use drones very, very selectively and effectively. That has not always been the case."

