During a taping of Comedy Central’s The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore earlier today, Bernie Sanders was asked, “Are you Jesus?” – after all, Wilmore pointed out, he has dabbled in carpentry, he’s Jewish, he’s been invited to the Vatican, and “millions of people come to hear you speak your sermons on mounts.” (Or, thousands come to Washington Square Park, at least.) The answer was no. Bernie had already proven as much during an earlier segment, in which he refused to turn the other cheek against Republicans and capped off a speech about “New York values” with a Brooklyn-style mic drop.

As Bernie’s wife Jane waited in the wings (that’s her holding up the camera phone in the photo below), Wilmore played a clip of Ted Cruz making his infamous debate comment about “New York values,” and then welcomed Bernie on to the stage to respond.

Here’s what the candidate said after the chants of “Bernie!” died down.

That’s right, it’s me, Bernie “Brooklyn Born” Sanders— and guess what, Ted Cruz, I have New York values. I value a living wage for all Americans, I value a justice system that treats everyone fairly, I value a government which works for all of us, not just Wall Street and powerful special interests— those are New York values. And you know what New York is? It’s a place built by the backbreaking work of immigrants— immigrants like your family, Ted Cruz. And when you say having New York values is a bad thing, you insult my city, my state, my culture and my heritage. I am the son an immigrant and I’m proud of it. You started this New York values nonsense as an attack on Trump, and I’ve got some New York values for him, too. Mr. Trump, you wouldn’t know New York values if they were written in 50-foot gold letters on the side of the Empire State Building. New York values are the Statue of Liberty, not a wall between us and Mexico. In New York we pride ourselves on our diversity, we don’t divide people up based on where they were born. I was born and raised in Brooklyn, BK, stand up, fight back, don’t let anyone tear us down. I will never lose the values that New York and my family have given me. As New Yorkers we understand what New York values really mean. We believe in the value of hard work, we believe in the value of equality, we believe in the value of a society where the American dream works for all, not just the 1 percent. Those are New York values. And the truth is, New York values are American values— there is no difference.

And with that, Bernie dropped the mic.

During the interview that followed, Wilmore asked Bernie, “Do you have a path with the math or is your path without the math?” Bernie explained why he was optimistic about the road ahead: “We started off this campaign having to run in the Deep South…”

“Trust me, I know about running in the Deep South,” Wilmore deadpanned.

The host also asked Sanders how he planned to woo the necessary superdelegates (“or as I used to call them in the ’90s, superpredators,” Wilmore cracked). Sanders remained confindent that they’ll realize he’s the “stronger candidate” because he’s polling ahead of Trump and luring Independents to vote for him.

The show airs tonight at 11:30 p.m. on Comedy Central.

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