Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersKenosha will be a good bellwether in 2020 Biden's fiscal program: What is the likely market impact? McConnell accuses Democrats of sowing division by 'downplaying progress' on election security MORE pledged to put up a fight to get his ideas into the party’s platform at the convention this summer if Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonWhat Senate Republicans have said about election-year Supreme Court vacancies Bipartisan praise pours in after Ginsburg's death Trump carries on with rally, unaware of Ginsburg's death MORE wins the nomination.

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“If we don’t have the votes to get the nomination, were not going get the nomination. That becomes then the platform fight,” he said in an interview that aired Friday on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.”

He said that while a president is not bound to every word of the party’s official platform, it is important because it reflects the wishes of the voter base.

“It does say something, it does reflect what the base of the Democratic party believes should be the future of this country, and I intend to do everything that I can to make that the most progressive document that we possibly can,” he said. “And I think, by the way, that is the doc that the Democratic grassroots people really want to see.”

Sanders’s comments tie into his fight with the DNC over representation in the convention’s committees.

On Friday, Sanders sent a letter to DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chiding her selection of only three of 45 people he recommended for three standing committees.

“That sends the very real message that the Democratic party is not open to the millions of new people that our campaign has brought into the political process, does not want to hear new voices, and is unwilling to respect the broader base of people that this party needs to win over in November and beyond,” he wrote.

Sanders said in the letter that he was prepared to “mobilize” his other delegates to push his agenda into the party platform.

In the MSNBC interview, Sanders said his delegates would use floor votes and other tactics to shape the platform.

“We will use the rules of the Democratic convention to make certain that there is a vigorous debate on the important issues facing the American people,” he said.