Bernie Sanders cleans up 'messy' remark during an interview on Tuesday. Sanders camp cleans up 'messy' remark

After Bernie Sanders told The Associated Press that the Democratic National Convention would be "messy," the Vermont senator and his campaign have since insisted that the reference was merely to the democratic process and not a subliminal message to his supporters to create chaos in Philadelphia.

"The media often takes words out of context. The context of that was that democracy is messy. That people will have vigorous debate on the issues," Sanders told NBC News' Kristen Welker in an interview aired Tuesday on "Today." Asked whether the convention itself will be messy, Sanders replied, "Well of course it will be. But everything — that's what democracy is about."


Sanders also bristled at the suggestion that his staying in the race would hurt Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump, snapping, "I guess if we take your assumption, and Clinton supporters' assumption, that that is the logical conclusion, we should go back to a monarchy and not have any election at all."

Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver sounded a similar note on CNN's "New Day," saying the "messy" remark referred only to votes on the floor of the Wells Fargo Center.

"Look, there's a process that goes on at the Democratic convention," Weaver said. "There's a committee process, and then if you don't prevail in the committee process you can go to the floor in many cases and have the delegates as a whole vote on your proposals, and that's just the way the process works. So I think — what the senator was referring to is, he intends to press his case for a progressive agenda within the Democratic Party, press his case for electoral reform bringing many more into the Democratic Party, makes the Democratic Party stronger and there's a process for doing that at the convention."

As far as what would happen if things do not go Sanders' way, Weaver reiterated that "messy" would merely mean "just votes on the floor of the convention. That's all."

"There'll be debate, and there'll be votes," Weaver said. "Which is not — you don't often see that anymore in modern conventions. In fact, that's really what conventions are about, for parties to do the business of the party."