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Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders I-Vt., speaks during a campaign stop Wednesday, April 6, at Tindley Temple United Methodist Church in Philadelphia. | AP Photo Sanders doubles down on Clinton, blasts media

Bernie Sanders went after the media for “political gossip” Thursday before he doubled down on his sharp comments Wednesday night in which he questioned whether Hillary Clinton was qualified for the presidency.

“Any questions on the needs of the middle class of America before we get to political gossip?” Sanders asked following a brief news conference on trade in Philadelphia. “All right, now where’s your political gossip? OK, what do you got?”

The following question focused on the Vermont senator’s forceful rhetoric against Clinton at a rally on Wednesday. Sanders explained that he took issue with a Washington Post report on Clinton with a headline that said "Clinton questions whether Sanders is qualified to be president."

“That is what was thrown at me,” Sanders said. “Now, the other thing is that I believe the Clinton campaign told CNN, and I quote, that their strategy as we go into New York and to Pennsylvania, I guess, is quote, disqualify him, defeat him and unify the party later.”

While Clinton did not specifically say Sanders was not qualified in her interview with MSNBC's "Morning Joe," she deflected the issue on three separate occasions by pointing to their differences and perceived deficiencies on the part of her opponent.

Sanders stressed that he has tried to run a campaign that focuses on the issues. “It’s hard, as we can see,” he remarked. “The media’s not particularly interested about why the middle class declines, about wage and income disparity. That’s not what you’re interested in.”

But while he has focused on his message of economic populism, the Vermont senator warned that he isn’t going to lie down and let the Clinton campaign walk over him.

“If Secretary Clinton thinks that just because I’m from a small state in Vermont and we’re gonna come here to New York and go to Pennsylvania and they’re gonna beat us up and they’re gonna go after us in some kind of really uncalled for way, that we’re not gonna fight back, well we got another — you know, they can guess again because that’s not the case,” Sanders said. “This campaign will fight back.”

Sanders again called into question whether Clinton has the pedigree to win the White House on Thursday, invoking her vote for the Iraq War, support of trade deals and campaign donations from Wall Street and special interests.

“She raised $15 million from Wall Street. Are you qualified to be president of the United States when you’re raising millions of dollars from Wall Street, an entity whose greed, recklessness and illegal behavior helped destroy our economy?” he asked.

Sanders said he doesn’t want to get into this type of politics, but if the Clinton campaign keeps it up, he’ll respond in kind.

“We’ll get used to it fast. I’m not gonna get beaten up and I’m not gonna get lied about,” he said. “We will fight back, but I do hope — I do hope — that we can raise the level, and I do hope that now and then the media will talk about real issues.”

Speaking on CNN, Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver returned to slamming Clinton for her Wall Street connections.

“If you look at her campaign, you know, her campaign is funded by millions and millions of dollars from Wall Street and other special interests," Weaver said. "You know, she’s really made a deal with the devil, and we all know the devil wants his money in the end.”