The 2016 Blast The latest POLITICO scoops and coverage of the 2016 elections. Email Sign Up

Tweets from https://twitter.com/politico/lists/team-politico



Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a campaign rally at Chicago State University in Chicago, Thursday, Feb. 25. | AP Photo Sanders on dealing with Putin: 'I took on a lot of people as mayor of Burlington'

Sen. Bernie Sanders pointed to his leadership as mayor of Burlington as a qualification for dealing with Russian President Vladimir Putin if he is elected president.

Speaking with MSNBC's Chris Matthews in Chicago on Thursday night, Sanders was asked whether he has the necessary foreign policy experience to handle Putin.

"I took on a lot of people as mayor of Burlington," Sanders said, according to DNA Info Chicago. "I think I can stand up to Putin and all the others."

Sanders repeatedly has had to fend off skepticism that his foreign policy credentials are lacking for the White House. The Vermont senator recently reached out to Lawrence J. Korb of the Center for American Progress, an expert on defense policy, to invite him to be a senior adviser on foreign policy for the campaign. Korb agreed but also told POLITICO on Wednesday that was the last he'd heard from the Sanders campaign.

As mayor of Burlington during the 1980s, Sanders visited the Soviet Union, along with Soviet satellites Cuba and Nicaragua.