Things got repeatedly uncomfortable for Sen. Bernie Sanders during his appearance Sunday on CNN’s “State of the union.”

And he’s not even running for office.

At the outset, CNN host Jake Tapper brought up Deutsche Bank’s multi-billion dollar fine be cause of its mortgage lending activities, and noted that the financial giant also contributed heavily to the Clintons for speeches in the past.

“I want to ask you about Deutsche Bank.” Tapper asked Sanders. “Obviously, as you know two weeks ago federal regulators slapped Deutsche Bank with a $14 billion fine for its mortgage lending activities during the housing bubble between 2012 and 2014. As you may know the Clintons received almost a million dollars from Deutsche Bank for delivering four speeches behind closed doors.

Then Tapper got to the point.

“In light of the fine and ongoing investigation should they return that money?”

The Vermont Independent was perfectly willing to excoriate Deutsche Bank and other large financial institutions, but stopped short of criticizing his former presidential rival.

“Well that’s for them to decide, but what this tells me and what this whole Wells Fargo fiasco tells me, Jake, is what I’ve been saying all along. Is that the business model of the largest financial institutions in this country and around the world is fraud,” he said.

“It is fraud, that is what they do. Occasionally they get caught after making huge amounts of money. And that’s why we need to re-establish Glass Steagall legislation and why I believe we need to break up these large financial institutions. We cannot continue to tolerate whether it’s Deutsche Bank, whether its Wells Fargo, whether its Bank of America, the kind of fraudulent activity we have seen for so long.”

CNN clip via GOP War Room

Sanders did, however, take the Clinton Foundation to task for the questionable donations it has received in the past — and plans to so in the future..

“Lastly, sir, you were critical of the Clinton Foundation taking money from governments like Saudi Arabia during the primaries. There’s still talk of the Clinton Foundation continuing even if Secretary Clinton becomes elected president, Chelsea Clinton is planning to stay on board. Do you think that poses a potential conflict of interest and should the Clinton Foundation shut down if Secretary Clinton becomes president?”

“Well, that’s obviously something that the Clinton family is going to have to determine, but I think it does raise serious questions if foreign governments, for example, are making contributions to a foundation tied closely to what I hope will be the next president of the United States.”

CNN clip via GOP War Room

Finally, Tapper asked Sanders if recently released audio of Clinton referring to Sanders’ political ideals as “false promises” bothered him.

“Well look, of course it does, but we’re in the middle of a campaign, and I, trust me, if you go to some of the statements that I made about Hillary Clinton you can see real differences. So we have differences, that’s nothing to be surprised about. That’s what a campaign is all about.”

CNN clip via GOP War Room

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