William Cummings

USA TODAY

Jane Sanders, the wife of Hillary Clinton's top rival for the Democratic nomination during the primary campaign, thinks the Democratic Party needs to move left to succeed.

Her husband, Bernie Sanders, "absolutely" had a better chance to defeat Donald Trump than Clinton, she told CNN's Wolf Blitzer Friday, pointing to how well Sanders performed in the primaries, "despite all the irregularities," as evidence,

"It's pretty clear that the DNC was on Secretary Clinton's side. We said that six months ago, so it was no surprise when it came out," Sanders said. "That is not what concerns the American people. What concerns them now is whether or not they are going to get jobs, whether or not their kids are going to be able to go to college, whether they're going to be able to afford child care, whether the planet is going to be taken care in terms of climate change."

She left open the possibility that her husband will be able to work with President-elect Trump.

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"He said that he was coming down here to 'drain the swamp' and he was going to not let the corporate elite run the country anymore," she said. "Our hope is that that part of his promise is true."

Although Sanders identified herself as an independent — and told Blitzer, "You'll have to ask my husband that," when asked whether Bernie Sanders is independent or a Democrat — she had strong opinions on the future of the Democratic Party. Like her husband, Jane Sanders is backing Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota to lead the Democratic National Committee.

"We can't go backwards. We can't be looking at the moderate wing or the conservatives," she said. "We don't want to recreate the DNC of yesterday. It wasn't the right mix for this time. We need Progressive leadership not just at the top, but in the executive board and throughout the country."

She said Howard Dean and Martin O'Malley, two other men said to be interested in leading the DNC, are "both very decent people but that's not all we're looking for anymore. We're looking for people that have progressive, intelligent, different kinds of solutions that recognize that we need to address the pain that people are feeling."

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