Sen. Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersTrump, Biden will not shake hands at first debate due to COVID-19 Sanders tells Maher 'there will be a number of plans' to remove Trump if he loses Sirota reacts to report of harassment, doxing by Harris supporters MORE (I-Vt.) dismissed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonThe Memo: Trump furor stokes fears of unrest Bloomberg rolls out M ad buy to boost Biden in Florida Hillicon Valley: Productivity, fatigue, cybersecurity emerge as top concerns amid pandemic | Facebook critics launch alternative oversight board | Google to temporarily bar election ads after polls close MORE’s recent suggestion that his decision to not endorse her sooner after the two battled for the Democratic nomination in 2016 ended up hurting her in the general election against Donald Trump Donald John TrumpBiden says voters should choose who nominates Supreme Court justice Trump, Biden will not shake hands at first debate due to COVID-19 Pelosi: Trump Supreme Court pick 'threatens' Affordable Care Act MORE.

Trump ended up defeating Clinton in a huge political surprise.

“I’m sorry that Hillary Clinton is rerunning 2016,” Sanders, who is running for president again, said in a recent wide-ranging interview with Iowa Press.

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“I could take out a letter from Hillary Clinton saying, ‘Thank you Bernie for working so hard to try and make me the president of the United States,’” Sanders added.

Clinton said last week in an interview with Howard Stern that Sanders could have endorsed her sooner in the 2016 race, adding that “there’s no doubt about it, he hurt me.”

She said she was “disappointed” with Sanders and she hopes “he doesn’t do it again to whoever gets the nomination.”

Sanders, however, rejected Clinton’s claims.

“What I tried to do after the primary was to sit down with her staff, and we did, to create a Democratic platform that was as progressive as it could be. And that ended up happening,” Sanders said.

“So I don’t want to rerun 2016,” Sanders continued. “Right now our goal is to defeat Donald Trump. I think I am the strongest candidate to do that. If it turns out I am not the Democratic nominee, I will strongly support anybody else.”

Sanders endorsed Clinton in July 2016 after the party's primary and caucus contests were over. It was apparent before then that Clinton would be the party's nominee, as she had clinched the nomination more than a month before the endorsement.

Sanders is one of 15 Democrats seeking the nomination in 2020.