By Alex Bregman

Congressman Charles Rangel spoke to Yahoo News and Finance Anchor Bianna Golodryga ahead of the New York primary as things were getting heated between Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Golodryga also got his take on the Republican race after Sen. Ted Cruz invoked Rangel’s name in his characterization of what he called “New York values.”

On Sanders saying that Clinton isn’t qualified to be president, Rangel, who supports Clinton, said, “Who the hell is Bernie Sanders to say somebody is not qualified to run for president of the United States?”

Rangel told Golodryga that in all of his years in Congress, he’s “never had a conversation with Sen. Sanders.” He said, “He’s the type of person that is so proud that he’s not a Republican and he’s not a Democrat that he feels compelled not to converse with you, but to give a lecture to you so that you would know how much he knows about whatever he’s talking about.” He continued, “I don’t know any bill that I associate with him.”

He did note that Sanders’ presidential campaign was underestimated — “until he announced for president and some of us were unfortunately naïve enough to laugh and say, ‘Bernie’s running for president? So what?’”

Rangel said he is confident that Clinton will win his home state’s primary “by a landslide.”

Turning to the Republicans and Cruz invoking Rangel’s name in talking about “New York values,” Rangel told Golodryga: “If I’m on his hit list — the last hit list I was on was President Nixon, so I have to find a way of being proud.”

On the Republican race overall, Rangel said, “I’m trying desperately hard to see what comes out of this, and I’m convinced that we’ve got to find a new Republican party. First, we have to find a Republican party.”

On Trump, who has donated money to Rangel’s campaigns for Congress in the past, Rangel said: “I know him. I didn’t have any idea he would be as reckless as he is.”

On his conversations with Trump, Rangel told Golodryga: “He would remind me constantly that he was the smartest man in the world, and anybody who I knew who had a conversation with Donald Trump would tell me that was the theme: ‘Do you know how smart I am? Do you know how wise I am? Do you know how successful I am?’”

Story continues

On whether or not he would again accept campaign contributions from Trump, Rangel said, “If the money was going to go to the Democratic Party, you bet your life.”

Finally, on the choice that Republicans have between Trump and Cruz, Rangel told Golodryga: “As a Democrat, this is good for the party, but as an American, this is terrible.”

