Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) isn't standing for CNN's new and explosive report about his candidacy.

Back in December 2018, before both Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) had announced their presidential campaigns, the two close friends met to discuss their likely 2020 faceoff. And after Warren laid out her agenda for a potential run, Sanders apparently told her he didn't think a woman could win the presidency, "two people Warren spoke with directly soon after the encounter, and two people familiar with the meeting" told CNN.

In the meeting, both Sanders and Warren agreed they "should remain civil and avoid attacking one another, so as not to hurt the progressive movement," CNN writes. Warren then reportedly said she could win because she could "make a robust argument about the economy and earn broad support from female voters," to which Sanders replied "he did not believe a woman could win," CNN continues.

Warren's communications director declined to comment, but Sanders had a vehement response:

It is ludicrous to believe that at the same meeting where Elizabeth Warren told me she was going to run for president, I would tell her that a woman couldn't win. It's sad that, three weeks before the Iowa caucus and a year after that private conversation, staff who weren't in the room are lying about what happened. What I did say that night was that Donald Trump is a sexist, a racist and a liar who would weaponize whatever he could. Do I believe a woman can win in 2020? Of course! After all, Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by 3 million votes in 2016.

Given that both Sanders and Warren are pushing for the end of the electoral college that essentially caused Clinton's loss, he has a big point there. Kathryn Krawczyk