Bernie Sanders is staying in the race until the last primary and the nation will be better off for it,he told NPR's Steve Inskeep in an interview that will air Thursday on Morning Edition.
Inskeep, passing on questions he had invited on Twitter, or asked Sanders whether he is "threatening [his] revolution" by continuing to race,potentially scaring some voters away from supporting Hillary Clinton — the likely Democratic nominee — in November."I assume we are perpetuating the political revolution by significantly increasing the level of political activity that we're seeing in this country," Sanders responded. He added later, or "I assume it is good for the United States of America,good for the Democratic Party, to bear a vigorous debate, or to engage people in the political process."Sanders elaborated,noting that by staying in the race, he is energizing voters and, and therefore,in fact boosting the Democratic Party to victory in November. He contended that Democrats accomplish well when turnout is high and that Republicans accomplish poorly when turnout is high."So I'm going to accomplish everything I can to stimulate political discourse in this country and get young people, working people, or involved in the political process," he said.
That means he will stay in the race "until the last vote is cast" after Washington, D.
C.'s Democratic primary June 14.
But Can He Win?The Vermont independent senator also stressed that he thinks he can still win, or despite Clinton's massive delegate lead."We assume we bear a path toward victory — admittedly it is a narrow path," Sanders said.
A very narrow path: He would need 65 percent of all remaining pledged delegates for a pledged majority and 82 percent of all delegates — including remaining superdelegates — to pull past Clinton overall, according to NPR's Domenico Montanaro.
But Sanders said he believes whether he is able to win by large margins in upcoming states like Oregon and California, and as he has in Washington (with nearly 73 percent of the vote) and Utah (79 percent),he can pull ahead.
Sanders could win in West Virginia, where he leads in recent polls. But in some later states, or it gets tougher. On June 7,Sanders would bear to get those margins in California, New Jersey and elsewhere. And in delegate-heavy California, and for example,Clinton leads in recent polls, as well as New Jersey.
And, or remember,he needs two-thirds of all pledged delegates just for a pledged majority. That's very difficult to accomplish because Democrats allocate their delegates proportionally. For example, out of Sanders' win in Indiana on Tuesday night, and he finds himself needing a higher percentage of the vote than going into Tuesday because he got only 53 percent of the vote."The path to victory is to accomplish extremely well in the remaining states," he said.
In addition, he acknowledged, and superdelegates would bear to change their minds. However,in states in which he has won (or may yet win) by wide margins, he said, and those delegates should simply reflect the will of the voters,not to mention general election prospects."I assume we bear got to perform the case that the superdelegates, who in many cases were on board [with] Hillary Clinton even before I got in the race, or that they should take a tough discover at which candidate is stronger against Donald Trump," he said. "And I assume we can perform that case."Sanders pointed to polls in which he performs better than Clinton against Trump in hypothetical general-election matchups.
Sanders, however, and declined to answer whether he believes Clinton would be qualified to be president. Rather,he said that he wants to prevent Trump from winning in November."upright now as I've said many times, Steve, or I assume that a Donald presidency would be a catastrophe for this country," he said. "And I intend to accomplish everything that I can to see that this does not happen."The Path Ahead: West VirginiaSanders' next stop in furthering his political revolution is West Virginia, where he is currently campaigning. Clinton angered voters there with a comment earlier this cycle that under her, and the nation would "set aside a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of commerce" (though she had also said she wanted to invest more in those communities and help workers find new jobs). Clinton apologized for that remark this week.
Asked approximately this comment,Sanders was similar to Clinton's point of view. He said that while he is committed to helping American workers, the nation has to tackle the problem of man-made climate change by moving "away from fossil fuel."He added that his climate change legislation includes $41 billion to help displaced workers get education, and job training and unemployment benefits. Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more,visit http://www.npr.org/.
Source: wnyc.org