Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) says he wants Donald Trump to win the Republican nomination because he believes it would result in a victory for the Democratic Party.
Sanders also thinks he has a better shot at beating Trump than Hillary Clinton does.
“Frankly, I’m prejudiced,” Sanders told Anderson Cooper during Wednesday’s Democratic Town Hall in New Hampshire. “I want Trump to win the Republican nomination. And I would love the opportunity to run against him. I think we would win by a lot.”
Sanders invoked a CNN poll to back his theory that he would do better against Trump than his rival Hillary Clinton. “Number one, I’m not a great fan of polls, not even CNN polls,” he said. “But CNN had a poll, as I recall. And what that poll said is that Bernie Sanders ran significantly better against Donald Trump than did Hillary Clinton.”
So number one, some of these polls have me way, way ahead of Donald Trump, further so than Sec. Clinton. Number two, look at battleground states like New Hampshire. The last poll that I saw in New Hampshire had me 19 points ahead of Trump, Sec. Clinton 1 point. OK. Similar results, not quite so strong, in Iowa and Wisconsin.
Trump is eager to run against Sanders, according to a Wednesday tweet.
Sanders says he wants to run against me because he doesn’t want to run against me. He would be so easy to beat!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 4, 2016
With just six days to go before the New Hampshire primary, a new poll of likely primary voters shows Trump and Sanders leading by substantial margins.
A University of Massachusetts Lowell/7News tracking poll released Monday, suggests Trump is leading the Republican field by 26 percentage points. Sanders is reportedly leading Democrats by 31 percentage points and is boasting nearly twice as much support as is his Democratic opponent, Clinton.
Follow Adelle Nazarian on Twitter @AdelleNaz.
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