Interview with Wolf Blitzer of CNN

BLITZER: And joining me now, Senator Bernie Sanders, the Democratic presidential candidate.

Senator Sanders, thanks very much for joining us.

SANDERS: My pleasure.

BLITZER: Donald Trump locked up the presidential nomination. He is focusing in on a general election. Here is the question, are you willing to continue to fight Hillary Clinton even if it creates the real possibility that you're going to weaken her potentially in a general election?

SANDERS: Well, Wolf, I know what you really mean by that question, and that is, am I going to continue in the next nine primaries and caucuses to make sure that I can get every vote that I can? And by the way, we think we can win a good majority of those caucuses.

Do I think that every American in this country, including in the largest state of California, have a right to cast their vote for who they want to be the next president of the United States and what they want the agenda of the Democratic Party to be? Of course I do. We're going to be in this until the last ballot is cast.

BLITZER: So far, though, what, she has 3 million more votes than you've had in all the contests today, 300 more pledged delegates. And she also has 513 so-called super delegates to your 41 super delegates.

What are you going to say to the super delegates to try to get them to change their minds?

SANDERS: Well, first of all, Wolf, we have now won 18 states. And I think by the end of the process, you know, who can predict tomorrow, but I think we've got the shot to win at least half or maybe even a majority of the overall states, maybe 25 or more states.

Second of all, in terms of super delegates, this is what I will say -- many super delegates, some 450 of them declared for Hillary Clinton before I even got into the race, before the first ballot was cast. And if you look at national polls today, if you look at state polls, in almost every instance, Bernie Sanders is the stronger candidate against Donald Trump because not only do we get almost all the Democratic votes, we got a lot of the independent votes which is what you're going to need it win in November.

So I would say to those super delegates, look, what is most important is we defeat Donald Trump. I believe that I am the strongest candidate against him.

BLITZER: If she were to get the nomination, would you consider being her vice presidential running mate?

SANDERS: Well, right now, we are focused in the next five weeks of winning the Democratic nomination. If that does not happen, we're going to fight as hard as we can on the floor of the Democratic convention to make sure that we have a progressive platform that American people will support. And then after that, certainly, Secretary Clinton and I can sit down and talk and see where we good from there.

BLITZER: I guess an alternative question would be, if she came to you now or relatively soon approached you and offered you the vice presidential running mate slot, would you drop out?

SANDERS: I think that that is a hypothetical that will not happen and once again, there are nine states left. We think we have a good shot to winning West Virginia on Tuesday. Kentucky and Oregon the next week. And we think we can win in California.

So, we're going it fight for every remaining vote in the next nine states. That's where we're at right now.

BLITZER: Paul Begala, who you know, he's a CNN contributor. He advises a super PAC that supports Hillary Clinton. He wrote an op-ed piece where he said you should stay in the race. He said that. But also said you should focus all of your fire on Donald Trump and not Hillary Clinton. Are you ready to focus entirely right now in coming weeks on Donald Trump?

SANDERS: Well, I like Paul very, very much. Very smart guy.

But I think what the American people want, what is good for American democracy, what is good for the Democratic Party, is a vigorous debate on the real issues facing the American people. At the end of the day, if you engage people in that debate, no matter who they end up voting for, likelihood is they will have a higher voter turnout in November and higher voter turnout in November works for Democrats, because when a lot of people come out, progressives and Democrats win, when people are demoralized and we have a low voter turnout as we did in 2014 that's when Republicans win. So, I will continue to run and issue the campaign. Will I be taken on Donald Trump? Absolutely. Will I be discussing the very important differences of opinion that Secretary Clinton and I have? Yes, I will.

BLITZER: Donald Trump recently started using some of your own public critiques of Hillary Clinton regarding her judgment. He tweeted this. He said, "Crooked Hillary has zero leadership ability as Bernie Sanders says she has bad judgment, constantly playing the women's card. It is sad."

Does that worry you that Trump is using your words against Hillary Clinton?

SANDERS: Trump, I have never -- you read that tweet. That is nothing that I have ever said about Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton and I disagree on many issues.

I think her judgment on the war on Iraq was bad. I think her judgment in trade policies where she supported, virtually every one of these disastrous trade policies was bad. I think the fact that she supports $12 minimum wage when clearly we need $15 an hour minimum wage, I think that's bad. I think her creating super PACs and raising money from Wall Street and other special interests, not a great idea.

But I've never used the phraseology that Trump is. Look, Trump is in his own world. Obviously he wants to do whatever he can to cause divisions within the Democratic process. But what he just put in his tweet is something that I have never said, never will say.

BLITZER: Well, you did say she had bad judgment. Right? Are you denying that?

SANDERS: That's right. Of course, she had bad judgment. Of course. She voted for the war in Iraq.

BLITZER: But you never spoke about -- [crosstalk]

SANDERS: That's bad judgment. No, that is nothing I ever talked about.

Clearly, women -- we are reaching out to women as strongly as we can. Donald Trump also says he will go after your supporters. He thinks your supporters will come to him because he says the Democrats are unfair to you, that the Democratic system is rigged against you.

BLITZER: Do you agree with him?

SANDERS: Well, I know that Donald Trump is staying up nights worrying about Bernie Sanders. I mean, I know this is just coming from his heart and I know that he doesn't have any ulterior motive in saying those kinds of things.

But let me just give Donald Trump some bad news. And that is, number one, if I am the Democratic nominee, I'm going to defeat him and defeat him by a very large margin. If I am not the Democratic nominee, I'm going to do everything that I can to see that he does not get into the White House.

BLITZER: You just wrote a letter to the chair of the Democratic National Committee, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, expressing some of your concerns about the make-up of some of the Democratic convention committee. Let me read a couple lines from it.

This is what you wrote: "As it stands now, chairs of the rules committee and platform committee are active supporters of Secretary Clinton's campaign. But even more than that, they both are aggressive attack surrogates on the campaign trail. I do not, and millions supporting the campaign will not, have any confidence that any of them have they can conduct committee proceedings in an even-handed manner."

Are you suggesting the DNC is stacking the cards against you?

SANDERS: Of course. What can I say? You got to chairmen there who've been very vigorous in attacking me. But more importantly, of the 40 people that Wasserman Schultz has appointed to the major committees, we have three out of 40 despite the fact that as of today, we have 45 percent of the pledged delegates.

So, all that that letter says is, look, the American people are very suspicious of the establishment, the political establishment. Do not create a convention situation where our people do not get fair representation.

Now, right now, we're at 45 percent. I think by the time this process is over. Frankly, I hope to be at 50 percent, but if we're at 47, 48 percent, that's the kind of representation we want on the committees. That is not an unfair request. That is kind of a -- you know, realistic reasonable request. But if she is giving us three delegates out of 40, and have major chairman, who are going to actively and aggressively campaigning against me, that is not acceptable.

BLITZER: Senator Bernie Sanders, thanks so much for joining us.

SANDERS: Thank you, Wolf.