While Sen. Bernie Sanders walked back his comments this week that opponent former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is not qualified to be president, he still has questions about her overall “judgment.”
“She may have the experience to be president of the United States. No one can argue that,” Sanders told NBC News’ Chuck Todd Sunday morning on “Meet the Press.”
“But in terms of her judgment, something is clearly lacking,” he continued.
Sanders pointed to issues he often references when making this point: Clinton’s donations from Wall Street, her vote for the Iraq War and citing former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger “as a model.”
Sanders dismissed suggestions levied by Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill that his initial comments from a Philadelphia event saying that Clinton is not “qualified” to hold the office of the presidency were in some way sexist. McCaskill likened the charge to “fingernails on a blackboard to many women across this country.”
“This business about attacking me in that regard is absurd,” responded Sanders, noting that Clinton, “along with her surrogates,” has been “going after” him hard ahead of the all important New York primary.
But the Vermont senator, who trails Clinton in pledged and super delegates all while having won seven out of the last eight primary contests, insisted that he did not have to win New York in order to have a path to the nomination.
“What’s fair is to say that New York is enormously important. There are a whole lot of delegates there. I want to do as well as I can,” Sanders told Todd.
“The polls show that we are narrowing the gap and obviously a victory in New York state, Secretary Clinton’s state that she represented in the Senate, would be an enormous boost for us,” he added.
For his part, Sanders is campaigning relentlessly in New York, holding four events in three of New York City’s boroughs on Saturday, including a sit-down discussion at Harlem’s famous Apollo Theater.
On Sunday, Sanders heads to Brooklyn’s landmark Coney Island.
This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com.
