VIDEO: Bernie Sanders Tells Reporters Why He Won’t Attack Clinton

After speaking to a crowd of 2,000 people in Dubuque, Iowa, in mid-August, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders told reporters that he didn’t enter the race to play in the media’s “sport” of choice.

In the video above, posted to YouTube by user Scott Galindez, a reporter asks Sanders: “In your speech tonight you said you won’t criticize or attack Hillary Clinton, certainly. But you did seem to draw some implicit contrast when you said you don’t take money from super-PACs, and you voted against the Iraq War—”

Sen. Sanders interjects:

“What I said is that corporate media talks about all kinds of issues except the most important issues. OK? And time after time I’m being asked to criticize Hillary Clinton. That’s the sport that you guys like. The reason this campaign is doing is doing well? Because we’re talking about the issues that impact the American people. I’ve known Hillary Clinton for 25 years. I like her. I respect her. I disagree with her on a number of issues. No great secret.

“I oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership, OK? I wanna raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour … I am opposed to the Keystone pipeline, OK. I voted against the war in Iraq. I voted against the USA Patriot Act. These are differences of opinions that we will discuss. But the issue that I want to be talking about is the collapse of the American middle class. You guys gonna write about that? Is that an important issue? The need to create millions of decent-paying jobs. The obscenity of the kind of level of income and wealth inequality that we have today. The reason our campaign is doing well is because people are responding to those issues. So I am not gonna get into the game of sitting around and attacking Hillary Clinton. We disagree. We’re gonna have — if I have anything to say about it — a respectful and intelligent debate.”

— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.