I would have been elected US president: Bernie Sanders

Former US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has said that he could have defeated Republican nominee Donald Trump in a general election, rejecting the notion that his campaign undermined Hillary Clinton's chances of winning the White House.

The Independent senator, who was seeking the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, made the remarks at an event at the George Washington University on Wednesday night when a Washington Post reporter asked whether he hurt Clinton's chances at the presidency.

"You can argue the exact reverse — that maybe I would have been elected president of the United States," Sanders said to cheers from the crowd.  

"The presumption behind that question is that we should anoint candidates for president, that a serious debate or candidates competing against each other is a bad thing for democracy,” he stated.

The Vermont senator said that he brought "millions of people into the process" and that the vast majority likely voted for Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee who lost to Trump after a bruising battle on November 8.

Sanders argued that his campaign made Clinton a "stronger candidate" because he forced her to take a position against the controversial projects like Keystone Pipeline and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

"Few people in this country worked harder for Hillary Clinton than I did," he claimed.

Sanders ran a close race with Clinton during the primaries and promised to continue the fight all the way until the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in June, where the party’s nominee was going to be named.

Towards the end of the race, however, Sanders changed his tone and bowed out in favor of Clinton. He also appeared next to her during the DNC and officially endorsed her by giving an emotional speech.

According to a pre-election poll released this week, Sanders would have beaten Trump by a large margin if he had been the Democratic nominee instead of Clinton.

EA