Bernie Sanders thinks Americans will elect a Democratic Socialist president

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told Anderson Cooper during the CNN Democratic debate Tuesday that he isn't worried about people not voting for a self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist.

Cooper said a new poll shows that half of the U.S. would not put a socialist in the White House, and asked Sanders: "How can any kind of socialist win a general election in the United States?" First, Sanders said, he would explain just what being a Democratic Socialist means: "What Democratic Socialism is about is saying that it is immoral and wrong that the top one-tenth of one percent in this country own almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent." It also means, he added, acting like Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, and giving mothers family paid leave.

Cooper pointed out that Denmark has 5.6 million residents, and said his question was more about electability. "The facts are very simple," Sanders said. "Republicans win when there is a low voter turnout and that is what happened last November, 63 percent of the American people didn't vote, 80 percent of young people. We are creating excitement all over this country. Democrats from the White House down will win when there's a large voter turnout, and that's what this campaign is doing."

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Cooper asked if he considers himself a capitalist, to which Sanders responded: "Do I consider myself part of the casino capitalist process by which so few have so much and so many have so little? By which Wall Street's greed and recklessness wrecked this economy? No, I don't. I believe in a society where all people do well, not just a handful of billionaires."