Bernie Sanders addresses his likability, says polls show 'one or two people' must be fond of him

(Image credit: Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images)

last updated 10 March 2020

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) isn't letting Hillary Clinton's blunt assessment of his personality hurt his feelings.

Clinton recently said that Sanders, who ran against her in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary, has been in Congress "for years" but had just "one senator support him. Nobody likes him. Nobody wants to work with him. He got nothing done. He's a career politician. He did not work until he was like, 41, and then he got elected. It was all just baloney, and I just feel so bad that people got sucked into it."

Sanders was asked about these remarks during a Fox News town hall in Dearborn, Michigan, on Monday. "Unlike Secretary Clinton, I don't want to relive 2016," he responded. "We're in 2020 now." He joked that "on a good day, my wife likes me," but also encouraged people to look at polling that "in most cases" shows that he is "the most popular senator in the whole country. One or two people must like me."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.