Sanders on Kaine's Conservatism: "His Political Views Not My Political Views"

In his first televised interviews since Friday’s release of internal DNC emails by Wikileaks and Hillary Clinton’s choice of Sen. Tim Kaine as running mate, Bernie Sanders responded Sunday morning by saying he was troubled, though not at all surprised, by what the leaks reveal and refused to call Kaine “progressive” while explaining he would have much preferred someone like Sen. Elizabeth Warren on the ticket.

Regarding the leaked emails—which many believe show proof of how  the Democratic National Committee was putting its “thumb on the scale” for the Clinton campaign—Sanders told Chuck Todd of Meet The Press, “This really does not come as a shock to me or my supporters.”

He made similar comments on ABC’s “This Week” with George Stephanapoulos. “I’m not shocked,” Sanders said, “but I am disappointed.”

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“It’s what we talked about six months ago,” Sanders said on CNN’s “State of the Union” with Jake Tapper. “There’s no question in my mind, and no question in any objective observer’s mind, that the DNC was supporting Hillary Clinton and was in opposition to our campaign.”

That he knew this early on, Sanders continued, is why he called for DNC chairperson Debbie Wasserman-Schultz to step down from her leadership role in the party. His reasoning for continuing that call now, he said, is not just because of the “prejudice” that DNC operatives showed throughout the campaign, but “because I think we need new leadership of the Democratic Party that is going to open up that party to working people and to young people—to have that kind of vitality we need to not only win the presidency, but also gain control of the Senate and the House as well.”