Sanders Ramps Up Obama Charm Offensive: I ‘Respect Him Even More’ for Not Endorsing Biden Despite ‘Enormous Pressure’

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who repeatedly rails against the “Democratic establishment,” went out of his way to compliment the party’s last president, Barack Obama, during a MSNBC interview.

When pressed by primetime anchor Rachel Maddow, Sanders had nothing but kind words for the Democrats’ standard bearer in 2008 and 2012.

“You have a new ad featuring President Obama praising you in the past, Is President Obama part of the Democratic establishment that you say you’re running against?” Maddow asked.

“No, and I want to say something about Barack Obama,” Sanders responded, “I’m not going to tell you he’s my best friend, but I talk to him every now and then, and I have a lot of respect for him. Do we have disagreements? Of course we had, but I will tell you something, which impresses me very much about Barack Obama. I talked to him many, many, many months ago. We talk about the campaign, and I had called him up and I think all of the candidates basically had, and I dropped in to see him. And he said ‘You know what, Bernie, I’m not going to get involved.’ And he kept his word.”

“You may have seen just the other day. He said I think [Joe] Biden had reached out to him and wanted his support,” Sanders added, alluding to reports from the Obama camp that the former president has not intention of endorsing a Democratic candidate in the primary. “And he said: ‘No, I think I will be more effective in supporting the eventual winner and not getting involved early on.’ I know that there’s an enormous pressure on him to support Biden, and the fact that he’s not doing that makes me respect him even more.”

The senator’s kind words about Obama come hours after the release of a new Sanders campaign ad that features numerous clips of former President Obama praising the Vermont senator. This newfound appreciation for the 44th president follows a disappointing Super Tuesday performance, where Sanders struggled with moderate and older African-American voters.

Sanders went to affirm his position, publicly stated in the Nevada debate, that any Democratic candidate that accumulates a majority or plurality of pledged delegates should win the party’s nomination.

“If at the end of the day it turns out that Vice President Biden is going to have more delegates than you do heading into the convention, will you drop out?” Maddow asked.

“I won’t drop out, but he will win,” Sanders said. We’ll run through — I suspect we will run through the process letting people have a right to vote, but if Biden walks into the convention or at the end of the process has more votes than me, he’s the winner.”

“And that’s true whether or not he has a majority or just a plurality?” Maddow pressed.

“Absolutely. That’s what I’ve said.”

Watch the video above, via MSNBC.