Bernie Sanders Confident He Can Beat Hillary Clinton for Democratic Nomination in 2016

Vermont independent Senator and self-proclaimed Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders is confident that he can beat Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination and ultimately win the US presidency in the November 2016 election.

Although he appears hesitant to criticize Clinton, Sanders said he believes people will see him as the better Democratic nominee since his "records speak for itself."

"Well, first of all, let me say that I – I have known Hillary Clinton for 25 years. I respect her and I admire her. But I think we are living in a very strange moment in American history," he said on Sunday's "Face the Nation" on CBS.

Sanders underscored the income and wealth disparity in the U.S. "and the fact that real employment is 11 percent; youth unemployment, 17 percent."

He said America needs "strong and bold leadership" which he can provide. "With climate change ... "threatening the very foundations of our planet ... I would ask people to take a look at the roles that I've been playing for the last 25 years standing up for working families and I have had a record which is taking on the billionaire class, taken on Wall Street, taken on the private insurance companies, and the drug companies," said Sanders, who announced his intention to run for president last April.

"There is, in my view, massive dissatisfaction in this country today with corporate establishment and the greed of corporate America and the incredibly unequal distribution of wealth and income, which currently exists," said Sanders.

"When you have 99 percent of all new income generated today going to the top 1 percent, when you have the top – you have the top one-tenth of 1 percent, only – almost as much income as the bottom 90 percent, people working longer hours for low wages and all of the money was going to the people on top. You know what, people don't think that's a good idea," he said.

He said he believes his stand on three key political issues where Clinton has kept silent will be the key to his victory. These three issues that he strongly opposes are the ongoing negotiation for a massive Asia-Pacific trade agreement called the Trans Pacific Partnership, the current U.S. role in the war in Iraq, and the oil pipeline system in Canada and the United States called the Keystone XL pipeline.

"I'm not quite sure Hillary Clinton has come out with a position on that," he said.

Sanders used the talk show to slam the Supreme Court for its role in opening up a flood of money into politics through the 2010 Citizens United decision.

"As a result of this disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision, clearly the billionaires, Koch brothers and others, are owning the political process. They will determine who the candidates are," Sanders said.

He said once elected President he would use the issue in selecting a nominee to the Supreme Court.

"That nominee will say that we are going to overturn this disastrous opinion on Citizens United because that decision is undermining American democracy. I do not believe that billionaire should be able to buy politicians," Sanders said.

Sanders acknowledged that unlike Clinton, he will not have a super Political Action Committee, or PAC, for his campaign.

Sanders said since announcing his candidacy last month, "we have had 200,000 people go to BernieSanders.com to sign up for the campaign. We've had close to ninety thousand contributions."

He said the average contribution he got was $43.

"So I don't think we are going to outstand Hillary Clinton or Jeb Bush or anybody else. But I think we are going to raise the kinds of money that we need to run a strong and winning campaign," he said.