Sanders Distinguishes Himself From Warren by Noting That She Has Said 'I Am a Capitalist to My Bones'

White House hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders distinguished himself from Sen. Elizabeth Warren—another top competitor in the Democratic presidential primary—by highlighting their different beliefs on economic policy during an interview with ABC News chief White House correspondent Jonathan Karl that aired Sunday.

After ABC‘s Karl suggested that Sanders (I-Vt.) and Warren (D-Mass.) have “pretty close to identical positions” on major issues, Sanders said that “Elizabeth Warren has been a friend of mine for some 25 years and I think she is a very, very good senator, but there are differences between Elizabeth and myself. Elizabeth, I think, as you know, has said that she is a capitalist [to] her bones. I’m not.”

Sanders, a democratic socialist, went on to detail his concerns about “the situation today that we face in this country.” Specifically, he called out major pharmaceutical companies for price fixing as well as the fossil fuel industry for profiting off of “destroying the planet.” The senator, a champion of Medicare for All, also pointed out that the United States fails to guarantee healthcare to all people in the country, unlike other developed nations.

“I think business as usual and doing it the old-fashioned way is not good enough,” Sanders said. “What we need is, in fact—I don’t want to get people too nervous—we need a political revolution. I am, I believe, the only candidate who’s going to say to the ruling class of this country, the corporate elite: Enough, enough with your greed and with your corruption. We need real change in this country.”

Reiterating a key distinction between him and Warren on economic grounds, he said that “Elizabeth considers herself—if I got the quote correctly—to be a capitalist to her bones. I don’t. And the reason I am not is because I will not tolerate for one second the kind of greed and corruption and income and wealth inequality and so much suffering that is going on in this country today, which is unnecessary.”

Warren’s quote which Sanders repeatedly referenced is from a July 2018 event hosted by the New England Council. The Massachusetts Democrat was quoted as saying, “I am a capitalist to my bones.” During an interview about a week later, CNBC editor at large John Harwood asked Warren, “You don’t think capitalists are bad people?”

“I am a capitalist. Come on. I believe in markets,” Warren responded. “What I don’t believe in is theft, what I don’t believe in is cheating. That’s where the difference is. I love what markets can do, I love what functioning economies can do. They are what make us rich, they are what create opportunity. But only fair markets, markets with rules. Markets without rules is about the rich take it all, it’s about the powerful get all of it. And that’s what’s gone wrong in America.”