State College, Pennsylvania(CNN) If there were any question about whether Bernie Sanders would soften his attacks on Hillary Clinton following his thumping loss in New York on Tuesday, the answer was a resounding "No."
Despite a 15-point defeat in New York and a slate of challenging primaries next week, Sanders is pressing on and responding to his supporters who remain enthusiastic about his candidacy and are clearly not ready for Clinton.
He drew loud cheers Tuesday from a crowd of more than 6,000 at Penn State University as he ticked through a familiar list of criticism against Clinton, from paid speeches to Wall Street contributions to trade. Sanders, whose outsider campaign has featured attacks and anger against the Democratic establishment, drew a hard line against Clinton, and his crowd, at least, reveled in it.
Then, his campaign manager Jeff Weaver defiantly said that even if Clinton went into the Democratic convention with a lead in both pledged delegates and the popular vote, Sanders would pressure the superdelegates to pick him over the former secretary of state.
Former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders
US Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks at a campaign rally in Chicago in March 2019. Sanders, an independent from Vermont, is the longest-serving independent in the history of Congress.
Sanders, right, leads a sit-in organized by the Congress of Racial Equality in 1962. The demonstration was staged to oppose housing segregation at the University of Chicago. It was Chicago's first civil rights sit-in.
Sanders takes the oath of office to become the mayor of Burlington, Vermont, in 1981. He ran as an independent and won the race by 10 votes.
Sanders, right, tosses a baseball before a minor-league game in Vermont in 1984. US Sen. Patrick Leahy, center, was also on hand.
In 1987, Sanders and a group of Vermont musicians recorded a spoken-word folk album. "We Shall Overcome" was first released as a cassette that sold about 600 copies. When Sanders entered the US presidential race in 2015,
the album surged in online sales. But at a CNN town hall, Sanders said, "It's the worst album ever recorded."
Sanders reads mail at his campaign office in Burlington in 1990. He was running for the US House of Representatives after an unsuccessful bid in 1988.
In 1990, Sanders defeated US Rep. Peter Smith in the race for Vermont's lone House seat. He won by 16 percentage points.
Sanders sits next to President Bill Clinton in 1993 before the Congressional Progressive Caucus held a meeting at the White House. Sanders co-founded the caucus in 1991 and served as its first chairman.
Barack Obama, then a US senator, endorses Sanders' Senate bid at a rally in Burlington in 2006.
Sanders takes part in a swearing-in ceremony at the US Capitol in January 2007. He won his Senate seat with 65% of the vote.
Sanders chats with Dr. John Matthew, director of The Health Center in Plainfield, Vermont, in May 2007. Sanders was in Plainfield to celebrate a new source of federal funding for The Health Center.
Sanders speaks to reporters in 2010 about the Obama administration's push to extend Bush-era tax cuts. Three days later, Sanders held a filibuster against the reinstatement of the tax cuts. His speech, which lasted more than eight hours, was published in book form in 2011. It is called "The Speech: A Historic Filibuster on Corporate Greed and the Decline of Our Middle Class."
Sanders and US Rep. Jeff Miller, chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, walk to a news conference on Capitol Hill in 2014. Sanders was chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
In March 2015, Sanders speaks in front of letters and petitions asking Congress to reject proposed cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
In July 2015, two months after announcing he would be seeking the Democratic Party's nomination for President, Sanders
spoke to nearly 10,000 supporters in Madison, Wisconsin. "Tonight we have made a little bit of history," he said. "You may know that some 25 candidates are running for President of the United States, but tonight we have more people at a meeting for a candidate for President of the United States than any other candidate has."
Seconds after Sanders took the stage for a campaign rally in August 2015, a dozen protesters from Seattle's Black Lives Matter chapter
jumped barricades and grabbed the microphone from the senator. Holding a banner that said "Smash Racism," two of the protesters -- Marissa Johnson, left, and Mara Jacqueline Willaford -- began to address the crowd.
Sanders shakes hands with Hillary Clinton at a Democratic debate in Las Vegas in October 2015. The hand shake came after Sanders' take on
the Clinton email scandal. "Let me say something that may not be great politics, but the secretary is right -- and that is that the American people are sick and tired of hearing about the damn emails," Sanders said. "Enough of the emails, let's talk about the real issues facing the United States of America."
Sanders embraces Remaz Abdelgader, a Muslim student, during an October 2015 event at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Asked what he would do about Islamophobia in the United States, Sanders said he was determined to fight racism and "build a nation in which we all stand together as one people."
Sanders waves while walking in a Veterans Day parade in Lebanon, New Hampshire, in November 2015.
Sanders sits with rapper and activist Killer Mike at the Busy Bee Cafe in Atlanta in November 2015. That evening, Killer Mike
introduced Sanders at a campaign event in the city. "I'm talking about a revolutionary," the rapper told supporters. "In my heart of hearts, I truly believe that Sen. Bernie Sanders is the right man to lead this country."
Sanders speaks at a campaign rally in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in March 2016. He
won the state's primary the next day, an upset that delivered a sharp blow to Clinton's hopes of quickly securing the nomination.
Sanders speaks at a campaign event in New York's Washington Square Park in April 2016.
Sanders speaks at a rally in Santa Monica, California, in June 2016. He pledged to stay in the Democratic race even though Clinton secured the delegates she needed to become the presumptive nominee.
Sanders
endorses Clinton at a rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in July 2016.
Sanders
addresses delegates on the first day of the Democratic National Convention in July 2016.
Sanders thanks supporters after winning re-election to the Senate in November 2018.
Sanders looks at his notes as he watches President Trump deliver the State of the Union address in February 2019. That month, Sanders announced that he would be running for president again.
Sanders hugs a young supporter during a campaign rally in Los Angeles in March 2019.
Sanders addresses the audience at a CNN town hall in Washington in April 2019.
Sanders speaks next to former Vice President Joe Biden at the first Democratic debates in June 2019.
Sanders raises his fist as he holds a rally in Santa Monica, California, in July 2019.
Sanders grabs the hand of US Sen. Elizabeth Warren during the Democratic debates in Detroit in July 2019.
Sanders campaigns at the University of New Hampshire in September 2019. A few days later,
he took himself off the campaign trail after doctors treated a blockage in one of his arteries. Sanders suffered a heart attack, his campaign confirmed.
US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduces Sanders at a New York rally after endorsing him for president in October 2019.
In a
tense and dramatic exchange moments after a Democratic debate, Warren accused Sanders of calling her a liar on national television. Sanders responded that it was Warren who called him a liar. Earlier in the debate, the two disagreed on whether Sanders told Warren, during a private dinner in 2018, that he didn't believe a woman could win the presidency.
Sanders laughs during a primary-night rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, in February 2020. Sanders won
the primary, just as he did in 2016.
A triumphant Sanders raises his fist in San Antonio after he was projected to win
the Nevada caucuses.
Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden talk before a Democratic debate in Charleston, South Carolina, in February 2020.
Sanders addresses supporters during a campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in March 2020.
Sanders speaks to reporters in Burlington, Vermont, a day after
Super Tuesday II. Sanders said it "was not a good night for our campaign from a delegate point of view" but that he looked forward to staying in the race and taking on Joe Biden in an upcoming debate.
Biden greets Sanders with an elbow bump before the start of a debate in Washington in March 2020. They went with an elbow bump instead of a handshake because of the coronavirus pandemic.
New York primary: 5 takeaways
Clinton's campaign, eager to move past Sanders and focus on the general election, is getting impatient and even angry at some of the attacks.
One in particular has Clinton worried. Sanders' campaign is raising the issue of whether the Clinton campaign is violating campaign finance rules with how it raises money jointly with the Democratic National Committee -- an argument that has the Clinton people "pissed," as one source told CNN.
The concern is that the theme could play into Donald Trump's recent moniker for her -- "Crooked Hillary" -- especially if he is the Republican nominee.
They worry about the impact of such attacks because they're not aimed just at Clinton but also at the DNC and could weaken the nominee in a general election fight.
Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton's communications director, told reporters Tuesday night that the Sanders campaign "has been destructive" to that point that he is "not productive to Democrats" and is "not productive for the country."
Obama plays peacemaker as Democrats attack
Decrying what she described as "false character attacks," Palmieri compared them to criticism Clinton gets from the GOP. "And any time you mimic Republican attacks, we think that is destructive."
Sanders adviser Tad Devine, speaking on CNN's "At this Hour" Wednesday, rejected calls for a change in tone from the Sanders campaign, citing edit polling from Tuesday.
New York exit polls
"I couldn't disagree more with their mischaracterization of what's going on, and I'd point to exit polls from New York," Devine said.
"Now this is in a state where Hillary Clinton won 58% of the vote yet 46% of the New York respondents said the Clinton campaign was more unfair, 34% said the Sanders campaign," he said. "So even in a state that she won overwhelmingly, the voters who had a front row seat to the campaign said they were more unfair."
And 66% of Democrats said the primary contest is "energizing" the party, according to exit polls, Devine noted.
"I hear what they're saying, but what they're saying is being refuted by the voters themselves," he said.
Sanders, speaking to reporters late Tuesday night after arriving home in Vermont, said he plans to return to Pennsylvania on Thursday after taking a day off "to get recharged."
"While I congratulate Secretary Clinton, I must say I am really concerned about the conduct of the voting process in New York today and I hope that process is changed in the future. I know I am not alone," he said, citing "voter irregularities and chaos at the voting places."
Sanders campaign, New York officials cry foul
"We think we have a message that is resonating," Sanders added. "We think that the message we are bringing forth that we have got to change a corrupt campaign finance system, deal with a rigged economy, and deal with a broken criminal justice system."
Weaver on superdelegates
But while Sanders was defiant at his rally, it was a television interview with Weaver that got Democrats in both camps buzzing on social media.
Pressed several times by MSNBC's Steve Kornacki about what Sanders would do if Clinton emerged after the June primaries with the lead in both pledged delegates and the popular vote, Weaver eventually declared that the show would go on, with a pitch towards electability in the fall.
"At the end of the day the Democrats are going to have to decide who they want to elect in terms of who's going to be the best in November," Weaver said. "And clearly the polls are almost unanimous now that Bernie Sanders is a much more electable candidate in November."
Sanders, Weaver said, would work to win over superdelegates, the collection of more than 700 Democratic party officials and current and former elected leaders free to vote as they please at the national convention.
"They're going to want to win in November," Weaver said, citing Sanders' strong numbers with political independents and younger voters. "If you can't create a coalition with independent voters, you can't win the White House, you can't win the Senate, you can't bring additional people into the House, so this is what has to be built in November. It has to be Democrats along with independents to defeat the Republicans."
But those superdelegates may also be tired of intra-party fighting by the convention and want to get on with the business of taking on the Republicans, whose front-runner Donald Trump also had a resounding win in New York on Tuesday.
Super Tuesday
Devine, meanwhile, said that the Vermont senator will first focus on the next Super Tuesday states.
"We have to do well next week," Devine said Wednesday. "We lost a few more delegates yesterday than I thought we would. We're a little farther behind in the delegates than we'd hoped to be. But I think if we do well next week, then we can get back on course to have a pledged delegate lead by the time voting ends."
And Sanders sent out a fundraising plea Wednesday touting the campaign's hopes for Tuesday.
We still have a path to the nomination, and our plan is to win the pledged delegates in this primary," the email said. "Next week five states vote, and there are A LOT of delegates up for grabs. I am going to keep fighting for every vote, for every delegate, because each is a statement of support for the values we share."
Reconciliation isn't impossible, and general elections have a way of focusing partisan voters. The contest between Clinton and Barack Obama had Democrats wondering if backers of either side could ever support the eventual party nominee. Campaigning in Pennsylvania at this time in 2008, for instance, Clinton said Obama was "too weak" to be president.
"At what point do you say I'm going to keep running but I don't want to damage the nominee's chance?" CNN political analyst David Axelrod, Obama's former campaign manager, said Tuesday night.
"There's an onus on both of them to stick to the issues ... and keep it positive, and start focusing on Donald Trump," Sanders supporter Bill Press said on CNN.
Or, as one Clinton backer told CNN of Sanders: "He has to find a way to land this plane so it doesn't crash and burn the party."
CNN's Gregory Krieg, Elizabeth Landers, Dan Merica and Tal Kopan contributed to this report