--- title: Sanders Says 'Of Course' Clinton Is Qualified for Presidency description: Bernie Sanders walked back his comments Friday about Hillary Clinton's qualifications for president, avoiding a clash of the Democrats. canonical: https://time.com/4286522/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-democrats-qualifications/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-08T14:31:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T16:34:48.153Z article:section: Politics og:title: Sanders Says 'Of Course' Clinton Is Qualified to Be President og:description: Things were beginning to get ugly in the Democratic race og:url: https://time.com/4286522/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-democrats-qualifications/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaaa66ee8c2a74c79/69888e485f570fd39bb20646/gettyimages-519479936.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: GettyImages-519479936 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sanders Says 'Of Course' Clinton Is Qualified to Be President twitter:description: Things were beginning to get ugly in the Democratic race twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaaa66ee8c2a74c79/69888e485f570fd39bb20646/gettyimages-519479936.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sanders Says 'Of Course' Clinton Is Qualified to Be President by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Apr 8, 2016 2:31 PM UTC  Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) speaks at a rally at Temple University on April 6, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Democratic Primary is scheduled for April 26, 2016. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) speaks at a rally at Temple University on April 6, 2016 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Democratic Primary is scheduled for April 26, 2016.Jessica Kourkounis—2016 Getty Images by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Apr 8, 2016 2:31 PM UTC Bernie Sanders said on Friday that “of course” Hillary Clinton is qualified to be president, walking back his negative comments about the Democratic front runner from earlier in the week. When asked directly on NBC’s _Today_ about Clinton’s qualifications, the Vermont Senator said he respected Clinton and that “on her worst day she would be an infinitely better president than either of the Republican candidates.” Sanders had [lashed out at Clinton while speaking in Philadelphia late Wednesday](http://time.com/4284934/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-qualified-new-york-primary/), rattling off a list of reasons why the former Secretary of State was not fit for the Oval Office. He defended his comments on Thursday, but backed off Friday morning. Sanders went negative on Clinton after she [repeatedly dodged a similar question](http://time.com/4283405/clinton-says-sanders-hasnt-done-his-homework-on-bank-regulation/) earlier this week: when asked in an MSNBC interview whether Sanders was qualified to be president, Clinton didn’t say he was unqualified, but did suggest that “he hadn’t done his homework” on the issues, based on a Sanders interview with the editorial board of the New York _Daily News_. The next contest between the Democrats is the New York primary, where [247 delegates are up for grabs](http://time.com/4270425/the-invisible-fight-for-delegates/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4286522/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-democrats-qualifications/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4286522/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-democrats-qualifications/"},"headline":"Sanders Says 'Of Course' Clinton Is Qualified to Be President","datePublished":"2016-04-08T14:31:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T16:34:48.153Z","description":"Things were beginning to get ugly in the Democratic race","url":"https://time.com/4286522/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-democrats-qualifications/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","democrats","2016 Election topic","Bernie Sanders"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaaa66ee8c2a74c79/69888e485f570fd39bb20646/gettyimages-519479936.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaaa66ee8c2a74c79/69888e485f570fd39bb20646/gettyimages-519479936.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GettyImages-519479936","caption":"PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - APRIL 06: Democratic presidential candidate Sen. 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