Bernie Sanders says his ideas are "not fantasy." | Getty Sanders: I understand real needs of voters

Accused of living in a fantasy land, Sen. Bernie Sanders said Sunday it’s his message that Democratic voters are really dreaming of.

On CNN’s “State of the Union,” correspondent Dana Bash played a clip of Hillary Clinton saying the independent Vermont senator is running on an “ideology” instead of “real ideas.”


“She’s basically saying you’re living in fantasy land, senator,” Bash said.

“Yeah, I guess,” Sanders responded incredulously. “I believe that the United States should join every other industrialized country on Earth in guaranteeing health care to all people. Is that fantasy? If Canada can do it, the U.K. can do it, France can do it, you know what, I don’t think it’s fantasy to say we can do it in the United States.”

Sanders went on to address the high price of higher education as well as income inequality with a similar question-and-answer attack. None of it, Sanders said, is pie-in-the-sky policy for the average American.

“All of that may be fantasy to the ruling class and the big-money interests in this country,” Sanders said. “I don’t think that’s fantasy to the working people of this country, who are working longer hours for lower wages, who are tired of establishment politics and establishment economics. Every proposal that we have brought forth, we pay for.”

“This is not fantasy. This is reality,” he added. “We’ve got to stand up for the middle class.”

Sanders demurred when asked by Bash to comment on Clinton’s ongoing email controversy and the news last week that a former staffer of hers connected to the scandal had been granted immunity from prosecution by the Justice Department. The Vermont senator instead stuck to his populist talking points.

“We are going to focus on the issues facing the American middle class,” he said. “And it would be a good idea every now and then if the media did that as well.”