Bernie Sanders suggests Warren's surge in the polls is because voters want to 'see a woman elected'

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Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, weighed in on the recent surge of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, in the polls on Wednesday and suggested her campaign is catching up to his because people "would like to see a woman elected."

Warren has had favorable polling in several states in the last few days, some having her topping Sanders. During an appearance on CNN, Sanders was asked why he believes Warren is on the rise and pressed on whether she is being seen to voters as a "more electable" version of himself.

"Well, I think we are running against a lot of problems,” Sanders responded. "I think that there are a certain number of people who would like to see a woman elected, I understand that. There are people who would like to see somebody who was younger, and I understand that also. There are a lot of factors out there.”

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Sanders praised Warren as a colleague and told CNN anchor Chris Cuomo that she has been running a "good campaign," but insisted that he is "the strongest candidate" to defeat President Trump in 2020.

The Vermont senator was then asked about a tweet that appeared to have been swiping Warren in response to a Politico report that centrists are "coming around" to her campaign.

"The cat is out of the bag," Sanders tweeted. "The corporate wing of the Democratic Party is publicly 'anybody but Bernie.' They know our progressive agenda of Medicare for All, breaking up big banks, taking on drug companies and raising wages is the real threat to the billionaire class.

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Despite the tweet being in direct response to a report about Warren, Sanders assured Cuomo that it "was not about Elizabeth Warren at all."

"Elizabeth is a friend of mine and we're going to run, I hope, an issues-oriented campaign," Sanders said.

Warren has climbed up to 11.9% in the average of national polls according to Real Clear Politics. Sanders remains in second place with 15% while former Vice President Joe Biden has been holding onto his lead, currently averaging 31.9%.