Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said Friday on ABC’s “The View” that Republicans are “an embarrassment to this entire country.”

Host Joy Behar told Sanders that while she is “happy” that he is winning caucuses and primaries, “I’m not happy about the Democrats, you and Hillary have taken a turn that I don’t like. It’s like you’re starting to turn on each other, like the Republicans, I liked it that you were such a gentleman, such a mensch, and she was even being ladylike about it. I loved that and don’t go down to their level.” (RELATED: Sanders Fumes: How Much Have I Said About Hillary’s Emails? ‘Not A Word’ [VIDEO])

Sanders replied, “Good point and I hope that stops. I think the people of this country understand we have some enormous crises and they want the candidates to deal with these crises and certainly they don’t want to have us act like Republicans who are an embarrassment to this entire country in terms of how they’re running their campaign.”

“And so all I will say in defense, and I hope we can get beyond this, is we have won six out of the seven primaries and caucuses. My perception is and I think it is clear that clinton campaign has made a decision, especially here in New York, to get a little bit rough with us. And I just wanted to make it clear to the Clinton people, yes, I come from the nice state of Vermont, but if we’re hit we can hit back.” (VIDEO: Sanders Campaign Manager: ‘We’re Fully Prepared’ To Fight Dirty Against Hillary)

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