Sanders Campaign Press Release - Love Trumps Hatred, Sanders Tells Oklahoma Rally

OKLAHOMA CITY – Turning his sights on Republican front-runner Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders campaigned Sunday in the Sooner State for the second time in a week.

"There would be nothing that would give me more pleasure than to defeat Donald Trump," Sanders told the rally in Oklahoma City's Cox Convention Center. "We will win because love trumps hatred," Sanders added to cheers from the crowd of some 6,000 supporters.

Sanders would give Democrats the best chance at victory in November because he leads by far greater margins than Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in head-to-head matchups with the real estate tycoon.

"The American people do not want a president who insults Mexican, Muslims, women, African-Americans, veterans and basically anybody who does not look like him," Sanders said. "Some of his supporters say they like Mr. Trump because he tells it like it is. Bigotry is not telling it like it is."

Earlier Sunday, Sanders criticized Trump for refusing to disavow David Duke, the ex-Ku Klux Klan leader who has called Trump "by far the best candidate." Sanders reacted in a tweet that said, "America's first black president cannot and will not be succeeded by a hatemonger who refuses to condemn the KKK."

At the Oklahoma City rally, Sanders also highlighted differences with Clinton, his primary rally in the state where a close Super Tuesday contest is shaping up for the Democratic Party presidential nomination.

He once again asked the former secretary of state to release transcripts of nearly 100 speeches to Goldman Sachs and other special interests for which she pocketed $21.7 million in fees. "I think if you're going to get paid $200,000 of a speech it must be a pretty damned good speech and if it's such a good speech you ought to release the transcripts," Sanders said.

With Oklahoma and 10 other states holding primaries or caucuses in two days, Sanders said his campaign was just beginning and that he intends to be in the race through the California primary in June and on to the Democratic Party national convention in Philadelphia in July.

A recent Public Policy Polling survey had Sanders and Hillary Clinton separated by only 2 percentage points in the state where Sanders has been airing TV ads and has opened three campaign offices.

The Sunday stop was Sanders' second in Oklahoma in a week. Last Wednesday, nearly 6,900 supporters squeezed into a Tulsa arena while 2,000 more listened on loudspeakers outside.

Earlier Sunday, U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard announced on NBC's "Meet the Press" that she was resigning from her post as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee and endorsing Sanders for the Democratic nomination.

Watch the video of Senator Sanders asking Secretary Clinton to release transcripts of her Wall Street speeches: