Sanders Iowa

Sanders accepts defeat in Iowa

By Nick Gass

Bernie Sanders accepted his defeat in the Iowa caucuses on Wednesday morning, while remarking that his campaign is still looking at contesting the results.

“Well, sure," the Vermont senator told NBC's Matt Lauer on "Today," appearing from Burlington, Vermont, when asked if he accepted the results. "She ends up getting about 22 delegates. We get about 20 delegates."

Sanders again painted his close second-place finish as a success, explaining that his campaign started out in Iowa "about 40 to 50 points down" only to lose it by "two-tenths of one percent."

"Although to tell you the truth, the Iowa caucus is so complicated, it’s not 100 percent sure we didn’t win it," he added. "But we feel fantastic. We came a long, long way in Iowa and now we’re in New Hampshire. We have a lot of momentum.”

As far as whether his campaign planned to contest the results, Sanders demurred, instead emphasizing his success.

“We’re looking at it right now, but the important point is that at the end of the day, we came from nowhere to really startle the entire world. We took on the most powerful political organization in the United States of America and nearly won that race," he said.

Asked whether his campaign could claim Clinton's campaign as "the most powerful political organization" in the country when he has more money in the bank headed to New Hampshire, Sanders stressed once more that he does not have a super PAC working for him like the former secretary of state.

"You have a super PAC, which has $25 million from Secretary Clinton, $15 million coming from Wall Street," he said. "Our campaign contributions are $27 apiece coming from three and a half million individual contributions. Also, when we go into New Hampshire, let’s not forget: Hillary Clinton won New Hampshire in 2008. She has a very strong organization. Her husband ran two campaigns there.”