Bernie Sanders tells Seth Meyers: I want to focus on issues — but Clinton is trying to distract me

Bernie Sanders told Seth Meyers he had not regrets about raising questions about Hillary Clinton's qualifications for the presidency.

The Vermont senator appeared Thursday night on "Late Night," where Meyers asked whether he regretted doubling down on his attack earlier that day on Clinton and her credentials.

"It was said after she and her campaign said that I was unqualified," Sanders said.

However, Meyers pointed out, Clinton never directly questioned his qualifications.

"I didn't hear her say you were unqualified, I heard her fail to say that you were qualified," Meyers said.

Sanders suggested that Clinton had gone negative as his campaign gathered strength.

"After we won in Wisconsin, and that was our sixth victory in seven caucuses and primaries, I think the Clinton campaign has been getting a little bit nervous, and I think they have been getting more negative, and I hope very much we can have an issue-oriented campaign," Sanders said. "There are a whole lot of problems that the middle class and working class in this country are facing. We should be talking about that. But if people attack me and distort my record, we will respond."

He told Meyers that he was unsurprised that his campaign speech has resonated with many voters, and he gave a condensed version of his stump speech to sum up its themes.

"If you look at the issues that are out there, people are asking why we're the only major country on Earth not to guarantee health care to all people," Sanders said. "Why are we the only major country not to have paid family and medical leave? Why do we have more income and wealth inequality than any other major country on Earth? Why is the middle class continuing to decline and almost all income and wealth going to the top 1 percent? Why is our infrastructure collapsing?"

"So I think when you talk about the real issues facing the American people, people are saying, 'Yeah, this does not make sense,'" he continued. "We need to have a government that represents all of us, and not just wealthy campaign contributors. So I think that theme is the theme and ideas that the vast majority of the American people agree with, and now that we have the opportunity to get those ideas out -- no, I'm not surprised that people are coming on board."

Watch the entire segment posted online by Late Night With Seth Meyers: