When CNN’s Jake Tapper sat down individually with five White House candidates for Sunday’s “State of the Union,” he asked each of them how the 2016 race has changed them.
Here’s how they responded:
Donald Trump: ‘These are great people’
“Well, perhaps it has. I have learned a lot. I will tell you what I have learned. The people in this country are amazing. They’re great. When I go to these rallies and I meet the people that are, you know, supporting me, they’re incredible.
“And my level of support –you know, it’s sort of interesting. You do the polls all the time. The people that are with me are (with) me They’re with me through thick and thin. These are great people.”
Bernie Sanders ‘Two separate worlds’
“It really has, in the sense that I perceive more than ever how far removed the Congress is — and, you know, I’m in the Senate — and the establishment media is from the reality of people’s lives. It’s like two separate worlds. All right?
“The establishment is here, and they’re talking about these issues, and people are over there struggling to keep their heads above water economically. Look, we did a meeting in Iowa in a small town. A woman gets up, trying to make it on $10,000 a year. And she broke down, to talk about the pain and the difficulty, the embarrassment of trying to make it on $10,000 a year. Of course it moves you.”
Hillary Clinton: ‘A different person than in … 2008’
“You know, I think the most amazing learning experience. And having gone through this now twice, I think I am a different person than I was back in ’08. I think that the experience I had as secretary of state has given me a perspective and an understanding of a lot of the issues that is deep and gives me the confidence to know that I can do every part of the job. But you run at different points in a country’s, you know, thinking.
“And right now we’re at a time when people are on both sides, Republicans, Democrats, right, left, people are really worried that our economy isn’t working for them, that our government isn’t working for them. And that’s causing a lot of the anger and the frustration. I totally get that. I feel it. You know, things have been going on that are just wrong. These Supreme Court decisions against voting rights, Citizens United — those are dramatically altering the balance of power in our country. The great recession, for which there were a number of causes, but you have to look at the failure of the Bush administration to regulate what was going on in the financial and mortgage markets.”
Chris Christie: ‘I bring that home’
“Everything that I do in my professional life changes me personally. It’s such a big part of my life, it’s like saying that you’re not in public service, you’re not the governor somehow when you go home, you always are.
“Now, my wife and children don’t treat me that way. You know, there’s no ‘Hail to the Chief’ being played at the house. But the point is, everything that happens in your professional life, when it’s so much a part of you, affects your personal life, too, positively and negatively.
“And so when there have been tough times, I bring that home. When there are good times, I bring that home. And — and when I learn things, I bring that home. So — and so does my family, by the way. My two younger children were there last night at 12 and 15. An incredible learning experience for them.”
John Kasich “Slow down even more and listen”
“It’s forced me to slow down even more and listen to people. I mean, Jake, one of the most amazing things about the town halls is people have come and they talk about excruciating stories of their kids, their own problems. They cry. They tell me sometimes in front of other people, sometimes privately. And I’ve learned something really, really important. And that is, I think people — too many people have nowhere to go. No one listens to them. No one — no one celebrates when they win and no one cries when they lose.
“This has been a very important lesson. So my life, I have to — I’m slowing down and I’m asking everybody else to think about their neighbor and their family. I mean it’s been pretty amazing. This has been all good.”