Bernie Sanders Walks Back Claim His Campaign Is Unsettling Global Markets

— -- Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders walked back his previous comments about the successful impact of his campaign in unsettling global financial markets on ABC’s "This Week" Sunday.

"I fully admit to having a big ego, like many other politicians, but the idea that Bernie Sanders’ candidacy because it has growing support all over this country is unsettling world markets is absolutely absurd," Sanders told "This Week" co-host Martha Raddatz.

Sanders’ campaign has focused largely on the size and power of large corporate banks and Sunday he said he was pleased it was getting the attention of Wall Street.

"Wall Street’s greed and recklessness and illegal behavior drove this economy into the worst depression since the Great Depression," he said. "I believe that we have to break up the major financial institutions. We have to reestablish Glass Steagall. That we are now gaining the attention of Wall Street tells me that our campaign is doing very well."

While campaigning in eastern Iowa on Saturday, the Vermont senator paraphrased an interview in a Wall Street Journal article several times with pride, drawing applause from the crowd, that said his viable candidacy was a reason markets have been unsettled.

“Stephen Schwarzman who is the CEO of Blackstone, one of the major financial institutions in this country, says that markets are unsettled because of geopolitical risks, the slowdown in China and because Bernie Sanders is a viable candidate,” Sanders told a crowd of supporters in Davenport, Iowa. “It appears that we have Wall Street a little bit nervous and that's a good thing. And then we got the entire political establishment heading to Iowa this week. And it seems to me that some of my friends in the political establishment are afraid.”

Sanders also responded to back-to-back endorsements his primary opponent Hillary Clinton received Saturday from The Des Moines Register and The Concord Monitor, major newspapers in early voting states. Both editorial boards cited Sanders’ lack of foreign policy experience as reasons for endorsing his opponent.

Sanders, who is now leading the polls in both Iowa and New Hampshire, pointed to his vote against the war in Iraq as evidence of his foreign policy judgment, but also pushed back against the significance of the endorsements.

“We are taking the entire establishment. We are taking on the economic establishment. We’re taking on the political establishment and -- all due respect -- we are taking on the media establishment,” he said. "I expect that Secretary Clinton will get a lot of endorsements from mainstream media."

Sanders added he has received endorsements from some major progressive organizations, including MoveOn.org, as well as more than 2 million contributions to his campaign.