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Washington (CNN) -- Bernie Sanders wants you to know he's talking about the issues that Hillary Clinton is not.

At the end of a winding answer to a question about how he differs from Hillary Clinton, the U.S. senator challenged the former secretary of state.

"If we do not get our act together to come up with public policy which expands the middle class, if we don't overturn Citizens United, if we don't move to public funding of elections, we are going to live in an oligarchic form of society," Sanders said. "Now is Hillary Clinton going to say that?"

It was a candid moment and the closest the senator -- who is most known for being an independent who regularly targets Wall Street and money in politics -- came to a direct knock on Clinton's possible run at the presidency during an interview with CNN before his upcoming trip to Iowa. His comment about Citizens United referred to a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision that opened the floodgates for outside money in politics and ballooned the amount spent on campaigns.

It was also something that the Vermont senator quickly realized didn't match his statement, "I am not here to attack Hillary."

"I know Hillary, I respect Hillary Clinton," Sanders said. "I knew her when she was first lady, I certainly knew her as a colleague in the Senate. "I don't know if Secretary Clinton is running for president and I have no idea what she is going to be campaigning on. But I do know what I believe and what I will be speaking about."

Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats, is trying to thread a needle.

He is little known outside liberal circles, yet the two-term senator is openly considering a run at the presidency in 2016. He is making the trip to Iowa this weekend and will speak in New Hampshire in a few weeks.

He is floating the idea of a run with journalists and political operatives and saying things like,"If I choose to run."

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Bernie Sanders challenges Hillary Clinton - CNN.com