Donald Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE on Thursday picked up a recent spat between the Democratic candidates and said he thinks Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonSanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' Former Sanders campaign spokesman: Clinton staff are 'biggest a--holes in American politics' MORE is not qualified for the presidency.

At a rally in Harrisburg, Pa., Trump said he would like Bernie Sanders Bernard (Bernie) SandersPush to end U.S. support for Saudi war hits Senate setback Sanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' MORE to continue his battle with Clinton over the Democratic presidential nomination.

“He’s been tough on her,” he said. "In fact, I’d like him to keep going. The longer he goes the more I’m going to like it.”

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Trump then rehashed a recent clash between the two Democrats over qualifications, first saying that he thinks Clinton is qualified for the job and then switching posiitons.

"[Sanders] said she suffers from bad judgement and she said — now I don’t know, I think she’s qualified, I guess. But that doesn’t mean she’s good," Trump said. "He said she’s not qualified to be president. Now what he meant is because her judgement is so bad — so Bernie Sanders, not me, said she’s not qualified. So now I’m going to say: She’s not qualified, OK?"

“We have all of the mistakes Hillary made as secretary of State," Trump continued. "We have a mess. The war in Iraq has been devastating. We have probably spent $4 trillion in the Middle East.”

But Trump said he would prefer facing Clinton in a general election because of her past political subterfuge.

“Now Bernie’s over, I guess,” the Republican presidential front-runner said. "It’s over for Bernie. I don’t want to run against Bernie. I want to run against crooked Hillary Clinton. We are going to beat her so badly. Is there anyone more crooked than this woman?”

Clinton defeated Sanders in New York’s Democratic presidential on Tuesday, dealing his Oval Office bid a major blow.

She leads Sanders by just over 1 point nationwide but boasts 741 delegates more than her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Clinton’s delegate total includes 1,428 delegates and 502 superdelegates, versus Sanders’s 1,151 delegates and 38 superdelegates. At least 2,382 delegates are needed for avoiding a contested Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia in July.