Bernie Sanders used some of his debate time to brag about his polling numbers in the Democratic primary and in head-to-head matchups with real estate mogul Donald Trump.

Sanders, in response to a question noting that the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus endorsed Hillary Clinton, noted how far behind Clinton he was when he first entered the presidential race.

"Let me talk about polling. As Secretary Clinton well knows, when this campaign started, she was 50 points ahead of me. We were all of 3 percentage points," Sanders said, adding, "Guess what, in Iowa, New Hampshire, the race is very very close. Maybe we're ahead in New Hampshire."

Then he pivoted to Trump.

"In terms of polling, guess what, we are running ahead of Secretary Clinton in terms of taking on my good friend Donald Trump, beating him by 19 points in New Hampshire. 13 points in the last poll I saw," Sanders said.