The debate unfolded amid a minor scandal between the Clinton and Sanders campaigns, with accusations that a data breach was carried out by Sanders’ team against Clinton’s.
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Martin O’Malley called Trump “untried and incompetent” as he panned the real estate mogul’s proposal and immigration reform ideas.
Sanders said that while tax revenue would be required to pay for single-payer insurance, it would be cheaper for Americans than the current cost of private insurance.
“They are going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists”, she continued, though her contention hasn’t been backed up.
The heated remarks from O’Malley prompted pushback from Clinton and Sanders. Clinton struck back, reminding Sanders that he “voted for regime change” in Libya.
Former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley and Senator Bernie Sanders both said that defeating ISIL should be the priority over the ousting of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton argued that both should be tackled at the same time, a policy that the administration now follows.
Clinton has no desire to fuel an internal Democratic brushfire that could offer supporters of Sanders, already skeptical of her positions on issues from war to Wall Street, new reasons to fulminate against her campaign.
Sanders filed suit against the DNC to regain access to the data on Friday. And he said Clinton’s criticism of payroll taxes is out of step with Democratic giants such as Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, who oversaw the creation of Social Security, and Lyndon B. Johnson, who shepherded Medicare into law. The former top diplomat accepted the apology.
“He is becoming ISIS’ best recruiter”, Clinton said. “I think in Syria the primary focus now must be on destroying ISIS and working over the years to get rid of Assad”.
The debate unfolded amid a minor scandal between the Clinton and Sanders campaigns over an apparent data breach when at least one Sanders staffer took advantage of a computer glitch to peek at Clinton voter information. However, Clinton argued in favor of the deployment of special operations forces, which she said was not comparable to sending a large number of troops into Afghanistan or Iraq. Asked whether corporate America would love a Sanders presidency, he said simply, “No, I think they won’t”.
“I worry too much that Secretary Clinton is too much into regime change”, Sanders said, “and a little bit too aggressive without knowing what the unintended consequences might be”.
“This is not the type of campaign that we run”, he added.
“This is one of those issues that separates us on this stage”, O’Malley said as moderators attempted to cut him off. “I am the only person on this stage who has actually passed comprehensive gun safety regulations with a ban on combat assault weapons”. I met with a group of Muslim-Americans this past week to hear from them about what they’re doing to try to stop radicalisation. But even if general-election debates aren’t that important, it’s safe to say she’ll do her homework.
“Arming more people is not the appropriate response to terrorism”, Clinton said.
And at one point, Clinton was moments late in returning to the stage after a commercial break, leading the crowd to interrupt a question Muir had started to ask Sanders by cheering her tardy arrival.
In a heated exchange on gun control, O’Malley accused both Clinton and Sanders of having a “flip-flopping, political approach” to the contentious issue.
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The debate occurred, perhaps not uncoincidentally, on a Saturday night at the height of the Christmas shopping rush, and on the first weekend of the release of the latest highly-anticipated Star Wars movie, likely ensuring a downsized viewership compared to previous debates. “Yes, lets tell the truth, Martin”, Clinton said.
