Clinton took Sanders to task for his “Medicare-for-all” plan that was announced just hours before the debate, after she had criticized Sanders for refusing to explain how he would pay for the proposal.
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“Can you really reform Wall Street when they are spending millions and millions of dollars on campaign contributions and providing speaking fees to individuals?” he asked.
The debate over gun control – an ongoing conflict between Clinton and Sanders – took on special import given the setting.
Hillary Clinton attacked Bernie Sanders’ record on gun control, and said his healthcare plan risked derailing recent legislation.
“He’s criticised President Obama for taking donations from Wall Street”.
Clinton raced out of the gate touting her vast experience as former secretary of state, senator and point-woman for her husband Bill Clinton’s efforts to reform health care, saying Americans need a president who can do “all aspects of the job” and signaling that her rivals were not up to the task. Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton – two candidates who, while they sparred with one another, still seemed to hold their own.
Sanders tried to defend his gun control record – which Clinton has been pounding lately as inconsistent – saying that he has been a proponent of many gun control measures and hasn’t exactly been the National Rifle Association’s best friend.
The attacks against Sanders by Clinton and her allies have intensified as polls have tightened. “I want us to defend and build on the Affordable Care Act and improve it”. Sanders and Clinton have both supported the Iran nuclear deal.
Sanders’ shoot-for-the-moon liberalism and Clinton’s embrace of Obama were clearest in their biggest fight of the evening: health care. “But the fact is we have the Affordable Care Act….”
“It is beyond my comprehension how we can elect a president of the United States, somebody like Trump, who believes that climate change is a hoax invented by the Chinese”, Sanders said.
Despite Mrs Clinton’s attacks, the Vermont senator’s forceful responses are likely to have struck a chord with the party’s liberal grassroots who have been swept up by his insurgent campaign.
Clinton went on the attack repeatedly against Sanders, portraying the self-described democratic socialist as a revolutionary living in a dream world and presenting herself as an experienced force in politics who will get things done in Washington, even in a highly polarized political environment.
“It goes much further because both the Gov. and the Sen. have focused only on the big banks”.
“Your profusion of your comments about your feelings towards President Obama are a little unusual considering what you said about him in 2011”, Clinton added, a reference to a period during which Sanders said a primary challenge to Obama would be a “good idea”.
In the debate, she again highlighted legislation she said showed that Mr Sanders supported the gun lobby.
Clinton derided as impractical Sanders’ ambitious aim to replace the country’s existing employer-based system of health care insurance with one in which the government becomes a “single payer”, providing coverage to all.
CHARLESTON, SC-The democratic candidates debated Sunday night in Charleston.
Sanders pointed out that when the campaign started, “she was 50 points ahead of me”.
In the long arc of a primary campaign that began with warm relations between the two top candidates only to turn acrimonious over side issues, Sunday night was the first time voters saw the core divide between Clinton and Sanders. Mr Sanders was noticeably more animated that in previous debates, sometimes grimacing and shaking his head during Ms Clinton’s answers. The debate was staged in Charleston, South Carolina, not far from an African-American church where nine people were shot to death in 2015.
The third Democratic candidate, O’Malley, has struggled to persuade many voters to consider him seriously as an alternative to Clinton and Sanders.
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Hillary Clinton: “I will go anywhere, to meet with anyone, at any time to find common ground”.
