John Berman pointed out how Clinton’s rival, Bernie Sanders, unveiled his Medicare-for-all health care plan mere hours before Sunday’s Democratic presidential debate on NBC.
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The debate was the last showdown before primary voting begins next month and both sides were eager to get stuck in as polls showed the race tightening in the states of Iowa and New Hampshire.
“He has voted with the NRA (National Rifle Association), with the gun lobby numerous times”, she said, highlighting his votes against legislation mandating background checks for gun sales.
“Yes his behavior was deplorable”, Sanders said.
Ms Clinton, by contrast, urged less sweeping action to build on president Barack Obama’s healthcare plan by reducing out-of-pocket costs and control spending on prescription drugs.
Clinton also criticized Sanders for his positions on gun control. “No, I have not”, he said on stage Sunday night.
Sanders responded that hes just strengthening the work thats already been done.
Mr. Sanders’ campaign website said it was a way to “stop forcing working Americans to choose between bargaining for higher wages or better health insurance”. But, as Cillizza notes, such an alliance comes at a cost. “It’s a pretty good deal”, he said.
Sanders: “You have three out of the four largest banks today, bigger than they were when we bailed them out”.
Then he finished his thought on health care, telling Clinton “in all due respect, you’re missing the main point”. But the plan would raise taxes on Americans across the board and require a 6.2 percent health care payroll tax on businesses, while slapping taxpayers with a 2.2 percent “premium” based on income.
Clinton tried to undercut Sanders’ support among supporters of Obama, who remains a popular figure in the Democratic Party. Clinton defended her outreach to Russia early in her term as secretary of state, but hesitated when asked to describe her relationship with Vladimir Putin, whose return to the Russian presidency heralded the worsening of U.S.-Russian relations.
Sanders said, “A small mom and pop shop that sells a gun legally to somebody should not be held liable if somebody does something bad with that gun”.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen.
“It’ll start at the kitchen table”.
“I’m not going to tear it up, I helped write it”, Sanders said.
But the loyal Democrats I spoke with also wished there was more passion in Clinton’s appeal to go along with the pragmatism. “I’m going to ask for his advice”.
Clinton is right that he opposed various versions of the Brady bill with longer waiting periods. “However it is Sanders’s success that has jostled team Clinton”.
Clinton – still the Democratic frontrunner, it bears stipulating – went after Bernie Sanders in ways even the generally genial Vermont senator (who obligingly doesn’t want to talk about email servers or Bill Clinton’s behavior) called “disingenuous”. Clinton has made the issue a central theme of her campaign, citing it as one of the major differences between the candidates. Martin O’Malley on the other hand struggled to be heard. But the GOP will host a debate here in SC in the Upstate on February 13th, days after New Hampshire and a week before the First in the South Republican Primary.
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NBC said another 550,000 people watched its debate through a rebroadcast on MSNBC later in the evening.
