Sanders, though, is the heavy favorite on his home turf in New England and not willing to let the former secretary of state chalk up a victory in New Hampshire as she did in 2008.
Advertisement
If you’ve got something to say, say it directly.
President Obama, he said, focused on health care arguably at the expense of immigration.
Still, despite the heated moments, the debate ended on a more friendly note, when both Clinton and Sanders expressed respect for one another.
The intensity reflected a race that has seen Clinton’s once prohibitive lead in polls shrivel against Sanders as the two vie for the Democratic nomination for the November 8 election.
Clinton said she was incredulous that a candidate running to become the first female president would exemplify the establishment.
This was the first time just Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders shared the spotlight on the debate stage days before the New Hampshire primary.
Clinton again argued that she was the most electable candidate, while referring to a list of high-profile governors, former governors and members of Congress who have endorsed her. That set up the winning line of the night, when Sanders agreed that Clinton “has practically the entire democratic establishment behind her”, and while she “does represent the establishment; I represent ordinary Americans”.
But it was Sanders’ mention of Clinton’s cozy relationship with Wall Street which caused Clinton to clap back, saying it was nothing more than an “artful smear” in a campaign that Sanders had vowed would be about policy positions rather than personal attacks.
Asked earlier in the week if Clinton was a progressive, he said: “Some days, yes”.
“This is what I believe the American people want and deserve”.
“The secretary probably doesn’t know that there’s not a day that goes by when I am not asked to attack her on that issue, and I have refrained from doing that”, he said.
Senator Sanders debates at the Democratic presidential candidates debate.
In fresh evidence of the tightening race, Clinton reported that her campaign had raised $15 million in January – $5 million less than Sanders and the first time she’s been outraised by her opponent. “I don’t think these attacks are worthy of you”, she said. “I don’t think it was progressive to go and give gun makers and sellers immunity”, Clinton said in the debate.
Clinton, unwilling to cede the issue to Sanders, insisted her regulatory policies would be tougher on Wall Street than his.
Yet as Clinton stressed her secretary of state experience and Sanders said that factor is “not arguable”, the Vermont senator noted experience is not the only point. When Clinton said Sanders voted against regulating some kinds of financial trades blamed for contributing to the Great Recession, the Vermont senator shot back that there was “nobody who fought harder” for such efforts.
“The middle class bailed out Wall Street in their time of need”, Sanders added.
Advertisement
“Here’s the reality of American economic life today”, Sanders explained. He voted against the war; Clinton voted for it, but has since said her vote was a mistake. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley dropped out after getting about 1 percent of the vote in the Iowa caucuses on Monday.
