In their first one-on-one debate Thursday night, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton criticized her opponent Sen. Sanders, she says, would start over on health care, which he said was “inaccurate”. She bragged that Henry Kissinger, a fixture of the Republican foreign policy establishment dating to the Nixon administration, approved of how she ran the State Department. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) by seven points, Sanders would tie him, according to the survey. Then she took after the Vermont senator for his efforts to cast her as beholden to Wall Street interests, saying: “I really don’t think these kinds of attacks by insinuation are worthy of you”.
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“Enough is enough. If you’ve got something to say, say it directly”, Clinton added, referring to a suggestion that she’s in the pocket of the special interests. Did someone just say Joe Biden has a better chance than Hillary Clinton? “It’s time to end the very artful smear that you and your campaign have been carrying out”.
Sanders also, though, defended his attack on Clinton because she, at a recent event, described herself as a “moderate”.
BERNIE SANDERS: “So I do believe in the future, not by dismantling what we have here”.
Sanders is putting up a strong showing against Clinton in the early primaries. Who’s more progressive – an ideologue, or a pragmatist?
Sanders, for his part, suggested Clinton’s loyalties were colored by a reliance on big corporate donors.
The Clinton campaign also confirmed that she will break from campaigning in New Hampshire on Sunday to visit Flint, Michigan, where a cost-saving decision led to risky levels of lead in the city water. “Young people are shifting to Bernie Sanders”. She championed her “distrust and verify” approach to Iran, saying Sanders was more eager to engage.
“Look we did differ”, Clinton responded.
He won’t let Clinton avoid her ties to Wall Street. “We have a corrupt campaign-finance system that separates the American people’s needs and desires from what Congress is doing”, he said.
Buoyed by Sanders’ focus on big banks, and his steadfast dedication to financial issues largely concerning America’s 20-somethings, the wispy-haired senator personifies the reaction to the left’s growing anger at the power brokers in Washington.
The lingering flashpoint is the fact that Clinton was paid $675,000 in speaking fees by investment firm Goldman Sachs for three speeches, something she’s wrestled with each time it’s come up. She also reminded voters that she’s happy to wield her own sharp knife.
“Kid gets caught with marijuana, that kid has a police record”.
Clinton argued that she and Sanders share numerous same goals, even as they differed during the debate on the federal death penalty (Clinton supports it; Sanders opposes it), on trade, some aspects of gun control, and on normalizing relations with Iran. But just like then-Illinois Sen.
Sanders hit back by insisting that billionaires undermine democracy in the United States by spending unlimited funds on election campaigns. Not surprisingly, health care has been a particularly hot topic for both, with Sanders defending his “Medicare-for-all” single-payer plan and Clinton touting her support for an improved Affordable Care Act.
As in past debates, Sanders was weak when the discussion touched upon foreign affairs.
Sanders, meanwhile, will pull his punches – especially on subjects where he’s tepid. You haven’t given a major foreign policy speech. It never comes up at his town hall meetings, and it’s not at the top of his supporters’ priorities.
Clinton seemed energized by her underdog status in New Hampshire, delivering her most aggressive debate performance of the campaign.
Nine months on, the self-declared Democratic Socialist attracts swathes of youth at rallies around the country and is threatening to usurp the Democratic presidential nomination from party stalwart and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
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MSNBC’s Chuck Todd pressed further regarding an FBI investigation into the matter.
