Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders took their battle for president to a Brooklyn stage Thursday night. The debate also left no doubt that a rivalry that once centered on wonkish policy disagreements has turned strikingly personal.
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Clinton continued to struggle to explain why she has not released the transcripts, saying only that she’ll do so when other candidates are required to do the same thing. He went on to question her judgment, but if she was in the pocket of Wall Street and big oil the way he insinuates then he couldn’t actually say that she is qualified to be president.
For voters concerned that NY will once again become the center of a global financial crisis, the choice next week will come down to whom they believe and whom they think will deliver.
Hillary Clinton was in no position to vote for – or against – it because she was not in the Senate at the time. An hour before the contest, her campaign released a memo outlining the case she would make against Sanders and repeatedly released briefings throughout the night that both tried to defend her from attacks. She cast herself as the only real Democrat in the race, who has worked and is working to help the party and other candidates.
Clinton in turn blasted Sanders for his vote in Congress for a bill that protected gun manufacturers from being sued over the criminal use of their products.
“In the long run, if we are ever going to bring peace to that region, we are going to have to treat the Palestinian people with respect and dignity”, he said. “I don’t take a back seat to your legislation that you’ve introduced that you haven’t been able to get passed”, she said.
Donald Trump and John Kasich both picked up endorsements in NY on Thursday, just days before the state’s Republican primary on Tuesday. The crowd in the debate spurred on the raucous conflict between the two by either cheering loudly or hissing.
But Clinton said that was hard when Israel’s enemies wage unrelenting attacks.
Both candidates appealed directly to New Yorkers: Sanders mentioned his Brooklyn roots in his closing statement, and Clinton reiterated her credentials as a NY senator in the wake of 9/11. Clinton’s message has played better in closed Democratic primaries and in states with more diverse populations.
When answering a question about the cost of higher education, Sanders quipped, “Public colleges and universities tuition free?”
One of the sharpest exchanges came over the minimum wage – with Sanders essentially accusing Clinton of lying when she said she had always supported raising it to $15 an hour. But this time she pointed out that Sanders hadn’t released his recent tax returns, which she said was a basic standard for any presidential hopeful.
Sanders announced that he would release his 2014 tax return on Friday and he would release others in due time.
Clinton comes out for a $15 minimum wage, of sorts.
“The secretary has confused a lot of people”.
“I don’t know that it’s appropriate for the Department of the Treasury to be making those decisions”, Sanders said. He scored points, particularly on money and politics and by raising questions about Clinton’s record on foreign policy: her support of the Iraq war and – according to him – her failure to anticipate the aftermath of the U.S.-backed military operation to oust Moammar Ghadaffi.
Sanders has won a string of recent primary contests. Clinton, however, did not directly address that charge, but noted that she had been critical of Israeli leaders in her State Department memoirs.
Mrs Clinton leads Senator Sanders by 251 bound delegates to the July nominating convention.
A significant haul of 247 Democratic delegates are up for grabs in the NY primary, where minorities and wealthy Democrats are likely to favour Clinton, although polls suggest that Sanders has narrowed her lead. A candidate needs 2,383 delegates to clinch the nomination.
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As it stands, Clinton has 1,758 delegates to Sanders’ 1,069, including superdelegates.
