Much of the mud fight had been left to Republicans during the past year of campaigning, but that changed during the CNN debate in Brooklyn, N.Y. Clinton shone on foreign policy questions, he said, while Sanders fared better on domestic issues, such as economic inequality and universal health care.
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Supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton gather outside the Brooklyn Navy Yard before the CNN Democratic Presidential Primary Debate there on Thursday.
While Bernie Sanders and Clinton have tussled over energy policy, immigration, and gun control, it’s the back-and-forth over Wall Street that has been most persistent through weeks of campaigning in the state. She cast herself as the only real Democrat in the race, who has worked and is working to help the party and other candidates. He responded: “Because it was a racist term and everybody knew it was a racist term”.
The crime bill and Hillary Clinton’s comment on “super predators” in 1996 have been discussed periodically throughout the campaign.
During Thursday night’s Democratic debate, Vermont Sen. Still, he backed away from previous statements questioning Clinton’s qualifications, saying the former secretary of state does have the “experience and intelligence” to be president.
Clinton said she does support natural gas as a bridge fuel to green and renewable sources of energy. “I question her judgment about running Super PACS that are collecting tens of millions of dollars from special interests…”
Clinton – as she has in the past – asked that there be the “same standard for everybody”, saying she would be happy to release the transcripts if other presidential candidates, including Donald Trump, did the same.
Sanders fired first when asked about his recent criticism that Clinton was not “qualified” to be president.
Sanders recently angered the Clinton camp when he suggested she was unqualified for the Oval Office-an assertion he later walked back.
Clinton after Sanders struggled to name a specific instance when her bank ties influenced her behavior: “He can not come up with any example because there is no example”.
“I think you need to have the judgment on day one” to be president and commander in chief, she said.
She then pivoted to the issue that everyone was anticipating, the awkward interview Sanders gave to the New York Daily News last week.
She said Sanders talks frequently about the greed and recklessness of Wall Street.
Sanders doubles down on plans for free public higher education: “Public colleges and universities tuition-free?” Clinton called it a “phony attack that is created to raise questions when there is no evidence or support to undergird the insinuations that he is putting forward in these attacks”.
“She called them out”. Clinton said she supported the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform act, “called out” Wall Street for its excesses, and “was willing to speak out against some of the privileges they had”.
Sanders, meanwhile, criticized her for refusing to release the transcripts of her paid speeches given to Wall Street banks.
Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders came loaded for bear.
Sanders said he is releasing his 2014 tax return on Friday and warned they might be boring.
Clinton said she didn’t believe Netanyahu was always correct, but she said peace talks are hard for Israel “when there is a terrorist group embedded in Gaza that doesn’t want to see you” exist.
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For Clinton, a win in a state that twice elected her senator would blunt Sanders’ recent momentum and put his pursuit of the nomination further behind.
