Days removed from a humbling defeat in New Hampshire that stirred fresh concern about her candidacy, Hillary Clinton questioned the feasibility of the platform that has fueled Bernie Sanders’ unlikely insurgency, challenging her rival during a nationally-televised debate to “level with the American people” about the true cost of his plans.
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Sanders, appearing earlier in Minneapolis at a forum on race and economic opportunity, was confronted by attendees who demanded specifics about his views on reparations to African-American descendants of slavery.
But coming contests in Nevada and SC will test whether Sanders is cutting into her support among Latino and black voters. He and Clinton took questions from PBS hosts Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff, the first all-female team to moderate a presidential debate. “The reality is that both the African-American community and the white community do marijuana at about equal rates”, Sanders said.
“Madame Secretary, that is a low blow”, responded Sanders.
Clinton pounced from the start, after Sanders demurred in saying how much his proposals would increase the size of the federal government.
He insisted his plan for an NHS-style healthcare system would ultimately save USA taxpayers money, but Mrs Clinton countered that “the numbers don’t add up”.
Ms Clinton, 68, who has struggled to regain momentum after losing badly to Mr Sanders in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, sought to cast herself as a more sensible, pragmatic progressive. Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver stated in the release.
Asked which leaders they admire, Mr Sanders named Winston Churchill, while Mrs Clinton said Nelson Mandela.
In an October interview with MSNBC, he said Obama and Vice President Joe Biden “have done a damn good job”, but that America needs “a course correction”.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. “But it doesn’t change my view that we need to empower everyone, women and men, to make the best decisions in their minds that they can make”, she said.
Had Hillary Clinton not pointed it out, it might have gone unnoticed: Thursday night in Milwaukee was the first time a presidential debate stage featured a majority of women.
The one clear conclusion that can be drawn is that the Democratic race is very close, and it may be a longer expected struggle for whoever wins the nomination.
In the debate’s second half, Sanders tried to impugn Clinton’s judgment on foreign policy by pointing out that she had boasted of winning the praise of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who served during the administration of President Richard Nixon. People aren’t dumb. Why in God’s name does Wall Street make huge campaign contributions?
In Thursday’s debate, after prompting from Clinton, Sanders defended his blurb, saying it focused more on the future than the past. Sanders’s 22-point margin was one of the largest in the history of non-incumbent presidential primaries in the Granite State. “I don’t think they understood that sufficiently”, Clyburn said.
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She is wagering that voters excited by Mr Sanders’ inspiring message will reconsider their support when they learn of his lack of experience in foreign policy and his vague explanations for how he will pay for his expansive programmes.
