Bernie Sanders questioning why large Wall Street firms have contributed to the former secretary of state’s campaign, Ms. Clinton accused him of making “an attack on my integrity” and then mentioned that the World Trade Center attacks impacted lower Manhattan-arguments the mayor backed up today.
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“This is a clash of civilizations and as I said at the debate earlier this week, there is no middle ground on this”. Sanders and Former Maryland Governor O’Malley were focused on Clinton during the debate.
Saturday’s Democratic presidential debate in Des Moines, Iowa, may have been largely overshadowed by the previous night’s deadly Paris terrorist attacks, but nevertheless it marked a shift to a more contentious phase of the nomination race. Perhaps most important, neither is drawing sharp distinctions with her on anti-terrorist policies.
The three Democrats vying to be the next commander in chief delivered tough talk Saturday night on how to deal with the Islamic State group, but held back on plans that would put significant numbers of US troops in harm’s way.
“It can not be contained”.
Sanders said: “I have never heard a candidate who has received huge amounts of money from oil, from coal, from Wall Street, from the military industrial complex, not one candidate say: ‘Oh, these campaign contributions will not influence me”.
Her two rivals were more assertive about US leadership.
“This actually is America’s fight”, O’Malley retorted.
“It can not be an American fight”. “But now there is a larger safe haven, and we must rise to this occasion in collaboration and with alliances to confront it, and invest in the future much better human intelligence so we know what the next steps are”.
Whether or not to use the term appears to be a national security Rorschach test for both Republicans and Democrats.
“I believe calling it what it is … radical jihadis”, he said. Clinton noted that she represented Wall Street as a senator from NY, but she said she is not beholden to it and will crack down on financial malfeasance when warranted. “I don’t think we’re at war with all Muslims”.
“Let’s remember we’re also dealing with people who’ve suffered the horrors of war, women and children, orphans”.
Mark Longabaugh, a top Sanders’ adviser, said, “Do I think it’s a legitimate defense?”
“This will help the anti- immigration cause and hurt efforts to bring in Syrian refugees”, predicted Vin Weber, a leading Republican strategist.
Clinton also argued for a higher number, adding “I said we should go to 65, but only if we have as careful a screening and vetting process as we can imagine”.
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“I think what the president has consistently said-which I agree with-is that we will support those who take the fight to [the Islamic State]”, Clinton said.
