Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton debate during the Univision News and Washington Post Democratic Presidential Primary Debate at the Miami Dade College’s Kendall Campus on March 9, 2016 in Miami, Florida.
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The 74-year-old senator won most of the delegates up for grabs in MI, but Clinton, who won MS on Tuesday, still leads Sanders with 1221 delegates to his 571. Both Sanders and Clinton were bidding for momentum after Sanders startled Clinton with an upset victory in MI on Tuesday.
Sanders, a senator from Vermont, said Clinton, the former secretary of state, had turned her back callously on children fleeing violence in Honduras, while he had wanted to welcome them into the United States two years ago.
She caught a break near the end of the debate when the moderators confronted Sanders. a self-described democratic socialist, about past statements in praise of Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, including a 1980s video of Sanders praising Cuba.
“You don’t make America great by getting rid of everything that made of America great”, Clinton said. “The undocumented people living in our country, I do not want to see them deported”, she said. That what Sanders says sounds good but simply can not be done – and reflects a deep and risky naïveté about the political process.
She faced probing questions about her use of a homebrew email server and private account when she was secretary of state.
Sanders and Clinton were in Miami to debate with each other, but they had no problem finding common ground in regard to a very pointed question about whether or not Donald Trump is a racist.
According to polling data from RealClearPolitics, Clinton now holds a 30-plus point lead in Florida, with one specific poll calling attention to her support among Hispanics and African-Americans.
Sanders ripped into Clinton for taking money from Wall Street in contributions and speaking fees. So that’s why I think the Republican leadership is a little bit nervous about Trump’s successes so far.
“This is a marathon and a marathon that can only be carried out by the type of inclusive campaign I’m running”, Clinton said.
Clinton was stronger than Sanders on this issue, but it was by no means her best debate on the topic, given her lack of clarity on some of the answers. Sanders traveled to Immokalee in 2008 to meet with exploited migrant workers and invited them to testify during a Senate committee hearing on abusive labor practices.
Sponsored by Univision, the debate provided Clinton ample opportunity to take Sanders’ to task before the target audience of Hispanics for opposing bipartisan efforts to reform the immigration system in 2007. “Right? A attractive tall wall, the most lovely tall wall, better than the Great Wall of China, that would run the entire border, that he would somehow magically get the Mexican government to pay for”, Clinton said. So to answer your question, yes, I think the American people are saying, will say, that we are not going to have a Republican in the White House. President Obama’s father was born in Kenya. Sanders said he supported the overall goal of the bill but was opposed to guest worker provisions that he believed would undercut wages for USA workers and impose punitive conditions on foreign laborers. If the MI results present the worst case scenario for how much a fight over trade can hurt her in a contest against Sanders, she will still be on pace to win a comfortable majority of delegates.
As for her willingness to step out of the race if she’s indicted on federal charges in regard to those emails, “It’s not going to happen”, she insisted.
Primary races are scheduled in Florida, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri and North Carolina on Tuesday, March 15. But that all doesn’t guarantee her a win in the Sunshine State’s fast approaching primary.
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In the general election campaign, the Democratic candidate will have to respond to Trump with effective counter punches.
