In by far their most personal exchange of the campaign, Hillary Clinton lashed out during Thursday night’s Democratic debate at what she called Bernie Sanders’ “innuendo” and “insinuation” that her Wall Street speaking fees and donations means she’s bought. GOP candidates, who are scheduled to meet again in a debate Saturday, took New Hampshire by storm ahead of the primary. “It’s really caused me to wonder who’s left in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Well, some people might think that had some influence”, he said. “Sanders is the only person who I think would characterize me, a woman running to be the first woman president, as exemplifying the establishment”, she said.
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But Sanders kept the pressure up on Clinton’s ties to Wall Street when he suggested she undervalued the role of money in politics.
“I’m fighting for people who can not wait for those changes, and I’m not making promises that I can not keep”, Clinton said, acknowledging at other points that she and Sanders share “very big progressive goals”, such as universal health care, clean energy, a higher minimum wage, and affordable college.
“And I just absolutely reject that, Senator”, she said.
They, however, offered different stances on the death penalty, with Clinton saying she supports it in extreme circumstances, like acts of terror, and Sanders contending that the government should not partake in killing.
The debate at 9 p.m. ET in Derry, New Hampshire airing on MSNBC came a day after a combative CNN town hall meeting in which Clinton and Sanders feuded over who best represents progressive values.
The surprisingly strong performance by Sanders in Iowa is likely to prolong a race that Clinton entered as the prohibitive favorite. He lambasted 1990s-era Wall Street deregulation (under Bill Clinton, of course), the Koch brothers and ExxonMobil.
Though he said he dislikes Russia’s “military adventurism”, he said North Korea poses a bigger threat, calling Korea “an isolated, paranoid country with atomic bombs” that makes it more unsafe than Russian Federation or China.
Responding angrily, he said repeatedly: “Let’s talk about issues”, and shot back, pointing out sarcastically that “some people might think” that the billions spent on lobbying and campaign contributions may have led to the deregulation of Wall Street in the 1990s.
Asked at Thursday’s debate about the editorial, Sanders said, “I agree with the Des Moines Register”. That issue continued to put Clinton on the defensive, including over $675,000 she received for three speeches to Goldman Sachs after resigning as secretary of State. Sanders agreed and said that the two campaigns need to stop talking about definitions.
“A vote in 2002 is not a plan to defeat ISIS”, she said.
The pair were much more concilitatory towards each other than their Republican counterparts, however, with Senator Sanders declaring, “On our worst days, I think it is fair to say, we are a hundred times better than any Republican candidate”.
While the former secretary of State squeaked out a win at the caucuses by just a 0.2 percent margin, Sanders is up by an average of 20 points in a RealClearPolitics average of polls in New Hampshire, a state she won in 2008.
Clinton, in turn, accused her rival of quoting her selectively to diminish her progressive credentials.
It represented the first time Sanders and Clinton have squared-off in a debate without former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who exited the Democratic presidential contest earlier this week.
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On foreign policy, she tried to poke a hole in Sanders’ argument that his vote against the invasion of Iraq is proof he has the judgment necessary to manage America’s involvement in the turbulent Middle East.
