“One of us ran against Barack Obama”, Sanders charged.
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“Do senators have the right to disagree with the president?”
Fresh off the New Hampshire primary, there was a lot on the line for the two Democratic presidential candidates on Thursday night, February 11th.
Even so, the restrained exchange on Thursday was unlikely to change the trajectory of a race that has intensified dramatically over two weeks. SANDERS, CLINTON EYE MINORITY VOTERSSanders is hoping to broaden his support and build on his momentum, while Clinton attempts to hit the reset button after a stinging loss in New Hampshire.
Clinton is likely to find herself once again on the defensive over the high-dollar speaking fees she received from Wall Street banks after leaving the State Department. “That’s a promise that can not be kept”. Sanders says, “We can no longer continue to sweep it under the rug” citing a statistic that 1 in 4 African American children will end up in jail. “I have fought my entire life to make sure that health care is a right for all people”. And though Clinton has since dramatically softened her tone on how the US should address the aftermath of the humanitarian crisis at the border, she was put on the defensive to explain why she supported deportation then, but opposes the raids now. Her biting comments followed an interview in which Sanders suggested Obama hadn’t succeeded in closing the gap between Congress and the American people – something Obama himself has acknowledged.
Both of the candidates said they would go beyond Mr. Obama’s already expansive immigration actions, including his deportation amnesty for as many as 5 million illegal immigrants. Sanders thinks a candidate who takes money from Wall Street can’t crack down on them? African-Americans who face discrimination in the job market, education, housing, and the criminal justice system.
Clinton sought to dent Sanders by portraying his plans as unrealistic and said it was important for Americans to vet both of their programs.
“We are seeing the dark side of the remaining systemic racism that we have to root out in our society”, Clinton added.
At one point, Clinton told him, “We are not France”, after Sanders had complained that the United States was the only major industrialized power in the world that did not provide universal health care for its citizens.
In tonight’s Democratic debate, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders – each with one nominating contest victory under their belts – looked ahead to the upcoming primaries in Nevada and SC.
It described her as not only the singular candidate with the experience and temperament to be president, but someone who has advocated for minority rights for decades.
Clinton said Sanders needs to “level with the American people” on how his health care proposal would work. “They want a political revolution”.
PBS hosted a spirited, earnest, mostly break-free Democratic debate in Milwaukee on Thursday night, and its post-debate analysis by Hari Sreenivasan was similarly different from the post-game chatter we’ve seen on cable news and network TV.
Sanders stuck to his same message that he could rid the country of the so-called billionaire class better than an establishment politician with ties to Wall Street while focusing the brunt of his criticism on Republicans.
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He attacked Clinton, out of the blue, for having touted the mentorship of Kissinger, a Republican former secretary of state under Richard Nixon hated by liberals for his role in Vietnam, Cambodia and elsewhere. Not holding back, Sanders concluded saying, “I am proud to say that Henry Kissinger is not my friend”.
