“I very much appreciate that comment, Bernie”, the former secretary of state said. “Yes, we could get rid of Assad tomorrow, but that would create another political vacuum that would benefit ISIS”.
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For his part, Mr Sanders said U.S. foreign policy needed to focus on destroying the so-called Islamic State (IS or Isis) group, not removing Bashar al-Assad from power in Syria.
“Regime change is easy”.
“The Sanders campaign has now complied with the DNC’s request”, said Democratic chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz in a statement, according to Bloomberg. That’s even though the software vendor said only one campaign was involved in the breach, and there’s no evidence that Clinton has any Sanders data.
Clinton said that as secretary of state, she “advocated arming the moderate opposition” in Syria.
The rising tensions over the breach came at a crucial moment for Sanders, who is trying to erase Clinton’s lead in the November 2016 Democratic White House race just six weeks before the first nominating contest in Iowa.
“With respect to my own husband, I am probably still going to pick the flowers and the china for state dinners and stuff like that”, said Clinton, the front-runner for her party’s nomination.
The Democrats’ third debate was marked by controversy from the start over a recent data breach of Clinton’s campaign voter files by a Sanders staffer, who was subsequently fired.
Sanders apologized to Clinton for the breach.
In the previous debates, Sanders hammered Clinton for her close to ties to campaign donors from Wall Street banks and wealthy hedge fund investors.
Sanders was more vocal on foreign policy than in past debates.
Clinton said: “Let’s tell the truth, Martin”. “Now that I think we’ve resolved your data, we’ve agreed on an independent inquiry, we should move on”.
Clinton accepted the apology, said the American public didn’t care about the controversy, and then with Martin O’Malley they launched into a discussion of identifying would-be terrorists and maintaining national security.
Clinton said her campaign was “distressed” when the news surfaced, but she quickly added: “I don’t think the American people are all that interested in this”.
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She said IS militants are showing videos of the billionaire tycoon talking about his proposed ban as a recruitment tool.
