The terrorist attacks in Paris that left at least 129 people dead and more than 300 people wounded cast a pall over the second Democratic presidential debate Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa, as front-runner and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sparred with Vermont Sen.
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CBS, which is hosting Saturday’s debate, informed the Democratic candidates that the format would be changed to incorporate questions about the Paris attacks at the the start, a shift that one source said was met with a few resistance from the Sanders campaign. “It can not be contained, it must be defeated… this can not be an American fight, though American leadership is essential”.
O’Malley said he disagreed with Clinton, noting that “America is best when we work in collaboration with our allies” but that this was a USA fight.
“I would argue that the disastrous invasion of Iraq, something which I strongly opposed, has unraveled the region completely and led to rise of Al Qaeda and to ISIS”, Sanders said, adding that “it was the worst foreign policy blunder in the modern history of the Untied States”.
Hillary Clinton: Well, john, I think that we have to look at ISIS as the leading threat of an worldwide terror network. “We obviously wanted to keep the format to what had been agreed to and I think people on our staff argued vigorously to that and were successful”, Weaver told CNN. Republicans have long criticized President Obama for eschewing the term “radical Islam”.
They gave a few fodder to their Republican critics, who coupled condemnation of the Paris attacks earlier in the day with sharp criticism for Obama and his former secretary of state, Clinton.
In response to a question about whether she is too close to Wall Street, Clinton said her actions and policies have showed her independence from the banking industry, despite the fact that many of her campaign contributions come from the world of finance.
“No, no”, the coordinator said when asked about whether Sanders’ aides were anxious about debating Paris.
O’Malley also hit Clinton for not backing the reinstatement of Glass-Steagall, the Depression-era law that split commercial and investment banking.
“I won’t be taking my orders from Wall Street”, O’Malley said. Bernie Sanders sharply pivoted away from commenting on foreign policy during his opening statement, instead focusing on the economic issues that form the central theme of his campaign.
Both Sanders and O’Malley have taken steps to point out their differences and the underdog ex-governor is also trying to undercut Sanders as Clinton’s main alternative.
Last month, the possibility of Joe Biden jumping into the race and upending the party’s nomination process loomed large; now, the country knows that the vice president will not pursue another White House bid.
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Sanders may have inadvertently helped her in the first debate, when he seemed to dismiss the controversy over her use of a private email account and server by saying Americans are exhausted of hearing about her “damn emails”. I really put that on Assad and on the Iraqis and on the region itself.
