Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Hillary Rodham Clinton during the CNN Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas on Tuesday. He experienced the most support and the most praise in the Fox News and CNN focus groups following the debate, as well.
Advertisement
The unused podium: While Vice President Biden’s name did not surface during the debate, his prospective candidacy hovers over the race. Convey adds that Jim Webb, Martin O’Malley and Lincoln Chafee did not come across as strong as the other two. Clinton brought with her a long record of appearances in Presidential debates, intense and diligent preparation, and a nimbleness and humour largely lacking in her male counterparts.
Clinton and Sanders trading jabs and three other candidates getting their first chance to make a first impression.
QUOTE 3: “I come from a rural state, and the views on gun control from a rural state are different than an urban state, whether we like it or not”. “Our job is to bring people together around strong, commonsense gun legislation”. But I think Democrats can be proud that their first primary debate was a victory for the small “d” democratic process.
Though Sanders argued for restricting guns in a few sense, he was quicker than his opponents to doubt the feasibility of such a feat, and by way of explanation.
CNN also says that Internet streams of the debate peaked at 980,000, slightly ahead of the 921,000 for its Republican debate on September 16.
BernieSanders.com, it said, saw its biggest day ever.
When asked how she’d differ from Obama, Clinton mildly noted that she could be the first woman president.
Mrs. Clinton found unlikely support during the debate when Mr. Cooper inquired of her email scandal.
Methodology: Media Matters counted the time spent discussing each topic, counting from the beginning of the moderator’s question on a given topic to the end of the last candidate’s response on that topic.
“I suspect I would vote yes”, Sanders said, “and I would vote yes, because I am seeing in this country too many lives being destroyed for non-violent offenses”.
Advertisement
Trump said Vermont Sen. “Let me say something that may not be great politics”, he declared, “but I think the secretary is right – and that is that the American people are sick and exhausted of hearing about your damn emails”. The Democratic debate had a substantially lower audience, largely because ratings magnet and Republican front-runner Donald Trump didn’t participate, but viewership of the CNN-sponsored encounter was still huge. Instead, he dismissed the controversy as trivial, drawing an ovation from the crowd and shoving the spotlight away from Clinton’s most profound political weakness. Hillary Clinton provided good answers as well, agreeing on the need for criminal justice reform and supporting medical cannabis. He acknowledged that Snowden broke the law “and there should be a penalty for that” but said that the public benefit of his act should be taken into consideration.
