Clinton has moved quickly to capitalize on the new focus of the race, touting her experience as secretary of state and casting herself as an experienced hand in a risky world – an argument her aides believe will play well against both Sanders and non-establishment GOP contenders like Trump.
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Coverage of the Saturday night Democratic debate has focused on Bernie Sanders’ apology to Hillary Clinton for his staff’s poor judgment in viewing her campaign’s proprietary data.
Sanders and Martin O’Malley hope to convince increasingly liberal primary voters that Clinton does not fit in the Democratic Party on the issue.
The Sanders campaign shot out a fact sheet to reporters outlining Clinton’s past positions on guns, implying that her views have changed in response to her political campaigning.
The debate was the Democrats’ first since the deadly attack by a pair of radicalized Muslims in San Bernardino, California on December 2 which, along with the fatal attacks in Paris last month, elevated national security to the top of the campaign agenda.
Hillary Clinton reminded voters that she is the front-runner in the 2016 USA presidential race as she used a televised Democratic debate to attack her potential Republican opponent Donald Trump.
Former secretary of state Clinton, Senator Bernie Sanders and Maryland ex-governor Martin O’Malley each hit on the need to boost national security, raise the minimum wage and protect rights of women, minorities and the disadvantaged as they faced off in New Hampshire. She called Trump a threat to the nation’s safety, saying he was fast “becoming IS’s best recruiter”.
“That’s the interpretation we made”, Podesta said on “Meet the Press”, adding “I think it’s a very fair charge”.
Sanders landed his biggest blow against Clinton when he assailed her support for ousting Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi and her push for a political end to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s tenure.
While experts agree it’s entirely possible ISIS could be using Trump’s anti-Muslim comments to recruit potential militants, there is no evidence they actually are, reports the Business Standard.
“Thank you, good night, and may the force be with you”, she said.
Meanwhile, tensions remained high between Mr. Sanders and the Democratic National Committee, which briefly blocked his access to voter data after the Sanders campaign inappropriately gained access to propriety voter information gathered by Ms. Clinton.
According to Clinton, the Islamic State group was “going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists”. “It doesn’t exist. And he keeps claiming it. That’s called pathological lying”, the Democratic presidential candidate said on ABC’s “This Week”.
Still, Sanders said his staff had acted improperly.
Clinton rejected the criticism and pointed out that Sanders as a US senator from Vermont had voted “for regime change with respect to Libya” in 2011. And somebody like trump comes along, and says, I know all the answers.
“We can do all the great speeches we want, but you ain’t gonna succeed” without broad-based support, Sanders said.
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Clinton questioned the affordability of some of Sanders’ proposals such as creation of a single-payer healthcare system and tuition-free college, suggesting these plans would lead to higher taxes on working families.
