Hillary Clinton’s embattled status as the Democratic presidential front-runner, dented Tuesday by a surprise defeat in MI, faced new challenges Wednesday during a debate with Bernie Sanders that often delved into the vulnerabilities that have complicated her path to the nomination.
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Sanders, a democratic socialist, said he supported the bailout and voted for it in the Senate, but that bill failed to win approval.
Clinton and Sanders both courted the Latino vote, expressing support for comprehensive immigration reforms.
With their Miami debate showdown coming just 6 days before the critical Florida primary, the two candidates were repeatedly pressed on immigration issues, including whether they would deport undocumented children from the United States.
On Wednesday, Clinton will likely talk about her economic plans to create manufacturing jobs and paint Sanders as a backward-looking candidate, as she did on Sunday’s debate.
Participating in the last Democratic presidential debate in Miami, Florida, front-runner Clinton avoided giving a direct answer to the question, while Sanders responded by saying that the American people will never elect a president who insults Mexicans, Muslims, women and blacks. Sanders, whose own father was an immigrant from Poland, will need the help of Latino voters in Florida if is he to win the Sunshine State, while Clinton was asked by moderator Maria Elena Salinas whether she was “hispandering”, or pandering to Hispanic to voters.
Hillary Clinton is dismissing questions about whether she’d drop out of the presidential race should her use of a private server while secretary of state result in a federal indictment.
Before Tuesday, Clinton was expected to cruise through those races and put decisive distance between herself and the Vermont senator in the delegate race.
“I just couldn’t disagree more, if the values are that you oppress people, you disappear people, you imprison people, even kill people”, she said, to the most extended applause she received from the Sanders-friendly audience at Miami Dade College’s Kendall Campus. “I wish he would criticize, and join me in criticizing, George W. Bush, who I think wrecked the economy and created the conditions for the Great Recession”, she said.
While Clinton declined to outright call Trump a racist, she turned his campaign slogan against him by saying: “You don’t make America great by getting rid of everything that made America great”.
Mook went on to contrast the victory Sanders eked out in MI against Clinton’s massive, 66-point triumph in Mississippi.
Trump is leading in MI with 36 percent compared to 23 percent for Cruz, according to a recent Monmouth University poll.
The next big test for both candidates will come Tuesday, when Democrats – and Republicans – vote in Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio.
Clinton was asked whether she lied about Benghazi, whether she might be indicted over her emails and why she’s seen as so untrustworthy.
Clinton gave a list of conditions that would have to be met in order for her to support hydraulic fracturing-including full disclosure of chemicals used, pollution controls and local approval for any projects.
If Clinton was shaken by her loss in MI, she didn’t show it on the debate stage.
Sanders boasted at the debate that his upset win in Michigan’s primary the day before over Clinton had rejuvenated his campaign. “She said, ‘Don’t do it, ‘ and New York State still does not do it”.
“We have the most secure border we’ve ever had”, she said.
Clinton also said the investigation has been politicised by Republicans seeking to score points against her campaign. “The undocumented people living in our country, I do not want to see them deported”, she said.
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The introspection came after a question from Washington Post reporter Karen Tumulty about how the Washington Post-Univision poll found only 37 percent of Americans consider Clinton honest and trustworthy.
