NEW YORK: Deepening their increasingly bitter feud, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders aggressively challenged each other’s judgment to be president in Thursday night’s Democratic debate, sparring over Wall Street banks, how high to raise the minimum wage and gun control.
The showdown in Brooklyn came at a pivotal moment in the party’s primary campaign, with Clinton leading in the delegate count but Sanders generating huge enthusiasm for his surprising candidacy.
The Vermont senator took a biting and often sarcastic tone as he sought to chip away at Clinton’s credibility on issue after issue. He went as far as to suggest that her labeling of certain criminals as “superpredators” when she was first lady was “a racist term and everybody knew it was a racist term.”
Sanders also cited Clinton’s support for the unpopular Iraq war and for free trade agreements, as well as her willingness to accept money through a super PAC, as evidence that she lacks the needed judgment to lead the nation. Still, he backed away from previous statements questioning Clinton’s qualifications, saying the former secretary of state does have the “experience and intelligence” to be president.
Clinton made little effort to hide her irritation with Sanders’ challenging of her qualifications, saying that while she has been “called a lot of things in my life, that was a first.” She repeatedly linked herself to President Barack Obama, who remains popular among Democrats, suggesting Sanders’ criticism of her amounted to condemnation of the president.
Clinton cast Sanders as unprepared to implement even his signature policy proposals, including breaking up big banks. She also chided Sanders for chuckling during an exchange on gun control, an area where she has painted him as cozy with gun dealers and manufacturers.
“It’s not a laughing matter,” she said. “I take it really seriously because I have spent more time than I care to remember being with people who have lost their loved ones.”
The debate was the first for the Democratic candidates in five weeks. It came ahead of Tuesday’s primary in New York, a high-stakes contest with a huge cache of delegates at stake.
For Clinton, a win in a state that twice elected her senator would blunt Sanders’ recent momentum and put his pursuit of the nomination further out of reach. A Sanders upset over Clinton would shake up the race, raising fresh concerns about her candidacy and breathing new life into the Vermont senator’s campaign.
The candidates also sparred over raising the federal minimum wage, with Sanders expressing surprise as Clinton voiced support for efforts to set the hourly pay rate at $15, the level he has long backed.
“I don’t know how you’re there for the fight for 15 when you say you want a $12 minimum wage,” he said. Clinton then clarified that while she does support a $12 hourly minimum wage, she would sign legislation raising that level to $15.