Democrats debate: Clinton, Sanders just kept sparring

When Clinton attacked him for voting against the Brady Bill, Sanders shouted, “All the shouting in the world is not going to… keep guns out of the hands of those who should not have guns”. “Let me say something that may not be great politics, but I think the secretary is right”, he said.

The two candidates also clashed over gun control. If he’s been waiting until after this first prime-time test to see if Hillary Clinton collapsed, he must have seen for himself that she crushed it. In general, though, he would use force “when our country is threatened or our allies are threatened”, though even then, only in coalitions, adding, “I do not support taking unilateral military action”.

None of the other candidates stood out between Sanders and Clinton.

The only woman on stage, Clinton also highlighted the prospect of becoming the nation’s first female president multiple times.

“I’m a progressive, but I’m a progressive who likes to get things done”, she answered. When asked how her administration would differ from President Barack Obama’s, she said with a smile, “Being the first woman president would be quite a change”.

One person who was not on the stage but loomed large: Vice President Joe Biden, who is considering launching his own run for the nomination.

Biden has been deliberating about his political future for months and is expected to announce a decision within days.

The premiere Democratic debate of the 2016 campaign season, sponsored by CNN and Facebook, will kick off at 8:30 p.m. ET from the Wynn hotel and casino in Las Vegas. He was not mentioned during the two-hour debate.

“There is not a STAR on stage tonight!”, Trump tweeted at one point during the debate.

While the Republican primary has been roiled by the emotional debate over immigration, the Democratic candidates were largely united in their call for providing a path to legal status for the millions of people now in the USA illegally.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton won unexpected support from chief rival Bernie Sanders on Tuesday for her use of a private email server as US secretary of state.

When Sanders said the USA should look to countries like Denmark, Sweden and Norway on the economy, Clinton replied that while the US sometimes needs to “save capitalism from itself”, America was much different.

“I want to address climate change, a real threat to our planet”, said former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee in the opening minutes of the debate.

Clinton will likely face claims that she has reversed previous positions to appease Democratic base voters, such as on the vast Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal which she repeatedly touted as secretary of state but now opposes. “Politicians are evolving on this issue, and Sen”.

“She was poised, she was passionate and she was in command”, Axelrod said.

“As Governor, I came in at the depths of the recession and we turned my state around”, he said.

CNN moderator Anderson Cooper tried to refocus the candidates on the matter, but that only gave Clinton the chance to slam the GOP-led Congressional committee investigating the matter as “basically an arm of the Republican National Committee”.

The former secretary of state has also faced criticism that she’s shifted her positions on trade, gay marriage and other issues to match the mood of voters – a charge she denied Tuesday.