Bernie Sanders apologizes for breach of Clinton voter files

The Democrats’ third debate was marked by controversy from the start over a recent data breach of Mrs Clinton’s campaign voter files by a Sanders staffer, who was subsequently fired.

“The reason we are in the mess we’re in, that ISIS has the territory it has, is because of Assad”, she said, using an acronym for the Islamic State.

Clinton says she was “distressed” when she learned of the data breach and says her campaign will participate in an independent investigation to examine what went wrong.

He said that the Democratic Party’s decision to temporarily suspend his campaign’s access to the strategically crucial database was “an egregious act”.

The campaign’s data director, Josh Uretsky, took advantage of a software glitch and was sacked after going through Clinton’s proprietary data compiled by the Democratic National Committee from voting records and canvassing.

“We should move on because I don’t think the American people are interested in this”, said Clinton, the former secretary of state. His most telling moment was turning a question about domestic terrorism and ethnic profiling back to income inequality, saying, “I believe we stand together to address the real issues facing this country, not allow them to divide us by race or where we come from”.

The third Democratic debate, the final one of 2015, also includes former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, who is polling well behind his two rivals.

“If the United States does not lead, there is not another leader there is a vacuum”, she said.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Martin”, Sanders said.

“Our differences are fairly deep on this issue”, Sanders said.

According to Clinton, it is best not to respond “to this sort of bigotry”.

“I know Secretary Clinton was gleeful when [Libyan leader Muammar] Gaddafi was torn apart”.

Clinton called it “absolutely the wrong policy” to put US troops on the ground in the Middle East in order to fight ISIS and that instead, the USA should lead a coalition to fight ISIS, involving tribal sheikhs and Turks.

Sanders said the United States should focus on destroying the Islamic State group.

“Whoever is part of the family of a president has an extraordinary privilege of not only having a front row seat on history, but making her or – maybe his – contribution”, Clinton said.

Saturday’s debate was the first for Democrats since the shooting in San Bernardino, California, where 14 people were killed by a married couple that authorities say had been radicalized. Corporate America doesn’t like him, Sanders said, and “Wall Street is going to like me even less”.

He also returned again and again to the theme of “regime change” when dealing with dictators.

“Do not tell me that I have not shown courage in standing up to the gun people or voting for instant background checks”, Sanders he said, pointing to an election he lost after coming out against sales of assault weapons.

Mrs Clinton, the front-runner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, rejected the criticism and pointed out that Mr Sanders as a United States senator from Vermont had voted “for regime change with respect to Libya” in 2011.

O’Malley also jumped into the fray, arguing that Clinton’s focus on Assad was an example of a Cold War mentality.

“I worry”, he said, that “Secretary Clinton is too much into regime change and a little bit too aggressive without knowing what the unintended consequences might be” of military action in the Mideast.