Sanders lashes out at Clinton in last Democratic debate before Iowa caucuses

The 2016 presidential hopefuls went head-to-head on the issues of gun control, police brutality and terrorism.

“Normally if you were the Clinton campaign and they heard us say, ‘Boy, Bernie Sanders [did a great job],’ they would say, ‘what about us?’ But I guess the sense that they are okay with that”. Clinton said Sanders’ single-payer health care plan was tantamount to tearing up President Obama’s health care law, which she said she wanted to build on as Republicans in Congress try to repeal it. With Clinton’s lead narrowing in the polls, Sanders had the spotlight.

Sanders said his standing would improve with African-Americans once they learned more about his agenda.

Some of the crowd booed Sanders, who twice brought up Clinton’s receipt of lucrative speaking fees since leaving her post as secretary of state in early 2013.

“Can I tell that we should open an embassy in Tehran tomorrow?”

Blithely confident of her party’s nomination, she had previously reserved her barbs for the Republicans-ignoring Mr Sanders nearly as completely as she has her other rival, Martin O’Malley, an articulate former governor of Maryland and rank no-hoper in this contest.

But the plan would raise taxes across the board and require a 6.2 percent health care payroll tax on businesses, while slapping taxpayers with a 2.2 percent “premium” based on income.

“The comments that Senator Sanders has made… don’t just affect me, I can take that, but he’s criticized President Obama for taking donations from Wall Street”.

Clinton shot back that Sanders has been inconsistent on what he wants though, asking if he supported “the plan you just introduced tonight or the plan you introduced nine times in the Congress”.

In one of the most fiery moments of the night, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders went head to head over health care and Clinton’s accusation that Sanders wants to dismantle Obamacare.

“We have the Affordable Care Act”.

Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders lauded the weekend implementation of the Iran nuclear deal, though each said that Iran would have to continue to prove itself before the USA should normalize relations.

Clinton’s hard-hitting approach to Sanders came as she sought to prevent a potential repeat of eight years ago, when she saw her comfortable lead in national polls collapse amid a tidal-wave-like surge by then-U.S. Sen.

Clinton’s case for tougher gun control also aimed to put her on the same side as Obama, who recently signed executive orders aimed at addressing a spate of shootings, including a deadly rampage last summer at a Charleston church, a few blocks from the debate hall.

And Clinton wryly congratulated Sanders for flip-flopping on a proposal she has advanced to end gun makers’ immunity from lawsuits. “I don’t get personal speaking fees from Goldman Sachs”, he said, noting that Clinton has accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars for addressing the bank. “I think the reason that the Clinton campaign is getting defensive is they see that we have the momentum”, Sanders said on NBC’s “Meet the Press“. The South Carolina Democratic Party is predominantly composed of African Americans, the backbone of the Democratic Party and a key Clinton constituency. With Sanders moving up in Iowa and New Hampshire, the central focus of the Clinton campaign is attacking the Vermont senator.

But, for all the passion and raised voices, it seemed unlikely that either Clinton or Sanders changed the dynamic of their race, which has them fighting tooth and nail in the first two states. Sander’s American dream may be popular in the largely white Iowa and New Hampshire, but until he can prove himself to minority populations, his dreams of becoming president are black and white while Clinton’s are in technicolor.

“He voted to let guns go onto the Amtrak, guns go into national parks”. African-Americans are an important demographic to win in SC, the third primary on February 20.

“Now it’s the scramble to see which demographics they’re going to be missing”, she said.

Clinton stated she would lean on her husband and ask for his ideas and advice in the White House.

Clinton proposed a “three-point plan” of three things the United States is already doing.