Clinton and Sanders face off in Democratic debate

Clinton appealed on listeners to vote next Tuesday with “their heart” but also “their head” – and left the door open to considering Sanders as her potential running mate for vice president.

Clinton added that her plan for higher education is more realistic.

Regarding the Affordable Care Act, Sanders said that the notion that he would “dismantle” President Barack Obama’s health care law is inaccurate.

He insisted Clinton can not claim to be both a moderate and a progressive, criticising her for raising $15- million (R238m) from Wall Street – and prompting some of the night’s sharpest exchanges.

The first state-by-state contest, in Iowa on Monday, was won narrowly by Mrs Clinton ahead of Mr Sanders.

“I don’t want to see us start over again with a contentious debate”, she said during a past debate and frequently on the trail.

“Do you think there is a reason why not one Republican has the guts to recognize that climate change is real and we need to transform our energy system?”

Clinton says Sanders has been orchestrating a “very artful smear” against her. She says they should instead be talking about issues affecting the American people. She also forcefully made the case that her track record illustrates she isn’t a tool for special interests. And besides, she added, Wall Street is only part of the problem. Then she took after the Vermont senator for his efforts to cast her as beholden to Wall Street interests because of the campaign donations and speaking fees she’s accepted from the financial sector.

The MSNBC debate saw Clinton and Sanders re-litigating the political disagreements that have percolated among Democrats for years.

The senator said Clinton once called herself a moderate. “That’s what they offered”.

Clinton, in turn, accused her rival of quoting her selectively to diminish her progressive credentials. The reality is that we have a corrupt campaign finance system which separates the American people’s needs and desires from what Congress is doing.

But the Vermont senator showed no sign of going away, particularly in a state that borders his own.

Clinton and Sanders are battling now in New Hampshire, which holds a February 9 primary.

I support Bernie Sanders, not because I believe that Hillary Clinton is a bad candidate. Will it work for Sanders?

And she continues to hit Bernie Sanders back on his history with gun control.

“I’ll look into it. I don’t know the status”, she said.

She voted for the Iraq War, has backed strikes against the Syrian regime and endorsed the intervention in Libya. We must address the fact that, because of Citizens United, a law which allows unlimited corporate spending on USA elections, a handful of billionaires and powerful corporations anonymously manipulate elections to benefit themselves.

“We have to look at the threats that we face right now and we have to be prepared to take them on and defeat them”.

Standing side-by-side on a stage at the University of New Hampshire at Durham, the two were more combative and sometimes slashing toward one another than in their previous four debates, which had included long-shot contenders now out of the race. Will we eventually get a Trump vs. Rubio; Rubio vs. Cruz; Cruz vs. Trump debate?

Although the debate was in front of New Hampshire residents, Sanders was clearly targeting voters across the country.