Sharpest debate yet for Clinton, Sanders in tight race

Clinton and Sanders fiercely sparred over the latter’s former ties with Wall Street during Thursday night’s fifth Democratic presidential debate. She has been grappling with how to deal with the repeated questions from Sanders and others about her ties to Wall Street.

Clinton garnered 44% to Sanders’ 42%, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Friday.

That charge set Clinton off – and she responded by accusing Sanders of using a “very artful smear” to suggest that the contributions have influenced her views.

Contracts for Clinton’s paid speeches generally included confidentiality clauses that would require both parties to consent to the release of their contents.

Clinton was booed after she charged Sanders with a smear campaign. Sanders had to admit “that Secretary Clinton, who was Secretary of State for four years, has more experience – that is not arguable – in foreign affairs”.

Despite the fact the Democratic party has prided itself on remaining civilized, respectful, and what it considers to be cordial in comparison to their Republican counterparts this election season, Clinton and Sanders definitely ushered in a new chapter of rivalry last night.

That was a wild swing from a mid-December Quinnipiac poll that found Clinton leading 61% to 30% nationally over Sanders.

The Hillary Clinton campaign at last opened a state headquarters in Houston on Thursday, with a new state senator endorsement. Clinton’s team was stunned by Sanders’ near-victory in Iowa. Dean said. “I don’t hear anybody asking Bernie Sanders for his transcripts for some speech he made with a labor union”.

On the Republican side, Donald Trump continued to lead the field with 40 percent support.

He channeled his take on the Clinton email scandal from the first Democratic debate, when he said the American people are sick and exhausted of hearing about Clinton’s “damn emails”, but this time around kept it a bit more PG-13. After he’s repeatedly called out Hillary Clinton on her endorsement from Goldman Sachs, the former First Lady still doesn’t have a clear answer as to why she accepted $675,000 from the company along the campaign trail.

Over the past week, Sanders has been challenging Clinton’s record as a progressive (she’s only one on “some days”, he said).

“I do not accept the belief that the United States of America can’t do that”, Sanders said of his plan for universal health care and of his efforts to take on “the rip-offs of the pharmaceutical industry”. “We have to look at the threats that we face right now”.

Most voters would still place money on Clinton securing the Democratic nomination, but with Sanders’ momentum, they would perhaps not wager quite as much.