Clinton, Sanders trade jabs at sixth Democratic debate

Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has clashed repeatedly with rival Bernie Sanders in a TV debate, two days after her humiliating defeat to him in New Hampshire.

Clinton’s presidential run is being supported by wealthy donors in ways that Sanders’ is not.

“This is the beginning of the campaign” and “for my brother to speak on behalf of the skills I have to lead this country will be quite helpful”, he said.

“It will be over our dead bodies if you cut Social Security”, Sanders says on-camera to a town-hall meeting of supporters.

“That is a low blow”, Sanders said, saying he had worked with the president throughout the past seven years. “Do senators have the right to disagree with the president?”

SANDERS: “There’s not one Republican candidate for president who agrees that climate change is real”.

Sanders had just scored a resounding victory over Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire primary when his camp released a new ad on the power of standing together.

Even so, the restrained exchange on Thursday was unlikely to change the trajectory of a race that has intensified dramatically over two weeks.

Sanders also rejected Clinton’s suggestion that he was not fully supportive of Obama.

And until late in the debate it appeared as if her strategy was not to bash Sanders, but in patient and measured and practical tones, critique his plans as unrealistic and one-dimensional. She said Sanders’ proposal was a “promise that can’t be kept”.

Yet, Sanders won’t go there.

About 4,000 people attended the event (which was sold out), WCCO reports, with the Minnesota DFL hoping to have raised about $1 million.

Clinton is going to rely heavily on those voters in the coming contests, and she needs to prevent them from bleeding over to Sanders as he picks up momentum coming out of New Hampshire.

“So, let’s not in anyway imply here that either President Obama or myself, would in anyway not take on any vested interest, whether it’s Wall Street, or drug companies, or insurance companies, or frankly, the gun lobby, to stand up to do what’s best for the american people”, said Clinton. “I’m not asking people to support me because I’m a woman”, Clinton said.

With an eye to on the minority vote, both candidates decried the high incarceration rate of African-Americans and called for broad reforms of the criminal justice system.

“We have to make it clear, any police officer who breaks the law will be held accountable”. She claimed that Sanders had in the past called Obama “weak” and “a disappointment”, a charge that PolitiFact called only half true.

Added Clinton, “The first speech I gave in this campaign back in April was about criminal justice reform and ending the era of mass incarceration”. Both states are known for having almost all-white populations. “I do not expect from someone running for the Democratic nomination to succeed President Obama”. In my view a vote for Mr. Sanders is a vote for Mr. Trump.

Right now, a Democratic socialist has a good chance of beating a former senator and popular secretary of state in the race for the Democratic nomination. “And I think once I’m in the White House we will have enough political capital to be able to do that”.

Baldwin said she thinks it’s important for women to have role models in elected office, “and it’s important to have legislative bodies and, frankly, the president of the United States, do a better job of reflecting America and all of our citizens”. Sanders called Kissinger “one of the most destructive secretaries of state”. Bernie Sanders squared off Thursday in a debate hosted by PBS NewsHour at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.