Hillary Clinton Calls for ‘Spirited Debate’ With Bernie Sanders

At the event, Clinton called Sanders her “friend” but faulted him for not releasing a detailed tax plans just weeks before voting begins.

That’s very different that she – they’re talking about each other now by name, and they’re talking very specifically about issues.

Sitting president Bill Clinton did endorse his vice president, Al Gore, for president in December 1999 before the January Iowa caucus or February New Hampshire primary, but that announcement was not as consequential, considering their relationship between Gore and Clinton as well as Gore’s lack of competitors.

Sanders has faced criticism from gun control advocates for opposing certain gun control measures, which he justifies through representing Vermont, a state with many gun owners.

“It’s time for us to have the kind of spirited debate that you deserve us to have”, Clinton told voters Monday. Sanders would pay for it with a new payroll tax and he accuses Clinton of offering a “vague” way to pay for it.

“It was meant to attack gender stereotypes of the ’70s, but it looks as stupid today as it was then”, Briggs said in May. Biden’s endorsement would be highly coveted by any of the Democratic candidates.

“He was basically a Democrat before he was a Republican”, Clinton explained.

With new polls showing them neck-and-neck in Iowa, Clinton and Sanders both agreed the race was up in the air.

The forum, which was started in 1984, is billed as one of the oldest non-partisan forums for presidential candidates in the nation, though Republicans didn’t participate this year. Iowa’s population is 87.8 percent non-Hispanic white, according to U.S. Census data, but the event’s history drew all three candidates for the Democratic nomination to Des Moines. She leads Sen. Bernie Sanders by a thin 48-45 percent margin, with ex-Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley far behind at 5 percent.

He also said he’s been more progressive than his opponents.

Asked during the forum whether she thinks Sanders is unelectable, she said, “Anybody can win”. Raids are “sowing discord and fear”, she said. But her position means she eliminates daylight with Sanders and O’Malley on the issue.

The fresh poll data, advisers said, put a smile on Sanders’ face. Sanders recently said on ABC News’ “This Week” that the only taxes he will raise on the middle class will be from his paid leave plan.

Sen. Bernie Sanders accused Hillary Clinton of taking an increasingly aggressive stance against him because she’s nervous that he is beating her in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

“He just knows a lot about different details, and I feel like he knows a lot about how to advance the country out of the current state, especially how his motto is ‘the new American century, ‘ which I believe we need to be moving towards one now”, Salutric said.

But when the conversation became focused on whether or not Clinton would specifically deport children, she declined to give a “blanket rule” and emphasized that each case would be dealt with on an individual basis.