Fiery Clinton aims low
LIKENS SANDERS’S VIEW OF OBAMA TO THAT OF REPUBLICANS Race moves to more favourable ground for Hillary.
Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders clashed sharply in a debate on Thursday over their support for President Barack Obama, with Sanders accusing Clinton of “a low blow” after she compared him to Republicans.
As the Democratic race moves to states with large minority populations, both candidates openly courted black and Hispanic votes. In the sharpest exchange of the night, Clinton attacked Sanders for being too critical of Obama, extremely popular with the black voters who will play a big role in the outcome in South Carolina and other upcoming nominating contests.
“The kind of criticism that we’ve heard from Senator Sanders about our president, I expect from Republicans,” said Clinton, who served as secretary of state during Obama’s first term.
“Madam Secretary, that is a low blow,” said Sanders, a US senator from Vermont. Sanders said he had been an Obama ally in the Senate even if he did not always agree with him. Clinton said Sanders had called Obama weak and a disappointment and “that goes further than saying we have our disagreements.”
With Clinton looking to rebound after her crushing 22-point loss to Sanders in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, the two also differed over healthcare and Wall Street.
Clinton accused Sanders of misleading Americans on his healthcare. She said his proposal for a single-payer, Medicare-forall healthcare plan would mean dismantling the programme known as Obamacare and triggering another political struggle.
“Based on every analysis I can find by people who are sympathetic to the goal, the numbers don’t add up,” Clinton said. “That’s a promise that cannot be kept.”
Sanders repeated his accusation that Clinton is too beholden to Wall Street interests, noting her Super PAC received $15 million in donations from Wall Street. Clinton said that did not mean she was in Wall Street’s pocket.
Both candidates decried the high incarceration rate of African-Americans and called for broad reforms of the criminal justice system.
The race moves to what should be more favourable ground for Clinton in Nevada and South Carolina, states with more black and Hispanic voters who, polls show, have been more supportive of Clinton so far. –