bern belts hill
Dem rivals B'klyn brawl
Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton went toe-to-toe and blow-to-blow in an old-fashioned Brooklyn donnybrook last night, assailing each other on everything from guns and Wall ll Street money to Iraq q and Israel.
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders wasted no time going negative in Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate — assailing each other’s judgment and qualifications while clashing on the Iraq War, guns, Wall Street money and the minimum wage.
With the New York primary just five days off, Sanders went for Clinton’s political jugular quickly after the showdown began before a boisterous crowd of 1,100 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
“I question a judgment which voted for the war in Iraq, the worst foreign-policy blunder in the his- tory of this country, voted for virtually every disastrous trade agreement, which cost us millions of decent paying jobs, and I question her judgment about running super PACS, which are collecting tens of millions of dollars from special interests, including $15 million from Wall Street,” he said.
Clinton reminded the audience that Sanders had called her “unqualified” to be president.
“Senator Sanders did call me unqualified. I’ve been called a lot of things in my life. That was a first. The people of New York voted for me twice to be their senator, and President Obama trusted my judgment enough to ask me to be secretary of state,” she said.
A nonstop verbal brawl followed for more than two hours, with Clinton giving as good as she got and not losing ground ahead of Tuesday’s primary.
The former first lady played to her base of African-American voters by saying Sanders’ criticisms of her were the same as slamming the Obama administration because he, too, had a super PAC and took tens of millions from contributors.
When the subject arose of Clinton taking big bucks for speeches to Wall Street banks, moderator Wolf Blitzer asked if Sanders could provide an example of an action Clinton took that was influenced by money.
Sanders could not, but gave a rambling answer about the Great Recession and power of large banks.
“He cannot come up with any example because there is no example,” Clinton snapped, adding that she has spoken out about holding banks accountable.
“She called them out. My goodness, they must have been really crushed by this. And was that before or after you received huge sums of money by giving speaking engagements? They must have been very, very upset by what you did,” Sanders shot back sarcastically as his supporters roared.
When he demanded that she produce transcripts of the speeches, she pushed back by questioning when Sanders would release his tax returns — prompting him to say that on Friday, he would issue his 2014 returns.
One of the sharpest exchanges came over the minimum wage — with Sanders essentially accusing Clinton of lying when she said she had always supported raising it to $15 an hour.
“I will work as hard as I can to raise the minimum wage. I always have,” Clinton said, prompting an incredulous response from Sanders.
“I am surprised to learn that you supported raising the minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour,” he cracked, sparking a fierce exchange that led Blitzer to plead for decorum.
When the subject turned to gun control, Clinton hit Sanders for voting against tougher measures.
The audience booed when Sanders stumbled on a question over whether he would support a lawsuit by Sandy Hook families against gun manufacturers.
Finally, after a lengthy explanation, Sanders said he still has reservations about the potential impact on small gun shops in rural areas.
Clinton again apologized for elements of the tough 1994 crime bill signed by President Bill Clinton, decrying the mass in- carceration, especially of young black men, that followed.
But Sanders wouldn’t let her off the hook, recalling how she had called young gang members “super-predators.”
“It was a racist term and everyone knew it was a racist term,” he said.
Another bitter clash came over Israel, with Sanders calling for an “even-handed” approach to Middle East peace efforts.
But Clinton said that was difficult when Israel’s enemies wage unrelenting attacks.
“I don’t know how you run a country when you are under constant attack,” she said.