Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Gun control tops Democrats’ debate
U.S. security, data tap also issues for hopefuls
MANCHESTER, N.H. — Seeking to quell a burgeoning controversy, Bernie Sanders apologized to Hillary Clinton and his own supporters Saturday night for a data breach that allowed his campaign to access her team’s valuable information about voters.
Sanders explained what he knew about the data breach and offered an apology to Clinton and to his supporters for letting them down.
“This is not the type of campaign that we run,” Sanders said in the opening moments of the third Democratic debate. Still, he slammed the Democratic National Committee for briefly cutting off his campaign’s access to its voter files, calling it an “egregious act.” He also promised to fire anyone else involved in stealing such information.
Clinton quickly accepted the apology from Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont who is her closest rival in the Democratic race.
“We should move on because I don’t think the American people are interested in this,” said Clinton, the former secretary of state.
Indeed, the debate moved quickly to national security and gun control, as the candidates tackled questions about terrorism in the wake of this month’s attack in San Bernardino, Calif.
The shootings, as well as earlier attacks in Paris, have pushed national security to the forefront of the 2016 White House race.
“Arming more people to do what … I think is not the appropriate response to terrorism,” Clinton said.
Candidate Martin O’Malley, a former Maryland
governor, went hard after Clinton and Sanders, accusing them of not being consistent advocates for gun control.
“Excuse me,” Sanders responded. “Do not tell me that I have not shown courage in standing up to the gun people.” Clinton went after Sanders for his past record on guns, which has concerned some gun-control advocates. She said she was pleased to see he has “moved” in the face of the facts. The exchange stood in sharp contrast to the Republican debates, in which there has been virtually no talk about tightening gun laws.
DATA BREACH
The data breach sparked strong reactions from Sanders and Clinton staff members during what has been a relatively civil Democratic primary season, particularly compared with the Republican race.
The Democratic National Committee maintains a trove of voter information. The campaigns can add to that database — information they use to target voters and anticipate what issues might motivate them.
In Clinton’s case, campaign manager Robby Mook said that information included “fundamental parts of our strategy.” Clinton aides said four Sanders workers reviewed information in 25 separate searches that included details on voter turnout and candidate preferences, revealing the Clinton campaign’s approach in early primary-season states such as Iowa and New Hampshire.
Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver accused party leaders Friday of actively undermining the Vermont senator by imposing a sanction that could seriously damage his campaign.
The concerns follow complaints by Sanders and O’Malley that the Democratic National Committee has been protecting Clinton by limiting the number of presidential debates and holding three of the debates on weekends, when voters are less likely to be home watching television.
Sanders’ campaign fired a worker involved in the data breach, and Weaver admitted that the worker’s actions were “unacceptable.” But the campaign
rejected the allegations the Sanders’ team stole data, and it sued the Democratic National Committee to regain access to the voter information. Sanders’ campaign said its access was restored early Saturday morning.
While Saturday night’s debate started on a cordial note, the candidates did not hold back on highlighting their differences. O’Malley repeatedly injected himself into the discussion, scolding Clinton and Sanders over their records on gun control and painting himself as the true progressive on the stage. “Secretary Clinton changes her position on this every election year it seems,” O’Malley said. “What we need on this issue is not more polls, we need more principle.”
On national security, the candidates all issued their prescriptions for fighting the Islamic State group. None of them offered policy solutions that are significantly different from that of the Obama administration. Clinton reiterated her three-pronged plan to launch an aggressive U.S.-led campaign backing Arab and Kurdish ground forces. She also stressed a need for more intelligence sharing.
All three candidates stressed working more closely with Muslim-American communities to tackle radicalism at home. Sanders sought to stand out on foreign policy by noting his anti-Iraq war stance in 2003. He said he does not support any “unilateral military action” but rather a coalition in which the U.S. works hand in hand with Muslim nations to fight the radical militant group.
One thing that the three candidates did agree on was their opposition to Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate who is leading in most polls. They all argued that his policy of banning immigration of foreign Muslims would only lead to more violence.
“Mr. Trump has a great capacity to use bluster and bigotry to inflame people and make them think there are very easy answers to complex questions,” Clinton said. “He is becoming ISIS’ best recruiter.”