1-on-1 debate in Granite State
With Dem race tightening, Clinton, Sanders square off
MANCHESTER, N.H. — For the first time in their monthslong battle for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders faced off one-on-one in a nationally televised debate Thursday night.
The meeting occurred days after the combatants finished in a virtual tie in the Iowa caucuses — Clinton claimed the narrowest of victories there — and amid sharp critiques by each candidate of the other’s claim to be the progressive champion. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley dropped out of the race after his poor showing in Iowa, leaving Sanders and Clinton to hone their arguments Wednesday night in a televised town hall in which they appeared separately, answering questions from New Hampshire voters.
Whether to hold Thursday’s debate at all was a point of contention in this new phase of the campaign. Clinton, who trails Sanders in polls in New Hampshire, was quick to agree when MSNBC offered to host a showdown in the run-up to the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary. Sanders and his team wouldn’t commit unless the former secretary of state signed off on additional debates in the months to come.
Those details now worked out — with three more debates expected — Thursday’s confrontation will likely extend the head vs. heart argument that has been at the center of the primary debate in recent weeks: Sanders calls for a political revolution that would extend health care to millions more Americans and level the political playing field, while Clinton pitches what she describes as more realistic and achievable, but less lofty, moves toward progressive ends.
“We share a lot of the same big progressive goals, but we have different ways of going about them,” Clinton said in Wednesday’s town hall, which was hosted by CNN. “Good ideas on paper are important. But you’ve got to be able to translate them into action to get results.”
Sanders attracted Clinton’s ire for suggesting that only “on good days” was she the “progressive” she claims to be. He stood by his assessment Wednesday.
“I do not know any progressive who has a super PAC and takes $15 million from Wall Street,” he said. “The key foreign policy vote of modern American history was the war in Iraq. The progressive community was pretty united in saying ‘don’t listen to Bush, don’t go to war.’ Secretary Clinton voted to go towar.”
In fresh evidence of the tightening race, Clinton reported that her campaign had raised $15 million in January — $5 million less than Sanders and the first time she’s been outraised by him. Her finance director called the numbers “a very loud wake-up call” in a fundraising email to supporters.
The Democratic race could be at a tipping point this week, as both campaigns’ postures show.
Clinton, still the overall favorite in the race, is eager to cut short a potentially costly extended battle. To do so, she wants to deprive the Vermont senator of the momentum he would gain with a big win in New Hampshire.
Despite his lead in New Hampshire polls, Sanders has sought to manage expectations, which have threatened to rise sky-high for him. Despite claims of a home-field advantage for him, he says, Clinton is the one who has campaigned and won here before.
Associated Press contributed.