Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bernie Sanders clashed on gun control, capitalism and foreign policy during Tuesday night’s first Democratic presidential debate — but surprisingly found common ground on the e-mail scandal dogging the former secretary of state’s campaign.
“Let me say something that may not be great politics. But I think the secretary is right, and that is that the American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn e-mails!” the Vermont senator thundered to applause from the audience and laughter from a relieved Clinton.
She quickly chimed in, “Me too! Me too! ” and shook his hand.
“Enough about the e-mails! Let’s talk about the real problems facing America,” Sanders said after Clinton defended herself on an issue that’s been dragging down her poll numbers since summer.
Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ campaign manager, said afterward that his candidate’s response was spontaneous and not planned.
“This was Bernie Sanders being Bernie Sanders,” Weaver said.
Clinton campaign manager John Podesta praised Sanders for coming to the defense of a rival.
“I thought he was quite gracious,” said Podesta.
Sanders kicked off the debate like a campaign rally, calling for a revolution to take back the country from billionaires.
Asked by CNN’s Anderson Cooper if he believed he could be elected president as a socialist, Sanders tried to define his views without giving a direct yes or no answer.
“Democratic socialism is about us saying that it is immoral and wrong that the top one-tenth of 1 percent in this country own almost . . . as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent,” he said.
“We should look to countries like Denmark, like Sweden and Norway, and learn from what they have accomplished for their working people,” Sanders said, citing paid family and medical leave.
Clinton agreed that income inequality needed to be addressed, but scoffed at Sanders’ comparison to the tiny Scandinavian countries.
“We are not Denmark. I love Denmark. We are the United States of America. And it’s our job to rein in the excesses of capitalism so that it doesn’t run amok and doesn’t cause the kind of inequities we’re seeing in our economic system,” Clinton shot back.
The pair also tangled over gun control after Cooper pointed out that Sanders voted against the Brady Bill that mandated background checks.
“This was a large and complicated bill. For example, do I think that a gun shop in the state of Vermont that sells legally a gun to somebody, and that somebody goes out and does something crazy, that that gun shop owner should be held responsible? I don’t,” he said.
Asked if Sanders was tough enough on gun safety, Clinton didn’t hold back.
“No, not at all. I think that we have to look at the fact that we lose 90 people a day from gun violence,” she said.
On Russia’s incursion into the Syrian civil war, Clinton said the United States should not put up with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “bullying.”
“It’s important, too, that the United States make it very clear to Putin that it’s not acceptable for him to be in Syria creating more chaos, bombing people on behalf of [Syrian dictator Bashar] Assad, and we can’t do that if we don’t take more of a leadership position, which is what I’m advocating,” she said.
Sanders said he opposed US “boots on the ground,” a position Clinton echoed.
Sanders also called for rethinking the war on drugs and said he would support legalizing recreational use of marijuana if it were on the ballot, while Clinton said she was not ready to go that far yet, preferring to wait to see how legalization plays out on the state level.
Clinton also ducked when asked by Cooper if she were a flip-flopper for political expediency — including on the Keystone pipeline from Canada.
“I never took a position on Keystone until I took a position on Keystone,” she said in her weakest point in the two-hour debate.
Clinton several times also noted that she would be the first woman elected president.
She scoffed at being called political royalty because her name is Clinton as the country is clamoring for an outsider. “I can’t think of anything more of an outsider than being the first woman president,” she said.
The other candidates, ex-Rhode Island Senator and Governor Lincoln Chafee, former Virginia Sen. James Webb and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, largely took a back seat to the front-runners.
James Webb and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, largely took a back seat to the front-runners.
Former Obama adviser David Axelrod said Clinton’s strong performance left little room for Vice President Biden to enter the race.
“I think this will give him some pause,” Axelrod said.
Additional reporting by Beckie Strum