Sanders, Clinton debate Thursday ahead of New York’s primary

Raucous crowd cheered and
booed the candidates throughout

NEW YORK — Deepening their increasingly bitter feud, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton aggressively challenged each other’s judgment to be president in Thursday night’s Democratic debate, sparring over Wall Street banks, how high to raise the minimum wage and gun control.

The raucous crowd Thursday night loudly cheered their candidates and occasionally booed their foes. 

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The showdown in Brooklyn came at a pivotal moment in the party’s primary campaign, with Clinton leading in the delegate count but Sanders generating huge enthusiasm for his surprising candidacy. 

The debate also left no doubt that a rivalry that once centered on wonkish policy disagreements has turned strikingly personal.

The Vermont senator took a biting and often sarcastic tone as he sought to chip away at Clinton’s credibility on issue after issue. 

He went as far as to suggest that her labeling of certain criminals as “superpredators” when she was first lady was “a racist term and everybody knew it was a racist term.”

Sanders also cited Clinton’s support for the unpopular Iraq war and for free trade agreements, as well as her willingness to accept money through a super PAC, as evidence that she lacks the needed judgment to lead the nation. 

Clinton repeatedly linked herself to President Barack Obama, who remains popular among Democrats, suggesting Sanders’ criticism of her amounted to condemnation of the president.

Clinton also cast Sanders as a policy lightweight who is unprepared to implement even his signature proposals, including breaking up big banks. 

And she chided Sanders for chuckling during an exchange on gun control, an area where she has painted him as cozy with gun dealers and manufacturers. 

The debate was the first for the Democratic candidates in five weeks. It came ahead of Tuesday’s primary in New York, a high-stakes contest with a huge cache of delegates at stake.

The Democratic primary has been fought for months on familiar terrain. Clinton has cast Sanders’ proposals for breaking up banks and offering free tuition at public colleges and universities as unrealistic. 

Sanders has accused Clinton of being part of a rigged economic and political system, hammering her repeatedly for giving paid speeches to Wall Street banks and refusing to release the transcripts.

Clinton continued to struggle to explain why she has not released the transcripts, saying only that she’ll do so when other candidates are required to do the same. She tried to raise questions about Sanders’ own openness for not releasing his income taxes.

The senator pledged to release his most recent tax returns Friday, and said there would be “no big money from speeches, no major investments” in the disclosures.

The candidates also sparred over raising the federal minimum wage, with Sanders expressing surprise as Clinton, flip-flopped once again, and voiced support for efforts to set the hourly pay rate at $15, the level he has long backed.

“The secretary has confused a lot of people. I don’t know how you’re there for the fight for $15 when you say you want a $12-an-hour national minimum wage,” he said. 

Clinton clarified that while she does support a $12 per hour federal minimum wage, she would sign legislation raising that level to $15.