Democratic presidential hopefuls clash in heated debate ahead of primaries

Presidential race: Bernie Sanders, right, and Hillary Clinton came to blows during the liveliest Democratic TV debate so far
AP
Michael Howie18 January 2016

The Democratic race for the White House exploded into life last night as Bernie Sanders went on the attack against favourite Hillary Clinton in a televised debate only two weeks before primary voting begins.

The Vermont senator accused front-runner Mrs Clinton of being in the pocket of financial institutions responsible for the 2008 crisis, casting himself as the outsider who would lead a political revolution.

Mrs Clinton attacked Mr Sanders for repeatedly voting with the powerful gun lobby and criticised his health care plans in what was the liveliest Democratic TV debate so far - the last before Iowa’s caucuses launch the nominating race on February 1.

The battle over who is best suited to lead Democrats in the November election was given added urgency with Mr Sanders’ recent surge in opinion polls.

Perhaps the biggest punches were landed by Mr Sanders on the self-styled democratic socialist’s position on Wall Street reform.

He painted Mrs Clinton as a defender of the status quo who accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees as a former secretary of state from Wall Street backers.

“I don’t take money from big banks. I don’t get personal speaking fees from Goldman Sachs,” the senator said, adding, “I have huge doubts when people receive money from Wall Street.”

He referred to his rising poll numbers in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, where he has pulled alongside or ahead of his rival. He said he believed he could grow his support further by attracting more African-American voters.

Noting that Mrs Clinton was 50 percentage points ahead of him when his presidential campaign began, he added: “Guess what: In Iowa, New Hampshire, the race is (now) very, very close.”

Just hours before the debate, Mr Sanders released his health care plan, using his opening statement to call for health care “for every man, woman and child as a right.”

It would see citizens pay what he called “a 2.2 per cent income-based premium” towards healthcare. Companies would pay an extra 6.2 per cent of an employee’s income towards the plan.

Mrs Clinton suggested the plan would impose a heavier tax burden on the middle class.

She also rapped Mr Sanders for voting repeatedly with the powerful gun lobby, and then welcomed his weekend reversal of position to support legislation that would deny gun manufacturers legal immunity.

Mr Sanders called her assertion that he kowtowed to the gun lobby “very disingenuous”.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in