MILWAUKEE, Feb. 11 (UPI) — Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders went at each other early and often Thursday night in the Democratic presidential debate in Milwaukee.
Moderators’ first questions focused on the size of government under a President Clinton or a President Sanders, but both candidates eagerly jumped into the fray, fighting it out over healthcare.
“It would probably increase the size of the federal government by about 40 percent,” Clinton said of Sanders’ Medicare-for-all proposal.
“I don’t know what economists Secretary Clinton is talking to,” Sanders fired back, doubling down on his plan in which families would pay an extra $500 a year in taxes, but save $5,000 on health insurance.
“I think the American people deserve to know specifically how this would work,” she replied, hammering Sanders on specifics. “If you have Medicare for all then you don’t have the Affordable Care Act.”
The testy exchange — like many they’ve had in past debates — set the tone for the night, as the two tried to differentiate themselves from one another.
How did they appeal to black and Hispanic voters?
The next primary contests take place in Nevada and South Carolina where the Hispanic and black votes will be major factors. Both candidates made overtures to both groups, as expected. Clinton got there first, though, mentioning African Americans, immigrants and women in her opening remarks.
Criminal justice reform took up a large part of the first half of the debate.
“A male African American baby born today stands a one-in-four chance of ending up in jail. That is beyond unspeakable,” Sanders said when asked what he would do to cut down on mass incarceration. “I would hope that we can all agree that we are sick and tired of seeing videos on television of unarmed people, often African Americans, being shot by police officers.
“At the end of my first term as president, we will not have more people in jail than any other country.”
Just like in the last debate, Clinton agreed with much of what Sanders had to say on the topic.
“We have to restore policing that will actually protect the communities that officers are sworn to protect,” she said, adding that another problem was “systemic racism in this state, as in others, in education, in employment.”
Both were asked if President Barack Obama had done enough to improve race relations in America. Clinton disagreed with the premise of the question.
“I think what President Obama did was to exemplify the importance of this issue,” she said.
Sanders remained consistent with his message of solving income inequality, providing living wages and jobs.
“I think when you give low-income kids the opportunities to get their lives together, they are not going to end up in jail, they are going to end up in a productive economy,” he said.
On whether white Americans had reason to be resentful of the government, Clinton said the feeling was understandable, given rates of alcoholism and addiction among poor white communities.
“I’m going to do everything I can to address distressed communities, whether they’re white communities, communities of color,” she said
Sanders once again said his agenda to combat income inequality would solve many problems facing those communities.
Sanders got a follow up question: when it comes to President Obama’s actions on immigration, would Sanders go further? He didn’t hesitate.
“The answer is yes. We’ve got 11 million undocumented people in this country,” he said. “If Congress does not do the right thing, we use the executive powers of the president.”
When it came to the recent deportation raids: “I disagree with his recent deportation policies, and I would not support those,” Sanders said.
Clinton was up next.
“We should be deporting criminals, not hardworking immigrant families,” she said. “I was one of the original sponsors of the DREAM Act.”
Sanders struck at Clinton, bringing up the wave of unaccompanied minors who came into the United States from Central America two years ago, children Clinton said should be sent back.
“I made it very clear that those children needed to be processed appropriately,” she responded. “We had to send a message to families not to send their children up here.”
Sanders retorted that children should not be used to send messages.
How did they appeal to women?
Clinton was asked why women under 30 overwhelmingly voted for Sanders during the New Hampshire primary.
“I have spent my entire adult life working to make sure women have the right to make their own choices, even if that choice is not to vote for me,” she joked.
Sanders explained his support among young women: “I have a lifetime 100 percent pro-choice voting record,” as well as support for a bill to ensure equal pay for women currently in the Senate.
Sanders was asked whether he worried he may thwart the nation’s first female president.
“I think a Sanders victory would be of some historical accomplishment as well,” he said.
Clinton responded that she doesn’t want people to vote for her just because she’s a woman, but because she believes herself to be the most qualified candidate. She touted her endorsements from Planned Parenthood Action Fund and NARAL.
Sanders chimed in: “All over this country we have Republican candidates saying they hate the government,” he said. “When it comes to a woman having to make a very personal choice … then my Republican colleagues love the government.”
“If that’s not hypocrisy, I don’t know what is,” he added.
How did they appeal to seniors?
Sanders also spoke on how he would improve the lot of low income seniors.
“A great nation like ours should not be in a position where seniors are cutting their pills in half,” he said. “If elected president, I will do everything I can to expand social security benefits not just for seniors but for disabled veterans as well.”
Clinton pointed out that women on social security were at higher risk, particularly widowed women.
“I want to start by helping those people who are most at risk,” she said.
Both favored pouring more revenue into the trust fund in the coming years.
How do they see Obama’s legacy?
One key contrast between the two is how they view themselves as potential successors to Obama. Sanders was more willing to point out areas where he disagreed with Obama, reminding the audience that he and the president were friends and that Obama campaigned for Sanders in Vermont during Sanders’ senate race. Clinton, on the other hand, disparaged Sanders for critical remarks he made about the president.
“I don’t think he gets the credit he deserves,” she said, implying it was unbecoming for a senator to criticize the president.
“Madam secretary, that is a low blow,” Sanders said. “Have you ever disagreed with a president? I suspect you may have.”
Clinton doubled down, pointing to Sanders’ previous calls for the next president to be better at bringing people together, saying such a statement was critical of Obama.
“One of us ran against Barack Obama, I was not that candidate,” Sanders said, getting the last word.
BOTH PARTIES EMBRACE ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, EXCEPT FOR DONALD TRUMP.
If you are not sick of listening to the pro-illegal immigrant liars by now, as I sure am and so are millions of American citizens and lawful immigrants. For years they have been trying to brain wash us, thinking that we cannot tell the difference between a immigrant that played the processing game of inspection, FBI investigation, medical and biographic information that Identifies an individual as a honest immigrant and not an ILLEGAL ALIEN?
What we have now is an illegal alien invasion with the compliments of King Obama. Since his inception he has done nothing but to hinder immigration laws, and sidetracked the Congress in his effort to offer millions of illegal aliens’ Sanctuary. Now we are not talking about the rise in ‘Sanctuary Cities’ or as we have just been educated, that Federal ICE agents are prohibited from raiding California schools? So says that brainless governor ‘Moonbeam’ Brown. I believe it’s a bunch of nonsense and very suspicious that ICE cannot go into schools, to check on which children are the progeny of illegal alien’s parents. The Los Angeles educational system is crammed with offspring of illegal aliens, with the teachers having to follow the law by teaching them English. My son who has Autism was in a school that should have been flying the Mexican flag. I left Los Angeles to protect my son from this incursion of an awful education system suppressed for a surge in illegal alien children.
This is the main reason I am voting for Donald Trump, whereas other nominees will have to conform to what there wealthy donors want from them at a later date? There allegiance will be to the money men who have paved the way for Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton, Cruz, Rubio and those left on the political podium. All are seeking the presidency and will be able to veto anything that the veiled figure behind the lobbyists, doesn’t covet. It was just like Hillary Clinton who handed out government contracts, to foreign governments for speaking engagements of furtive hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The GOP professional classes have bombarded Donald Trump with the Super PACs, but none of it influences ME and millions of other supporters. I think the only way they can fix the primaries of any ongoing solution is something like Senator Ted Cruz used on Ben Carson. Nothing is going to wrench me from my goal, my family and an enough friends and neighbors. Listen to the torment in the population voices caused by both the Democrats and the Republicans have forced upon us terrible policies and always need more and more taxes. So what has any American, especially on the lower pay scale ever received with their pledges, a lot of nothing. The pledges I remember of a double layer fence at the Southern Border to stop the invasion came to nothing, killed by a Rep. Kay Bailey Hutchinson. Or building a digital barrier at all entry ports was never installed, and interior enforcement of using E-Verify more or less fizzled away and compliance was never mandated and that ended up optional.
Both parties have no more excuses for dismal enforcement at the US/Mex border. Trump is completely different who opened his first debates to build the wall, thereby cutting off a 1000 miles of easy entrance to any frontier state, bearing their drugs loads and unknown numbers of uneducated peasants adding to our already overwhelmed Social Services and now a National Security risks from drug gangs conveying dangerous middle easterners and transporting this deadly cargo through Obama lax enforcement.
The political morons behind the buying and selling of votes hate Trump, because for the first time in many decades they have no fulcrum to bribe him, blackmail him or instituting any despicable tactic.
It’s all adjoined from illegal immigration to pacify corporate profiteers, with cheap labor and as Trump stated in one of his debates its ‘corporate Inversion.’ Trump was inside the Washington corruption cycle’ so he has the experience of knowing how to handle inside of how the Capitol works? As I once said before that our government gave funds to large companies to move overseas and rebuild their plants in places as Mexico. Then the goods completely free of any tariffs return to America making huge profits for importers, and all we end up with $500 billion deficit from places as China. We just do not have that level playing field that the lawmakers are always talking about. Trump knows all this and he will renegotiate with every country so we have a fair free trade and not what we have now. Huge companies who flew the coop to foreign nations and Mexico will return bring the jobs that were stolen from us and trillions of dollars hidden away, will arrive back into our country.
Trump knows what he is talking about and with his professional, educated friends and other advisors I am aware of what he is capable of, which is wholly indifferent to the political puppets of big business who sold us to foreign governments in poorly negotiated Free Trade agreements that has cost us hundreds of billions in deficits each year.
Ending the illegal immigration will benefit every American, as Trump is determined to deport them all. They came here illegally and therefore there should be no consideration after violating the law. Like other industrialized nation we have the opportunity to introduce a uniform for foreign workers program, not the chaos we have now. A work permit would be issued for likely one year, but if they deviate from the job they were accepted for they are liable for deportation. With Obama gone from any influence of digressing from immigration law, new amendments such as new immigrants considered on their skills as whether they are important to America’s future, such as STEM workers invaluable to business owners, but only if there is a vacancy a citizen or prior lawful immigrant cannot fill?
Trumps wall construction of one thousand miles, will be the first installment to his term in office, followed by strong interior enforcement and with hope the Supreme Court reevaluating the Birthright Citizenship Act. An amendment is all that is required, and billions of dollars supporting illegal alien parents through their children. Those billions of dollars should be going to our Senior Citizens and Veterans, as without them there would be no United States of America.
Just shows you that FACEBOOK is also a political thing and that I was perpetually banned from communicating with millions of Donald Trump supporters. Didn’t even get a warning from FACEBOOK.? So remember people there is no ‘FREE SPEECH’ on FACEBOOK, You cannot talk to anybody, no way to contact them by phone; just a simple box, where you can write your grievance. I guess FACEBOOK doesn’t like my political affiliation, I had thousands of people who liked my comments, but the CEO Mark Zuckerberg • Eduardo Saverin • Dustin Moskovitz • Andrew McCollum • Chris Hughes have censored me. Thank heavens for Twitter. Don’t dare even utter anything positive about Donald Trump, as you could be dropped as well from FACEBOOK?