Thursday, April 14, 2016
BROOKLYN, N.Y. (AP)
Two Democratic presidential candidates who can each claim a home-field advantage brought an increasingly feisty and personal battle to a Brooklyn debate stage Thursday, with Sen. Bernie Sanders seeking to loosen Hillary Clinton’s grip on the front-runner’s mantle days before the campaign’s biggest delegate prize to date.
From the debate’s opening moments, the two sharply went after each other’s chief vulnerabilities.
“I question her judgment,” Sanders said of Clinton, pointing to her vote in favor of giving President George W. Bush authority to go to war in Iraq.
“She is so dependent on big money interests,” he added, attacking Clinton’s reliance on a super PAC that has paid for advertisements and other campaign activities supporting her.
“This is not just an attack on me; it is an attack on President Obama,” Clinton shot back, drawing boos from Sanders supporters in the audience. “President Obama had a super PAC when he ran,” she said, adding that he nonetheless pushed legislation to rein in Wall Street.
“This is a phony attack that is designed to raise questions when there is no evidence,” she said.