BROOKLYN BRAWLERS
Hil and Bernie slug it out in raucous debate Daily News panel breaks down who won
HILLARY CLINTON came to Thursday’s Democratic debate armed with the Daily News to take on rival Bernie Sanders over his positions on Wall Street, guns and whether he has what it takes to occupy the Oval Office.
The highly contentious and spirited debate at the Brooklyn Navy Yard broadcast by CNN and NY1 turned into an old-fashioned donnybrook with each candidate going after the other aggressively as they jockeyed for position just days before the state’s primary on Tuesday.
Time and time again, Clinton used Sanders’ own words against him, repeatedly pointing to the transcript of his April 1 interview with the New York Daily News Editorial Board as evidence that he simply wasn’t prepared to lead the country, carry out his campaign’s central promises and take on the gun lobby.
“He voted for the most important NRA priority,” Clinton said, referring to Sanders’ 2005 vote in Congress in support of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which protects gun manufacturers from most lawsuits stemming from illegal use of their products.
“Then he doubled down on that in the New York Daily News interview,” she continued, pointing to the transcript of the Vermont senator’s sitdown with New York’s Hometown Newspaper.
“When asked whether he would support the Sandy Hook parents suing to try to do something to rein in the advertising of the AR-15, which is advertised to young people as being a combat weapon, killing on the battlefield, he said they didn’t deserve their day in court” — a reference to efforts by the families of the December 2012 Newtown, Conn., shooting to sue the manufacturer of the weapon used in the massacre.
“We hear a lot from Sen. Sanders about the greed and recklessness of Wall Street, but what about the greed and recklessness of gun manufacturers and dealers in America?” she added in a response punctuated by loud cheering.
Asked whether he owed the
Sandy Hook families an apology, Sanders gruffly responded in the negative.
“No, I don’t think I owe them an apology,” he said, prompting some booing, and another Clinton retort.
“This is a unique gift given to only one industry in the world . . . by the U.S. Congress,” she said.
The exchange came just hours after a Connecticut judge ruled against dismissing a lawsuit by families of the Newtown killings.
Clinton also ripped into Sanders over his perceived inability to explain how he would break up large
financial institutions deemed “too big to fail” — one of his most prominent campaign promises — and she again cited The News in doing so.
“But if you go and read, which I hope all of you will before Tuesday, Sen. Sanders’ long interview with the New York Daily News, talk about judgment and talk about the kinds of problems he had answering questions about even his core issue, breaking up the banks. When asked, he could not explain how,” Clinton railed after being asked to respond to Sanders’ claim that she was unqualified to be President.
“When asked about a number of foreign policy issues, he could not answer about Afghanistan, about Israel, about counterterrorism, except to say if he’d had some paper in front of him, maybe he could. I think you need to have the judgment on day one to be both President and commander-in-chief,” Clinton said, prompting more cheering.
As loud as Clinton and Sanders grew at times Thursday night, the excited — and divided — crowd, grew louder, playing a boisterous role over the course of the ampedup event.
But Clinton’s vigorous offensive Thursday failed to throw Sanders off his game. He quickly shot back, taking aim at Clinton’s acceptance of money from special interests, lucrative speeches to Goldman Sachs and her support for the 2003 Iraq War.
“Let us talk about the worst foreign policy blunder in the modern history of this country,” he said. “And do we really feel confident about a candidate saying that she’s going to bring change in America when she is so dependent on bigmoney interests?”