It’s not quite Donald Trump versus Ted Cruz, but Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton exchanged their sharpest shots so far Sunday as they prepare to compete for Democratic support in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Ahead of a Sunday night debate, Clinton faulted Sanders on guns and healthcare. Sanders took aim at Clinton on Wall Street ties and her early support for the Iraq War.
Defending an ad from his campaign that faults Clinton, without naming her, for ties to Wall Street, Sanders said it is fair to suggest the former New York senator is influenced by her support from banks.
“People, in selecting a president of the United States, have got to take a hard look at their entire careers and where they get their funding from,” Sanders said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday. “There is no great secret: Hillary Clinton has received a lot of money from Wall Street and other very powerful special interests. I receive virtually all of my money from small, individual contributors.”
“Let’s not be naive,” the Vermont senator said. “There is a reason why powerful special interests make contributions to candidates.”
“I’ll let people determine whose side she is on and whose side I am on,” he said.
Clinton has argued she would be a more effective regulator of Wall Street than Sanders. She said Sunday she has received more campaign donations from teachers and students than bankers.
The former secretary of state, smiling, said on “Face the Nation” that Sanders “flipped-flopped” on gun laws by announcing Saturday that he supports a bill revoking immunity that gun-makers and sellers enjoy from lawsuits. Sanders voted for the bill in 2005. He also defended that vote last year.
Clinton urged Sanders to also “flip-flop in the right direction” on other gun control proposals, which she said reflect a consensus in the country on ending what she called loopholes in gun laws.
Clinton also elaborated on her attacks on Sanders’ proposal to create a single-payer healthcare system administered by states. She suggested Sanders, who has not released details of his plan, has left it unclear if Americans who have gained health insurance under the the Affordable Care Act could keep it.
Sanders scoffed at that criticism, saying he has fought throughout his career to expand healthcare coverage. He said Clinton is parroting misleading GOP attacks over the cost of his proposal.
“It bothers me a little bit,” he said. “I’m hearing too much of it from the Clinton campaign.”
Sanders conceded he lacks Clinton’s foreign policy experience, but dimissed the importance of that background.
Sanders said he voted against and helped lead opposition to the invasion of Iraq, which he called one the worst foreign policy mistakes in American history. Clinton voted to authorize the invasion.
“It’s not just experience,” that matters, he said. “It is judgement.”
