CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Bernie Sanders on Saturday said he was sick and tired of Hillary Clinton lying about him.
“Let me say about my opponent, who I have known for 25 years and I have a lot of respect for: I am disappointed by the tone of her campaign,” Sanders said to tremendous applause Saturday night at a rally here in the eastern part of the state. “She is talking to the people of Iowa saying ‘Bernie Sanders wants to dismantle healthcare.’ Dismantle healthcare? I’ve been fighting for universal healthcare my entire life!”
Clinton has responded to Sanders push for a single-payer healthcare system by arguing that the political fight it would trigger would undermine the insurance expansion within President Obama’s healthcare law. She has instead argued for building on the law.
The supporters who filled the small auditorium, estimated at 1,254, booed loudly as Sanders went on to list the former secretary of state’s various put-downs.
“She has run an ad suggesting that I am attacking Planned Parenthood,” he said. “I have a 100 percent voting record for Planned Parenthood! I’m actually in front of her, in that I want to expand funding to Planned Parenthood.”
He added, “In an ad she says I’m protecting the gun lobby. Some protection! I got a D-minus rating from the NRA.”
According to the final Des Moines Register poll of the primary season, released Saturday evening, Sanders and Clinton are within three points of each other (45-42). When Sanders began his campaign, he polled at 3 percent while Clinton was at over 50 percent.
“We want to make certain as Democrats that we do everything we can to make certain that some right-wing Republican doesn’t make it to the White House, it’s true,” Sanders said. “But it is not true to suggest that she will be the strongest candidate in November!”
