The Democratic presidential debates have generally been uneventful affairs. The first one featured few confrontations between the candidates, the second had a low viewership because it was on a Saturday night.
The Democrats hold their third presidential debate on a Saturday night too, but there are a few reasons this one could have some fireworks.
Is the DNC favoring Hillary Clinton?
The scheduling and small number of debates has led to complaints that the Democratic National Committee is trying to keep Hillary Clinton’s challengers from gaining media attention. But that’s nothing compared to Bernie Sanders’ lawsuit against the DNC, announced just the day before the debate.
On Friday the Sanders campaign sued DNC for withholding crucial voter database information from their campaign, after the DNC accused the Sanders campaign of breaching a code of conduct and viewing data belonging to the Clinton campaign. While the Sanders campaign admitted to this misstep, they blamed it on a technology problem from the DNC-contracted software company.
Both the DNC and the Clinton campaign accuse the Sanders campaign of wrongdoing, but the Vermont socialist’s supporters believe it is another example of party favoritism. A top Sanders aide called this an “active attempt to undermine our campaign.”
In response, the Clinton campaign blamed Sanders for a “disturbing” “act of theft,” and called on the candidate to undergo a complete audit on his campaign until the source of the problem was revealed. The two candidates, who have rarely argued on the campaign trail, will undoubtedly take the fight to the stage Saturday night.
Clinton goes after the GOP
The Clinton campaign’s press call criticizing the Sanders camp Friday was one of the few times the front-runner has spoken of one of her primary opponents for more than thirty seconds. Her would-be Republican opponents have had no such luck
Clinton has regularly gone after her Republican rivals on gun control, immigration, abortion and healthcare reform. She has argued that they are out of the mainstream on the environment. She has contended that her experience as secretary of state better prepares her to deal with national security threats after the Paris attack and the San Bernardino shootings. When that fails, she has one ace in the hole.
Clinton likens the entire GOP to Trump
Since Donald Trump has spoken out on immigration, most recently with a proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States, Clinton has seized the opportunity to say his views represent the whole Republican Party.
Last week, Clinton released a video entitled “The 2016 Republican field: extremists across the board,” in which she documented what she described as “the entire Republican field’s attitudes of intolerance.” In addition to the video, her campaign released a quiz that says “Trump’s fellow candidates might try to distance themselves from him — but when it comes to hateful rhetoric, it’s difficult to tell the difference between the Republicans running for president.”
Clinton has also began fundraising off Trump’s comments, encouraging supporters to donate to receive “Love trumps hate” bumper stickers.
Expect all these themes to continue Saturday night.
Sanders, Clinton and underdog Martin O’Malley will face off at 8:00 p.m. EST from St. Anslem’s College in Manchester, N.H., on ABC.
