WATERLOO, Iowa — With three weeks to go before the caucuses, Hillary Clinton made the first of two Monday stops amid new polling showing rival Bernie Sanders surging in Iowa. The Vermont socialist senator was clearly in her sights.
“I have two very worthy opponents,” Clinton said about Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who’s been unable to gain traction at all in the race thus far.
“People that I’ve known, people that I’ve served with, people that I respect,” Clinton said, before adding that the differences are “nothing like the Republicans — heavens.”
“I will defend the Affordable Care Act, and I will work to improve it because I think it was a great accomplishment … But I know we have to make improvements,” Clinton said, pointing to rising out-of-pocket costs and her hope to take on the drug companies over escalating prices.
“Now I just have a difference with Sen. Sanders. He has a different plan,” Clinton said, referring to single-payer healthcare and allowing states to experiment with healthcare.” Turning over yours and mine health insurance to governor — like Terry Branstad. I don’t believe, one that we should be starting over. We had enough of a fight just to get to the Affordable Care Act … But I sure don’t want to turn over healthcare to Republican governors for heaven’s sake.”
Over the past week, Clinton has been trying to further distinguish herself from Sanders as he creeps up in the polls in the Hawkeye State. The Clinton campaign blasted out an email to their press lists bashing Sanders’ 2005 vote to give immunity to gun manufacturers, which protected them from lawsuits.
Clinton repeated her attacks during Monday’s event.
“I will continue to fight against the gun lobby,” Clinton said, adding that she was “very proud” of President Obama’s recently announced executive action to enhance background checks online and at gun shows.
“I believe this is another one of those significant differences between me and Sen. Sanders,” Clinton said. “The most important legislation, according to the NRA … was whether or not to give the gun industry, the manufacturers and the sellers liability from any accountability.”
“There was a vote in the Congress: Do we give the gun lobby, the manufacturers and the sellers, absolute immunity from any liability or accountability,” Clinton said, noting that she and then-Sen. Obama voted no. “Sen. Sanders voted yes. That is a big difference between us because I believe we have to stand with President Obama now and build a popular outcry so people are saying we can do better — because you know what? We can.”
Clinton’s attempts to contrast her record with Sanders was not lost on attendees with only 21 days to go until caucus day. One undecided caucus-goer said that while Clinton’s differences on the issues were important, electability is the key issue.
“Like so many of us, we really like a lot of what Sen. Sanders talks about and where he’s at on these issues. We’re fairly progressive” said Tom Pounds, 68, of Cedar Falls. “The biggest concern that we have is despite what we both see in some of these polls, we’re really concerned with electability … where the support’s going to come from and where the independents will probably be in the general [election].”
Pounds, who said he caucused for Obama in 2008 but is leaning toward Clinton this time around, also argued that terrorism and national security is an issue front-and-center as the situation in the Middle East continues to escalate. Other voters like Clinton’s specificity on how she plans to pay for her campaign proposals.
“What I like about Hillary is she has ideas for where the money’s going to come from for some of her ideas,” said Teresa Fagerlind, 66, who admitted that she’d never heard of Sanders before the 2016 race. “When I’ve seen what the other candidate — well, Bernie Sanders. He has these ideas but he doesn’t say where the money is going to come from.”
Clinton is set to participate in the Brown and Black Forum at Drake University in Des Moines on Monday night, with a full slate of campaign events in Iowa slated for Tuesday.
