PHILADELPHIA — Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders finally took the gloves off against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Wednesday night, rattling off a list of reasons she is unqualified for the presidency.
Responding to Clinton’s comments questioning his bonafides for the nation’s highest office, Sanders didn’t hold back before over 10,000 supporters at the Liacouras Center at Temple University, saying Clinton is not “qualified” to hold the White House over her taking of money from special interest groups, her super PAC taking $15 million from Wall Street groups, and her vote for the Iraq War amongst other reasons.
“[Clinton] has been saying lately that she thinks that I am, quote unquote, not qualified to be president,” Sanders started. “Let me just say in response to Secretary Clinton: I don’t believe that she is qualified if she is, through her super PAC, taking tens of millions of dollars in special interest funds. I don’t think you are qualified if you get $15 million from Wall Street through your super PAC. I don’t think you are qualified if you voted for the disastrous war in Iraq.
“I don’t think you are qualified if you’ve supported virtually every disastrous trade agreement, which has cost us millions of decent paying jobs. I don’t think you are qualified if you’ve supported virtually every disastrous trade agreement, which has cost us millions of decent paying jobs,” Sanders railed. “I don’t think you are qualified if you supported the Panama free trade agreement, something I very strongly opposed and which … has allowed corporations and wealthy people all over the world to avoid paying their taxes to their countries.”
Earlier Wednesday after Sanders’ big victory Tuesday in Wisconsin, Clinton questioned Sanders’ readiness for the presidency after a shoddy performance before the New York Daily News editorial board last week, during which he stumbled on multiple questions.
“I think the interview raised a lot of really serious questions,” Clinton said during the interview. “The core of his campaign has been, break up the banks, and it didn’t seem in reading his answers that he understood exactly how that would work under Dodd-Frank, exactly who would be responsible, what the criteria were.”
“That means you can’t really help people if you don’t know how to do what you are campaigning on saying you want to do,” Clinton said.
In fact, Clinton’s name was booed multiple times when Sanders brought it up.
Sanders made the remarks before a packed house at the Philadelphia university, which was forced to turn others away to an overflow gym, which the Vermont socialist addressed prior to taking the stage at the school’s basketball gym. Supporters began standing in line to see Sanders as early as 8 a.m. on Wednesday, with the line stretching at least five blocks long three hours before his event was slated to start.
Sanders spent the entire day campaigning in Philadelphia. Prior to the massive rally, Sanders sat before the Philadelphia Inquirer’s editorial board and took part in a conversation at the Tindley Temple United Methodist Church. It was his second stop in Pennsylvania, having campaigned in Pittsburgh last Thursday.
He is also set to spend the majority of his Thursday in Philadelphia as well, with a speech to the AFL-CIO convention on the agenda in Center City.
