Potential Democratic challengers to Hillary Clinton offered direct and veiled response to the dominant frontrunner’s presidential announcement on Sunday.
Lincoln Chafee used a common attack from President Obama’s 2008 campaign, saying that Clinton’s vote for Iraq shows a lack of judgment and leadership, according to the Wall Street Journal. The former Rhode Island governor and senator unveiled a website detailing his presidential ambitions earlier this week.
Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders questioned whether Hillary Clinton and other presidential candidates have the chops to take on Wall Street on Twitter soon after the former first lady’s presidential campaign announcement.
“Every candidate for president has to answer this simple question,” the Vermont senator and potential Clinton challenger wrote on Twitter. “Are you prepared to take on the billionaire class whose greed is destroying the middle class and, through Citizens United, our American democractic system?”
Former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb tweeted a prior video announcing his formation of a presidential exploratory committee last year, with the message “leadership you can trust.”
Martin O’Malley has been silent on Clinton’s rollout. A spokesman said on Twitter that the former Maryland governor will decide whether he plans to run for president regardless of what other people do.
Clinton is the first Democrat to announce her presidential intentions, and it remains to be seen what type of opposition she will face in the primary.
