The Democrats clashed over Wall Street,
foreign policy and campaign finance Sunday night, but provided a united
front on the issue closest to the hearts of the residents of Flint, Mich.
Bernie Sanders
and Hillary Clinton faced off for the seventh Democratic debate in
Flint, a former factory town where lead-tainted water has had residents
suffering for nearly two years.
“There’s a lot of blame to go around, and one of the points that I have
made is I believe the governor of this state should understand that his
dereliction of duty was irresponsible,” Sanders said during his opening statements. “He should resign.”
The socialist Vermont senator seamlessly worked in his focus on economic issues while addressing the water crisis.
“The wealthiest country in the history of the world has got to get its
priorities right, take care of its people, no more tax cuts for
billionaires,” he said.
Clinton offered a response praising her rival’s reaction to the contamination of the water in the Detroit suburb.
“I say amen to that,” Clinton said as she started her opening
statement, adding that she too wants to see Gov. Rick Snyder resign.
But “that is not enough. We have to focus on what must be done to help the people of Flint.”
Just before the debate began, Democratic National Committee Chair
Debbie Wasserman Schultz said Republicans were to blame for the water
crisis in Flint.
"This crisis was caused by Republicans,” Wasserman Schultz
said. “By a Republican governor and a Republican legislature who
decided it was more important to save money than to ensure that the
people of Flint had quality clean drinking water.”
But the lovefest didn’t last long, as Clinton and Sanders quickly went after one another on economic issues, Clinton’s history of giving paid speeches to Wall Street firms, trade policies and other issues.
Sanders pounded Clinton on her past support for international trade deals that he says have cost American jobs.
Clinton said there needs to be both “carrots and sticks” so that manufacturers make investments in the U.S.
As the debate began, Sanders was declared the winner of the Maine Democratic presidential caucuses. The win gave the self-styled Democratic Socialist a boost, but he still lags behind in the overall delegate count.
Sanders admitted Sunday
that the delegate numbers are stacked against him in the race for his
party’s nomination, but citing victories a day earlier in Kansas and
Nebraska, showed no sign of dropping out.
“Geographically, we are looking good,” he told ABC’s “This Week,” claiming that he still “sees a path toward victory.”
The delegate count, however, tells a different story. Including superdelegates, Hillary Clinton, who won the Louisiana Democratic primary, now has 1,121 delegates, compared with 481 for Sanders.
It takes 2,383 delegates to win the Democratic nomination.
With News Wire Services
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