In what has effectively been reduced to a two-horse race, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders clashed as never before at Sunday night’s last Democratic presidential debate before the primaries get under way with the Iowa caucuses on February 1.
The two fought bitterly over big money represented by Wall Street, gun control and health care with Clinton repeatedly endorsing President Barack Obama’s policies over a broad front in what is being seen as a new campaign tweak to stall the recent surge by Senator Sanders.
Clinton, who is well ahead of Sanders nationally but is locked in a dead heat in the key Iowa and New Hampshire campaign openers, touted her administrative experience and virtually questioned the credentials of Sanders for the top job.
Sanders, the self-declared “Democratic Socialist”, accused Clinton of having cosy ties with Wall Street for years and said she cannot be trusted to push ahead with the much-needed financial regulations.
Stating that Clinton has accepted $600,000 from Goldman Sachs as speaking fees as she left the State Department, Sanders quizzed: “Can you really reform Wall Street when they are spending millions and millions of dollars on campaign contributions and when they are providing speaker feesIJ”