Bernie Sanders hit Hillary Clinton hard over Iraq, trade, the Keystone Pipeline and Wall Street regulation Monday as he drove home a passionate final argument to Iowa voters a week before the first in the nation caucuses.
The Vermont senator, occasionally rising from his chair to interact with the audience, opened a CNN Democratic town hall event in Des Moines, Iowa, by portraying himself as the true personification of change in the Democratic race for the White House. He argued that though the former secretary of state had wide experience, she was wrong on key issues.
“We need a political revolution,” he said. “We are touching a nerve with the American people who understand that establishment politics is just not good enough.”
Sanders dismissed Clinton’s political record, seeking to prove he was closer to the Democratic Party base and just as prepared to be president as Clinton.
“I voted against the war in Iraq … Hillary Clinton voted for the war in Iraq,” Sanders said. “I led the effort against Wall Street deregulation. See where Hillary Clinton was on this issue.”
“On day one, I said the Keystone Pipeline was a dumb idea. Why did it take Hillary Clinton a long time before she came into opposition to the Keystone Pipeline? I didn’t have to think hard about opposing the Trans Pacific Partnership. It took Hillary Clinton a long time to come on board that.”
He also warned unapologetically that taxes would rise if he is elected President, especially to pay for his Medicare-for-all health care plan, an admission that could please his liberal base but trigger criticism from Clinton.
“We will raise taxes. Yes we will,” Sanders said.
Sanders argued, however, that the taxes are worth it, given what American families will save in premiums. And, living up to his image as a self-declared Democratic socialist, he warned corporations and the richest Americans that they would pay more.
“Yes, you are going to start paying for your fair share of taxes,” Sanders said. “I demand that Wall Street start paying its fair share of taxes.”
For a candidate who has been caricatured as overly serious, Sanders’ sense of humor came through at the town hall. He laughed with ease during exchanges with moderator Chris Cuomo and boasted of his athletic prowess as an elementary school basketball player.
The Democratic presidential candidates appeared one after the other for a half hour each at the town hall meeting at Drake University. The forum will showcase the contrast emerging between Clinton, the national front-runner and President Barack Obama’s first secretary of state, and Sanders, who is mounting a stronger than expected challenge. Long shot candidate Martin O’Malley also appeared on stage.
Latest polling shows Clinton and Sanders locked in a tight contest in Iowa. In the most recent CNN Poll of Polls, Sanders edges Clinton 46% to 44% in Iowa, with O’Malley at 4%.
And in a new CNN/ORC national poll published on Monday, Clinton led Sanders 52% to 38% with former Maryland Gov. O’Malley way back on 2%. Though the survey showed a significant cushion for Clinton, her advantage was smaller than at any time since September. The poll showed women, non-whites, self-identified Democrats, and those over age 50 breaking sharply for Clinton. Men, white voters, independents who lean Democratic and younger voters are more likely to support Sanders.
The Iowa contest is particularly important to Clinton, who lost the state in 2008, setting in motion Obama’s path to the White House. A victory for Sanders could reshape the entire Democratic race while a Clinton win could quell jitters in her camp and help put her on the path to the nomination.
Earlier Monday, Jeff Weaver, who manages the Sanders campaign, said on CNN’s “New Day” that the enthusiasm and big crowds his candidate is whipping up in Iowa recalled the late surge that propelled Obama to victory over Clinton in 2008.
“What we are seeing in Iowa in terms of the momentum in the race … people who were here back then … say there (are) a lot of similarities,” Weaver told Cuomo.
But Brian Fallon, spokesman for the Clinton campaign, made the case on Monday that his boss would make an electability argument, speaking to reservations Democrats may have about Sanders’ capacity to win the election and perform effectively as president.
“Hillary Clinton is best positioned to protect the gains we have made under President Obama,” Fallon told CNN’s “New Day.”
He added: “I think voters are going to contemplate who is the fighter with the tenacity to get results on the issues that keep voters up at night, who can do all aspects of the job, keeping them safe from terrorism but also ensuring the prosperity is shared economically up and down the income ladder.”