Hillary Clinton told Bernie Sanders on Thursday that he was making campaign promises he could not honor and that his financial plans don’t add up, as they clashed in their first face-to-face debate since the Iowa caucuses.
The two Democrats launched into a passionate exchange on health care minutes into their debate in New Hampshire, five days before the state’s primary in which Sanders has a big lead.
Clinton, in a clear shot at Sanders, implicitly suggested his plans for a new system of universal government-run health care and free college would be impossible to enact.
“I am not making promises that I can’t keep,” she said at the MSNBC debate. “The numbers just don’t add up from what Sen. Sanders has been proposing.”
Clinton also opened a new front in her clash with Sanders over who is the most authentic progressive, after he said on Wednesday that she said it was impossible to be a moderate and a progressive.
“A progressive is someone who makes progress,” she said.
Clinton said that by his definition, there would be nobody left in the progressive movement, including President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, who was a hero to liberals.
“I don’t think it was particularly progressive to vote against the Brady bill five times,” Clinton said, referring to past votes by Sanders on gun control.
Sanders hit back by pointing out that Clinton had referred to herself as a moderate at an event in Ohio last year. And he said that Obama and Biden had done a “fantastic job” pulling America back from the Great Recession.
“Do I think President Obama is a progressive? Yes I do,” Sanders said, though added that he disagreed with him on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact.
At one point, as their tempers started to flare, Clinton and Sanders spoke over the top of one another as they sparred over the definition of progressive politics.
“Instead of arguing about definitions, let’s talk about what we should do (as president),” Sanders said.
Clinton shot back: “You began it yesterday with your comments,” referring to comments Sanders made Wednesday at a CNN town hall questioning Clinton’s conservative credentials.
Polls in New Hampshire suggest the primary will not be as close as the tight Democratic caucuses in Iowa. Sanders, riding his high favorability in a state that borders his stomping ground of Vermont, has a strong advantage, leading Clinton 55% to 37% in the latest CNN Poll of Polls.
Clinton, however, is the national front-runner and is looking to the South Carolina primary later this month to start demonstrating that she has wider appeal among ethnically diverse Democratic activists than Sanders.