5 Reasons Bernie Sanders Won the New York Debate

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5 Reasons Bernie Sanders Won the New York Debate


Both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton came out swinging in the New York debate. But Sanders was the clear winner, as Clinton spent much of the night on defense.

Here are the five clearest examples where Clinton’s attacks fell flat, and where Sanders had the former Secretary of State on the ropes.

1. Getting Hillary Clinton on the record supporting a $15/hour minimum wage

Clinton’s minimum wage flip-flop is likely the most significant victory for Sanders. Since early 2015, the Vermont senator has been pushing for a $15/hour national minimum wage, while Clinton has only backed raising the minimum wage to $12/hour.

Sanders’ consistent leadership on $15/hour was one of the driving factors behind the Democratic Party’s incorporation of a $15/hour minimum wage into its national platform last August. Meanwhile, Clinton has been framing herself as a pragmatist on the minimum wage, until this revealing exchange with Wolf Blitzer:

WOLF BLITZER: “If a Democratic Congress put a $15 minimum wage bill on your desk, would you sign it?”

HILLARY CLINTON: “Well, of course I would… I think setting the goal to get to $12 is the way to go, encouraging others to get to $15. But, of course, if we have a Democratic Congress, we will go to $15.”

2. Rebuffing Clinton’s attacks on guns at the start of the New York debate

The gun control issue is traditionally one of the few areas where Sanders is vulnerable to attacks from Clinton.

But at last night’s debate, moderator Wolf Blitzer began the gun discussion by asking Hillary Clinton if she stood by her widely debunked statement that the proliferation of firearms in New York is due to an influx of guns from neighboring Vermont, which has lax gun regulations. After Clinton backtracked her statement, she attempted to frame herself as more compassionate toward victims of gun violence, but Sanders rebuffed that attack by pointing out she had ignored Blitzer’s question:

BERNIE SANDERS: “She didn’t answer the question, Wolf, that she thought that Vermont was responsible for a lot of the gun violence.”

WOLF BLITZER: “She said no.”

BERNIE SANDERS: “Then why did she put out that statement?”

Mike Casca, the rapid response director for the Sanders campaign, sent out a scathing tweet during the exchange that pointed out that despite Clinton’s rhetoric about taking on gun manufacturers, she’s raised money from lobbyists affiliated with the National Rifle Association:

Bernie Sanders also pointed out, once again, that he received a “D-” rating from the NRA. Furthermore, Politifact found Clinton’s assertion that Sanders “has been largely a very reliable supporter of the NRA” to be mostly false.

3. Framing Clinton’s “super-predators” remark as a “racist term”

Clinton’s achilles heel for black Democratic voters is the controversial statement she made in New Hampshire while pushing for her husband’s 1994 crime bill, appearing to refer to certain black youth as “super-predators.” Former President Bill Clinton recently found himself in hot water after blowing up at Black Lives Matter protesters at a Philadelphia rally when defending his wife’s 1994 remarks, accusing the protesters of defending murderers and drug dealers.

At the Brooklyn debate, NY1’s Errol Lewis asked Sen. Sanders why he denounced Bill Clinton’s remarks in Philadelphia. For the first time in the 2016 Democratic primary contest, Sanders boldly called Hillary Clinton’s 1994 remarks “racist,” to raucous cheers and applause from the New York debate audience:

ERROL LEWIS: “You called out President Clinton for defending Secretary Clinton’s use of the term ‘super predator’ back in the nineties, when she supported the crime bill. Why did you call him out?”

BERNIE SANDERS: “Because it was a racist term and everybody knew it was a racist term.”

4. Forcing Clinton into a corner on the Goldman Sachs transcripts

Hillary Clinton’s refusal to release the transcripts of her paid speeches to Goldman Sachs is the gift to the Sanders campaign that keeps on giving.

At the New York debate, CNN moderator Dana Bash refused to allow Clinton to equivocate on releasing the transcripts of her paid speeches to America’s most criminal financial institutions. When Clinton attempted to pivot to Sanders’ tax returns, the audience booed loudly, and Bash followed up twice to push Clinton to answer the original question:

DANA BASH: “Senator Sanders keeps bringing up the speeches you gave to Goldman Sachs, so I’d like to ask you — you said that you don’t want to release the transcripts until everybody does it, but if there is nothing in those speeches that you think would change voters’ minds, why not just release the transcripts and put this whole issue to bed?”

HILLARY CLINTON: “First of all, there isn’t an issue. When I was in public service serving as the senator from New York, I did stand up tot he banks. I did make it clear that their behavior would not be excused. I am the only one on this stage who did not vote to deregulate swaps and derivatives as Senator Sanders did, which led to a lot of the problems we had with Lehman Brothers. Now, if you’re gonna look at the problems that actually caused the Great Recession, you gotta look at the whole picture… I’m not saying that Senator Sanders did something untoward when he voted to deregulate swaps and derivatives, but the fact is, he did–”

DANA BASH: “But what about–”

HILLARY CLINTON: “–And that contributed to the collapse of Lehman Brothers–”

BERNIE SANDERS: “Hold it, hold it–“

DANA BASH: “Senator Sanders, one second please. Secretary Clinton, the question was about the transcripts of the speeches to Goldman Sachs. Why not release them?”

HILLARY CLINTON: “I have said, look, there are certain expectations when you run for president. This is a new one. And I’ve said, if everybody agrees to do it, because, there are speeches on the other side, I know that, but I will tell you this, there is a longstanding expectation that everybody running release their tax returns, and you can go to my website and see 8 years of tax returns…”

DANA BASH: “Secretary Clinton, we’re going to get to the tax returns later, but just to put a button on this, you’re running now for the Democratic nomination–”

HILLARY CLINTON: “Right.”

DANA BASH: “And it is your Democratic opponent and many Democratic voters who want to see those transcripts. It’s not about the Republicans at this point.”

HILLARY CLINTON: “You know, let’s set the same standard for everybody, when everybody does it, OK, I will do it. But let’s set the same standard on tax returns.”

Clinton also opened herself to ridicule when she said she would be able to take on Wall Street despite accepting campaign cash from the financial sector, as she “called them out” on their reckless behavior leading up to the financial crisis. In one particularly scathing exchange, Sanders mocked Clinton’s softness on Wall Street:

BERNIE SANDERS: “Secretary Clinton called them out. Oh my goodness. They must have been really crushed by this. And was that before or after you received huge sums of money by giving speaking engagements?”

Shortly after the exchange, Sanders announced he would be releasing his 2014 tax returns tomorrow, further deflating Clinton’s argument.

5. Framing the issue of climate change as a threat to national security

While Hillary Clinton has managed to frame herself as a foreign policy maven who knows how to keep the country safe, Sanders stole that framing from her at the New York debate by suggesting he was the one candidate who viewed climate change as a true global threat:

BERNIE SANDERS: “We have an enemy out there. And that enemy is gonna cause drought, and floods, and extreme weather disturbances. There’s gonna be international conflict. I am proud, Wolf, that I have introduced the most comprehensive climate change legislation–”

WOLF BLITZER: “Thank you.”

BERNIE SANDERS: “–Including a tax on carbon, something I don’t believe Secretary Clinton supports.”

Sanders also made Clinton play defense on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking — the highly controversial natural gas extraction method that’s been proven to taint water supplies and cause earthquakes. Furthermore, studies have increasingly found that methane leaks at drill sites may pose an equal or even graver environmental risk than coal or oil, utterly negating the supposed benefits of natural gas’s lower CO2 emissions.

While Sanders has promised to ban fracking nationwide, as New York has already done within its borders, he pointed out that as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton promoted fracking across the globe.


Additionally, Clinton was given questionable marks from Politifact in its official fact-checking of the New York debate. She was given two “mostly false” grades: One for the aforementioned statement insinuating Bernie Sanders was a friend of the National Rifle Association, and the second for claiming Republicans want to privatize Social Security. She got a “half true” for her claim that Sanders supported legal immunity for gun manufacturers, and only one “true” rating, for her statement that there haven’t been any abortion-related questions during the New York debate, or in any of the other Democratic debates, though the topic was broached at the Fox News town hall in March.

Sanders, in the meantime, was given two “mostly true” grades for his statements. One for his statement about being one of the poorer members of the U.S. Senate, and the second for his claim he has consistently supported a $15/hour minimum wage while Clinton only supported $12/hour.

Perhaps the most definitive sign of Sanders’ victory in the debate was the crowd’s response to his closing statement. After he was done speaking, the crowd cheered loudly for 20 seconds, chanting his name and forcing Clinton to stand silently, waiting to speak:


http://usuncut.com/politics/bernie-sanders-new-york-debate/