AMES, Iowa (AP) — Facing a narrowing primary contest, Hillary Clinton ripped into rival Bernie Sanders on Tuesday, saying the Vermont senator was offering unrealistic policies and overstating his anti-establishment credentials.
For days, Clinton has cast Sanders as a less forceful advocate for gun control, honing in on a 2005 vote he cast that gave immunity to gun manufacturers. On Tuesday, she broadened her critique, arguing that if Sanders wouldn’t combat the National Rifle Association, he can’t be trusted to take on other special interests.
“If you’re going to go around saying you stand up to special interests, then stand up to that most powerful special interest — stand up to the gun lobby,” she said, as she accepted the backing of a major gun control advocacy group.
Clinton added: “Don’t talk to me about standing up to corporate interests and big powers. I’ve got the scars to show for it.”
Sanders campaign spokesman Michael Briggs said the senator had “spent a career standing up to powerful special interests whether they be Wall Street, big banks or Big Oil or the pharmaceutical industry, you name it.”
Briggs added, “He has also stood up to the National Rifle Association,” noting that Sanders lost a 1988 congressional race in part because he supported a ban on assault weapons.
The fresh critique marks an effort by Clinton to undermine the central argument of Sanders’ campaign— that the Vermont senator is an outsider offering liberals a “political revolution.” At one point, she alluded to his mantra, telling supporters, “If that’s the kind of ‘revolution’ he’s talking about, I’m worried, folks.”
With a touch of sarcasm, Clinton derided Sanders’ plans for a single-payer Medicare-for-all system and said President Barack Obama’s work to pass an overhaul to the nation’s health care system was a major accomplishment.
“I wish that we could elect a Democrat who could wave a magic wand and say, ‘We shall do this and we shall do that.’ That ain’t the real world we’re living in,” Clinton said. In Dubuque, Clinton said she hoped that Sanders “hurries up” and releases more details of his tax plan “because you deserve to see the comparisons side-by-side.”
In an emailed fundraising appeal, Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver dismissed Clinton’s criticism and instead reiterated the senator’s goal of guaranteeing health care for all Americans.
“It is a national disgrace that the United States is the only major country in the world that does not offer health care as a right,” Weaver said. “We need a president who will fight for the 29 million Americans without health care.”
Clinton also touted her foreign policy credentials, drawing another, more implicit, contrast with Sanders, who has made tackling economic inequality the focus of his campaign. “I’m prepared to do all parts to the job,” she said, after offering voters a detailed account of her time in the Situation Room during the killing of Osama bin Laden.
Though Clinton has the backing of Democratic leaders and top donors, polls show a tighter race in Iowa while Sanders has built a slight lead in New Hampshire, which borders his home state of Vermont. Losses in both early voting states could raise worries among Democrats about her strength against Sanders, who was relatively unknown when he started the campaign but has attracted big crowds to his rallies.
A poll released on Wednesday by Quinnipiac University showed Sanders winning 49 percent of likely Democratic caucus-goers in Iowa, compared to 44 percent for Clinton. The same survey showed Clinton leading in a 51-40 percent match-up just a month ago.
Clinton has long resisted directly targeting Sanders, fearing that such attacks would alienate his passionate supporters. Should she win the nomination, Clinton will need that kind of liberal enthusiasm to boost her to victory in a general election.
Daughter Chelsea Clinton also got in the act, telling a New Hampshire audience that Sanders would open the door for Republican governors to undermine the health care law.
“I never thought we’d be arguing about the Affordable Care Act in the Democratic primary,” she said. “Sen. Sanders wants to dismantle Obamacare, dismantle the (Children’s Health Insurance Program), dismantle Medicare, dismantle private insurance.”
Both candidates received dueling endorsements on the eve of Obama’s State of the Union address. Clinton picked up the backing of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence — an endorsement that came just a day after she won support from leading gun control advocate Gabby Giffords, the former Arizona congresswoman, and her husband, Mark Kelly.
Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign, noted that the two candidates diverged on the landmark Brady handgun bill, which imposed a five-day waiting period for gun purchases. “Bernie Sanders actually voted against it. But there’s only one candidate who fought for it and that candidate is Hillary,” he said.
Sanders has expressed his support for Obama’s use of executive actions to curb gun violence and has said he would revisit his position on the liability issue. But in a Democratic forum on Monday night, he doubled down on his defense of his vote on the controversial bill.
“It’s not a mistake. Like many pieces of legislation, it is complicated,” he said. “But on the issue of guns, let me be very clear I support the president.”
Clinton was also endorsed by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, a union of 1.3 million members.
Sanders racked up his own endorsement on Tuesday, receiving the backing of MoveOn.org, a grassroots organization that has been at the forefront of liberal causes.
He was supported by 78.6 percent of its membership in an online vote of more than 340,000 members, according to the group. Hillary Clinton received 14.6 percent and Martin O’Malley received 0.9 percent with the remaining members urging no endorsement. The group said it plans to mobilize thousands of its members in Iowa and New Hampshire on Sanders’ behalf.
___
Thomas reported from Washington. Associated Press reporter Holly Ramer in Manchester, New Hampshire, and Catherine Lucey in Dubuque, Iowa, contributed to this report.
___
Follow Lisa Lerer and Ken Thomas on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/llerer and http://twitter.com/KThomasDC
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
I like and respect both of these fine public servants. I am happy to see a healthy back-and-forth because I think that keeps everyone on their toes, as well as forces the candidates and their people to examine issues more closely so as to fine-tune their ideas for solutions to our problems and challenges we face.
That said, though I don’t believe there’s much of a chance of this not happening, I hope they keep the jabs and arguments on the policy ideas, where one stands on issues, etc., a opposed to slipping into the personal like on the GOP side of the aisle.
For very pragmatic and practical reasons, I want to see Hillary Clinton elected as our next POTUS – but I’d be just as (very) happy to see Sen. Sanders in the Oval Office. I like them each for somewhat different–but very similar–reasons. My highest priority is the Supreme Court and who gets to nominate the next few nominations. That is vitally important to me, my nieces, nephews and their great-grandchildren.
Sanders’ criticisms of Hillary are exceptionally vague–only one with discernible facts behind it–she voted to authorize military force in Iraq. One only. Everything else he says deploys much of the same style as GOPers --lots of “nudge, nudge, know what I mean?” implying she’s a corporate whore without ever showing where in her legislating record she has been such. I dislike him for this.
But the press automatically calls Hillary “a liar” when she says things that are actually true about Sanders–particularly on his supposed support for single payer for all Americans: Sanders is a hypocrite, claiming he wants “single payer” but in every bill he’s ever introduced, he wants “single payer” not at the federal level, but “state by state” using “federal guidelines.” That’s worked out really well in the case of Medicaid expansion, right? And his home state of Vermont tried it in a single state and it didn’t work–you need lots of people in the insurance pool.
As a matter of fact, old Bernie voted against every Democratic bill calling for single payer.
I guess Bernie Sanders’ status as an outsider is based on him not being a member of a political party. Because he has spent over 30 years in elected office and almost 25 of those have been in the U.S. Congress. That’s an awfully long time for an outsider.
Hillary, a seat on Walmart’s board of directors for six years and speaking fees from investment banks are not scars. Example:
Why do you say such stupid shit?
Some of your political scars are self inflicted. I have been in your camp for over a year, but you’re making this harder for me than it should be. If you win, the smartest thing you could ever do is make Bernie Sanders the Chairman of the Federal Reserve or Treasury Secretary. Eliot Spitzer would make a great SEC chief. Yeah, I know, I’m dreaming.
Do you have links for all that? (his plan and his record) I’m a Hillary supporter (though I love Bernie, and am basically with @BeattyCat overall), but I was disappointed in what I saw as mischaracterization of his single-payer proposal, which I assumed was what we all think of as Medicare for all, which would clearly be a Federally administered program. If what you describe is the case, then it’s Bernie I’d be very disappointed in, especially since he’s calling her a liar on this. I’m with you in resenting the implication and innuendo about her being a “corporate whore”; if your description of his health-care plan is true, I suddenly don’t love him so much. Don’t have time to look right now, so can you give us a few links?
@bonvivant: Well, I’d guess she’s still got the scars from the health-care industry, for starters. And wrt your personnel suggestions, look up “Gary Gensler” – he’s with her campaign, and would more than likely have a major role in her administration.