Beie Sanders ripped Hillary Clinton on Thursday over her history of high-dollar speeches to financial firms as the candidates clashed sharply over Wall Street ties at a heated Democratic primary debate heavy on populist rhetoric.
Sanders said that when the financial industry brought on the recession, “Secretary Clinton was busy giving speeches to Goldman Sachs for $225,000 a speech.”
Clinton, though, denied that any of that money influenced her decisions in office. Further, she said, “I stood up against behaviors of the banks when I was a senator.”
Sanders gave a sarcastic retort: “Oh my goodness. They must have been really crushed by this.”
The two also clashed sharply at the opening of Thursday’s debate over their credentials to run, with Sanders slamming the front-ruer’s “judgment” on a host of issues – and Clinton pointing to a recent rocky interview by Sanders to challenge his policy knowledge.
On stage at the debate in Brooklyn, Sanders again walked back a charge that Clinton is unqualified. However, he pointed to her support for the Iraq war and “virtually every disastrous trade agreement” in challenging her choices.
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“I don’t believe that that is the kind of judgment we need,” he said at the CNN-hosted debate.
However, Clinton fired back, pointing to a challenging editorial board meeting Sanders had with the New York Daily News where he seemed to struggled to explain his plan to break up the banks and various foreign policy positions.
“He could not explain how” he would break up the banks, Clinton said.
She defended her own judgment and said: “I think you need to have the judgment on day one to be both president and commander-in-chief.”
The two were facing off for their first debate in more than a month, and one that could be their last. The campaign heads soon into the final stretch with the upcoming New York primary seen as a determining factor.
Sanders has been on a roll lately, wiing seven of the last eight state contests, most recently in Wyoming over the weekend. On stage Thursday, he touted his “landslide victories” in recent contests.
But analysts note the primary map could soon be tuing back in the front-ruer’s favor, not only in New York but other Easte primary states.
With the stakes getting ever-higher, the tone of the contest has sharpened. Sanders recently alleged Clinton may not be qualified for president, before walking back the remark. And the Clinton campaign has criticized Sanders for the aggressive efforts by some of his supporters to persuade so-called superdelegates to back the Vermont senator.
Superdelegates are elected officials and other party insiders free to support whomever they want. Most of them are siding with Clinton, giving her an even wider delegate lead.
Going into the Empire State primary on Tuesday, Clinton so far has held the lead in most polls. Clinton spent eight years as a New York senator.
But Sanders, a Vermont senator who was bo in Brooklyn, has been touting his local roots as he seeks to upset Clinton in the state.
While Sanders is on a wiing streak in primaries and caucuses, he desperately needs a big victory in New York if he hopes to cut into Clinton's delegate lead and slow her march to the nomination. To date, Clinton has accumulated 1,758 total delegates, compared with Sanders’ 1,069. It takes 2,383 to win.
The tensions in the race could spill over onto the debate stage. Even getting Clinton and Sanders to agree on the date and location for the debate was a herculean task, underscoring the discord between the rivals.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.