By Bronte Price, PoliticKING
Just one day after Bernie Sanders’ big upset in Michigan, the two democratic candidates had their second debate of the week. The Democratic debate, which was sponsored by Univision and The Washington Post, was conducted in both English and Spanish. The candidates spoke only in English, but questioners and moderators mostly spoke Spanish before being translated into English.
5 #DemDebate moments that might not have happened without the Spanish-language media https://t.co/X5VVVFWXd5pic.twitter.com/0DltkZU4Z6
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) March 10, 2016
Clinton laubed attacks at Bernie, signaling that she is not yet confident enough in her ability to win the primary, to pivot toward the general election. At one point, Clinton tried to link Sanders to the “Minutemen” movement which was popular about a decade ago, in which private militias tried to catch and deter those crossing the U.S. and Mexico border. “Senator Sanders . . . stood with the Minutemen vigilantes in their ridiculous, absurd efforts to, quote, “hunt down immigrants,’” she said.
Clinton was referring to a moment of Sanders past in Congress, in which he supported a bill that was designed to prevent the U.S. government from coordinating with Mexican authorities to “thwart illegal immigration.” Previously, Sanders’ staff had said they believed the bill to be harmless, saying that it would “ban something that didn’t happen anyway.”
“No, I do not support vigilantes, and that is a horrific statement, an unfair statement to make,” Sanders said in response to Clinton’s attack.
"If you get indicted, will you drop out?" @HillaryClinton responds: https://t.co/qqNHy2ZDHT#demdebatehttps://t.co/J2P1HupR3N
— The Weekly Standard (@weeklystandard) March 10, 2016
Clinton also took a hit at Sanders’s sweeping liberal policy ideas in one statement, recalling what her father used to tell her. “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” she said.
Since the debate was hosted by Univision, the questions were largely focused on immigration and minority rights. At one point, a woman in the audience asked a question about the candidate's’ intentions with deportation policies, describing the difficulties she had faced after her husband, an undocumented immigrant, was deported. Sanders responded to her question with a promise to help, by using his executive power and changing U.S. policy as president. “The essence of what we are trying to do is to unite families, not to divide families,” Sanders said.
Clinton responded by first focusing on the woman’s story. “Please know how brave I think you are, coming here with your children to tell your story. This is an incredible act of courage that I’m not sure many people really understand. And I want you to know that,” She said.
Here’s what Richard Fowler has to say about Hillary Clinton’s path to success:
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