Like two cantankerous snowbirds, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders ambled onto the debate stage at Miami-Dade College in Florida Wednesday evening, one week before the state’s voters cast primary ballots, and just three days after they debated in Michigan. It looked and felt a lot like the debate in Flint, except this time “The Star-Spangled Banner” was sung by a young man in a Charro suit, and questions were considerably blunter than those is the previous seven match-ups — several of them asked en español.
El Debate Democrata was moderated by Univision hosts Maria Elena Salinas and Jorge Ramos and the Washington Post‘s Karen Tumulty. They pulled no punches, pointedly asking Clinton if she was “Hispandering” to Latinos and aggressively questioning Sanders about his past support of the Castro regime. Both candidates fielded questions on the topics of immigration reform, child deportations and Donald Trump as well.
Here were the best moments of the night.
1. “It wasn’t the best choice.” -Hillary Clinton on her decision to use a private email server
2. “Oh, for goodness — that is not going to happen. I am not even answering that question.” -Hillary Clinton on whether she would drop out of the race if indicted
3. “I called him out when he was calling Mexicans rapists. When he was engaging in rhetoric that I found deeply offensive, I said basta!” -Hillary Clinton on Donald Trump
4. “His demagoguery, his trafficking in prejudice and paranoia has no place in our political system.” -Hillary Clinton on Donald Trump
5. “The American people are never going to elect a president who insults Mexicans, who insults Muslims, who insults women, who insults African Americans.” -Bernie Sanders on Trump
6. “Let us not forget that several years ago, Trump was in the middle of the so-called birther movement, trying to delegitimize the president of the United States of America.'” -Bernie Sanders
7. “My dad was born in Poland. I know a little bit about the immigrant experience. Nobody has ever asked me for my birth certificate. Maybe it has something to do with the color of my skin.” -Bernie Sanders
8. “Are you pandering to Latinos — what some would call ‘Hispandering’?” -Moderator Maria Elena Salinas
9. “Madam Secretary, I will match my record against yours any day of the week.” -Bernie Sanders on fighting for the poor
10. “He’s talking about a very tall wall, right? A beautiful, tall wall. The most beautiful tall wall — better than the Great Wall of China, that would run the entire border, that he would somehow magically get the Mexican government to pay for…. It’s just a fantasy.” -Hillary Clinton on Trump’s proposed wall
11. “I’m not a natural politician, in case you didn’t notice — like my husband and President Obama. I have to do the best that I can.” -Hillary Clinton
12. “When you get paid $225,000, that means that that speech must have been an extraordinarily wonderful speech. I would think that a speech so great that you got paid so much money for, you would like to share it with the American people.” -Bernie Sanders on Clinton’s Goldman Sachs speech
13. “Clearly, the secretary’s words to Wall Street have really intimidated them, and that is why they have given her $15 million in campaign contributions.” -Bernie Sanders
14. “From my perspective, you sided with the Koch brothers.” -Hillary Clinton to Sanders on the Import/Export Bank
15. “[The head of Goldman Sachs] said I was dangerous, and he’s right. I am dangerous for Wall Street.” -Bernie Sanders
16. “BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” -The audience when Jorge Ramos asked Hillary Clinton about Benghazi
17. “I certainly can’t even imagine the grief that she has for losing her son. But she’s wrong. She’s absolutely wrong.” -Hillary Clinton, answering the charge that she lied to a mother of one of the Benghazi victims
18. “I said welcome those children into this country. Secretary Clinton said send them back. That’s a difference.” -Bernie Sanders, on Honduran children seeking asylum in the U.S.
19. “One of the differences between the secretary and I is I’m not quite so aggressive with regard to regime change.” -Bernie Sanders
20. “Well, Karen, obviously it’s painful for me to hear that.” -Hillary Clinton, asked why people don’t trust her
21. “The government has to quit making money off of lending money to young people to get their education.” -Hillary Clinton
22. “I think what Secretary Clinton just said is absolutely right. I think I said it many months before she said it, but thanks for copying a very good idea.” -Bernie Sanders, on Clinton’s comments about student debt
23. “I don’t think they will, but Donald Trump’s kids can go to public school right now. We’re going to get to Donald Trump by raising the taxes on the top one percent and on millionaires and billionaires.” -Bernie Sanders
24. “My dad used to say, ‘If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.'” -Hillary Clinton on Sanders’ plans
25. “Some dangerous mistakes were made that laid the groundwork for some of the problems we’re having with a disappearing middle class.” -Bernie Sanders on Bill Clinton’s presidency
26. “When you have Republican candidates for president and in Congress telling you that climate change is a hoax… what they are really saying is, we don’t have the guts to take on the fossil fuel industry.” – Bernie Sanders
27. “I do believe in universal [health care] coverage. Remember, I fought for it 25 years ago. I believe in it.” -Hillary Clinton
28. “That is not the kind of revolution of values I would want to see.” -Hillary Clinton on a young Sanders’ support for the Castro regime
29. “Let’s remember three words: Bush v. Gore. A court took away a presidency.” -Hillary Clinton, answering a question about the Supreme Court vacancy
