34 Testiest Moments From the Brooklyn Democratic Debate
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both came ready to brawl to Brooklyn’s Democratic debate, hosted by CNN and local station NY1 Thursday. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and Dana Bash and NY1’s Errol Louis refereed the bout between the Brooklyn-born son of a Polish immigrant and the two-time junior senator from New York.
Tensions ran high for a reason: The New York Democratic primary matters this cycle, for the first time in many years. Sanders has won seven out of the the last eight contests, but needs to take New York by a broad margin to stay competitive; Clinton is still leading him by nearly 14 points, according to the Real Clear Politics average of polls.
Here were some of the feistiest moments of the night.
1. “We worked hard to really keep New York values at the center of who we are and what we do together.” -Hillary Clinton taking a swipe at Ted Cruz in her opening statement
2. “Sen. Sanders did call me unqualified. I’ve been called a lot of things in my life. That was a first.” -Hillary Clinton
3. “I think you need to have the judgment on day one be both president and commander in chief.” -Hillary Clinton, responding to Bernie Sanders’ assertion that he believes she’s qualified but doesn’t trust her judgement
4. “Let’s talk about judgment. Let us talk about the worst foreign policy blunder in the modern history of this country.” -Bernie Sanders
5. “President Obama trusted my judgment enough to ask me to be Secretary of State for the United States.” -Hillary Clinton
6. “[Let’s] talk about the kinds of problems he had answering questions about even his core issue: breaking up the banks. He could not explain how that would be done.” -Hillary Clinton
7. “Do we really feel confident about a candidate saying that she’s going to bring change in America when she is so dependent on big money interests?” -Bernie Sanders
8. “This is a phony attack that is designed to raise questions when there is no evidence or support.” -Hillary Clinton responding to Sanders’ attack on who she’s accepted money from
9. “I love being in Brooklyn. This is great.” -Hillary Clinton, taking a moment to smile and address the rowdy crowd
10. “It may be inconvenient, but it’s always important to get the facts straight. I stood up against the behaviors of the banks when I was a senator.” -Hillary Clinton
11. “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?” -Bernie Sanders
12. “I am going to release all of the transcripts of the speeches that I gave on Wall Street behind closed doors — not for $225,000, not for $2,000, not for two cents. There were no speeches.” -Bernie Sanders
13. “Of course we will release our taxes. Jane does our taxes. We’ve been a little bit busy lately. You’ll excuse us.” -Bernie Sanders on why he hasn’t released his taxes yet
14. “Well, you know, there are a lot of copy machines around.” -Hillary Clinton
15. “What’s taking so long? Because you just have to go to the filing cabinet, make a copy and release them.” -Wolf Blitzer
16. “I don’t want to get anybody very excited. They are very boring tax returns. No big money from speeches, no major investments. Unfortunately, I remain one of the poorer members of the United States Senate.” -Bernie Sanders