Univision DemDebate: Hillary Clinton Fails To Land Effective Attacks On Bernie Sanders

On Wednesday night, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders met again for their eighth Democratic debate. Univision hosted the meet-up less than one week after their fiery debate in Flint. Clinton also had the dubious pleasure of meeting her foe one day after he pulled off a major upset in Michigan, which he described as “one of the major political upsets in modern American history.” Indeed, if Sanders can win in Michigan, he could capture a similar demographic next week in the winner-take-all state of Ohio. Folks wondered whether Clinton’s auto-bailout attack on Sanders backfired, for a reason we’ll soon discuss. Even Sanders looked surprised to take the state.

Overall, this debate only saw a few confrontational moments. Sanders scored more points than Clinton (a Time poll revealed that 90 percent of viewers felt Sanders won), who was asked several times about her scandals and inconsistencies. Before we get down to specifics, here’s a supercut of all the times Bern said “Wall Street” at the debate.

Clinton Defends Her Classified Emails (Sort Of)

One early moment saw moderator Jorge Ramos asking Clinton to explain her classified emails. Ramos didn’t receive a substantial answer in response, so he inquired, “If you get indicted would you drop out?” Clinton responded, “Oh, for goodness — that’s not going to happen. I’m not even answering that question.”

Clinton And Sanders On ‘Racist’ Donald Trump

Both candidates confronted Karen Tumulty’s question, “Is Donald Trump a racist?” What a world we live in, right? The candidate who’s seen as the main opposing competition surfaces in the debate under this context. Still, some folks say Trump deserves the categorization after all of his “somebody’s doing the raping” remarks and ridiculous wall comments, plus all the things he’s said about Muslims. In response, Sanders said, “I think that the American people are never going to elect a president who insults Mexicans, who insults Muslims, who insults women, who insults African-Americans.” Clinton went further after whipping out her “abuela” vibe with a “basta.” FYI: The audience tittered when the initial question arose.

Sanders And Clinton Take An Immigration Pledge

Tumulty caught Clinton off guard over her alleged “Hispandering,” but Ramos captured a pledge from both candidates, who agreed not to deport child immigrants or those without a criminal record. Clinton added (while making fun of Trump’s “fantasy” wall) that she will not deport immigrants at all, for she wants to set them “on a path to citizenship.” Sanders agreed that deportation is “a vulgar, absurd idea that I would hope very few people in America support.” There was a touching moment when an audience member, Lucia Quiej, posed a question. As an immigrant from Guatemala, Quiej lives alone with five children after her husband was deported. Both Clinton and Sanders pledged to reunite families, and a touching moment occurred when Enrique Acevedo whispered a translation to Quiej.

Acevedo also spoke out after the debate about Quiej’s segment.

Clinton Tried To Attack Sanders’ Voting Record

The largest clash of the evening involved Sanders dropping a “Madam Secretary, I will match my record against yours every day of the year.” He called her out for claiming he was against the auto bailout and in support of the private Minutemen vigilantes (who patrolled the U.S.-Mexican border): “No, I do not support vigilantes, and that is a horrific statement, an unfair statement to make.”

In response, Clinton only made things worse by reasserting her failed auto-bailout attack on Sanders. He was ready for her. Clinton simply made the same argument although she tried to elaborate. First, she recounted how she and Sanders both voted for a free-standing bill to save the auto industry. The bill didn’t pass, and then Sanders voted against a larger bill, but Sanders whipped out some truth: “So that everyone knows the bill that Secretary Clinton was talking about. That was the bailout of the recklessness, irresponsibility and illegal behavior of Wall Street. It was the Wall Street bailout!”

Sanders also ripped into Clinton for her Wall Street ties. More specifically, he called on her to reveal the tapes or transcript of the $225,000 speech she made to Goldman Sachs: “It must have been an extraordinarily wonderful speech … share it with the American people.” Clinton attempted to say she “basically called them out” during her speech, which sounded weak. Why would Goldman Sachs pay her $225,000 to basically scold them? Sanders sarcastically replied that Clinton must have “clearly intimidated them” because Wall Street donated $15 million to her Super PAC. Yowch.

The more powerful closing also went to Sanders, who said, “In the wealthiest country in the history of the world? If we stand up, fight back, we can do a lot better.” Yeah, Clinton could have a rough time in next week’s elections.

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