Top 6 MSNBC Debate Moments: Hillary Loses Cool, Sanders Takes High Road
Fireworks fly as Democratic presidential candidates up the ante in last showdown before New Hampshire primary
Itay Hod and Brian Flood | February 4, 2016 @ 8:13 PM
Last Updated: February 4, 2016 @ 10:02 PM
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MSNBC’s Democratic debate was billed as the first true one-on-one showdown between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, and it actually lived up to the hype. Well, sort of. It depends on who you ask.
Either way, Thursday night’s debate, moderated by NBC News’ Chuck Todd and MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, featured Clinton getting angry, Sanders refusing to “politicize” Clinton’s email scandal and a whole bunch of Wall Street talk.
1. Clinton takes Sanders to task
In perhaps one of the most contentious moments during the debate, a visibly exasperated Clinton unleashed on Sanders for his repeated criticism of Clinton’s Wall Street campaign contributions.
“People support me because they know me, they know my life’s work … and at the end of the day, they endorse me because they know I can get things done,” Clinton said.
Sanders shot back, saying that in the last quarter Clinton’s Super PAC raised $15 million in “a whole lot of money from drug companies and other special interests.”
“Senator Sanders has said that he wants to run a positive campaign,” Clinton said. “But time and time again by innuendo and by insinuation, there is this attack that he is putting forth, which really comes down to anybody who ever took donations or speaking fees from any interest group has to be bought, and I just absolutely disagree with that, senator.”
Clinton then confronted Sanders head on. “If you’ve got something to say, say it directly,” she said. “You will not find that I have ever changed a view or a vote because of any donation I have received.”
2. Sanders won’t politicize Clinton’s email scandal
Sanders again took the high road when asked about Clinton’s email scandal.
After Clinton said she had “absolutely no concerns” about the ongoing FBI investigation into her use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state, Sanders, who had brought up the issue several times during the campaign, refused to comment.
“There is a process underway, and I will not politicize it,” he said.
3. Clinton gets booed Sanders said that being the establishment candidate means being influenced by Wall Street, while Clinton shot back that Sanders shouldn’t insinuate that she can be bought. Clinton said it is “quite amusing” for Bernie Sanders to call her “establishment” as a woman running to be the first female president.
That’s when things got really heated.
Clinton said Sanders campaign has carried out a “very artful smear” against her for taking money from Wall Street.
That didn’t sit well with some people as boos could be heard throughout the hall.
Sanders’ supporters were quick to post the booing on Twitter:
4. Clinton struggles to defend Wall St. speaking fees Asked by moderator Chuck Todd if she would release transcripts of all of her paid speeches, Clinton replied: “I will look into it. I don’t know the status, but I will certainly look into it.”
Clinton tried to explain why she accepted more than $600,000 in speaking fees from Wall Street interests after her tenure as secretary of state. “They wanted me to talk about the world,” she explained.
5. Clinton shuts down Sanders’ Iraq vote line As the debate veered from Wall Street to foreign policy, Sanders went to his default attack line — but this time, Clinton was ready.
“Let me agree with much of what the secretary said,” he said, before noting that he opposed the war in Iraq.
“If I can respectfully add,” Clinton shot back, “a vote in 2002 is not a plan to defeat ISIS.”
6. Debate ends on a high note Asked whether they would consider uniting the party by picking their opponent as running mate, Clinton said she was “certainly going to unite the party, but I’m not — I’m not getting ahead of myself,” adding that, “If I’m so fortunate as to be the nominee, the first person I will call to talk to about where we go and how we get it done will be Senator Sanders.”
Sanders returned the favor saying, “On our worst days, I think it is fair to say we are 100 times better than any Republican candidate.”
15 Most Cringe-Worthy Gaffes From Presidential Debates
1960: During the first televised presidential debate, Richard Nixon refused to wear stage makeup, revealing his sweaty forehead under the hot TV lights. This made the younger John F. Kennedy look much more confident.
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1976: Gerald Ford claimed that he didn't believe that Eastern Europe was under "Soviet domain," which proved to be an unpopular opinion, as the moderator repeated the question in bewilderment.
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1980: When the moderator tried to silence Ronald Reagan's microphone during a Republican primary debate, Reagan shouted: "I am paying for this microphone!" The line became a "political home run" for Reagan. It was also borrowed it from the 1948 film "State of the Union."
1980: In a general-election debate between incumbent president Jimmy Carter and Reagan, Carter said, “I had a discussion with my daughter Amy the other day before I came here to ask her what the most important issue was. She said she thought the control of nuclear weaponry.” Carter was mocked for taking policy advice from his 13-year-old daughter, helping Reagan to win the election.
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1988: Michael Dukakis may have lost the election when he said he would still oppose the death penalty even if the killer raped and murdered his wife, Kitty.
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1988: Vice presidential candidate Dan Quayle compared himself to Jack Kennedy and got hammered by Democratic rival Lloyd Bentsen: "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy, I knew Jack Kennedy, Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."
1992: George H.W. Bush checked his watch and tucked in his shirt during his debate with future president Bill Clinton, looking impatient when asked about the economy.
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2000: Al Gore sighed during a debate with George W. Bush, which was widely perceived as condescending. It was so bad, aides made him watch the "SNL" parody of the gaffe before the next debate.
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2008: Hillary Clinton attacked Barack Obama for allegedly lifting lines from the speeches of Massachusetts politician Duval Patrick. She had a good zinger... that didn't quite have the effect she was hoping for. "Lifting whole passages from someone else's speeches is not change you can believe in, it's change you can Xerox," Clinton said -- but the audience booed.
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2008: When a moderator asked Hillary Clinton if she had the personal appeal to overtake Barack Obama, the future president interjected that Clinton was "likable enough."
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2008: While illustrating a point about a Bush/Cheney energy bill that Obama had signed, Arizona Senator John McCain referred to the future president as "that one."
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2011: Texas Gov. Rick Perry shifted his reputation from budget-slasher to bungler when he blanked on the names of all three federal agencies he proposed to eliminate as president: "I can’t, the third one. I can’t. Sorry. Oops."
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2012: Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney claimed that Obama didn’t call Benghazi a terrorist attack. Obama confidently asked Candy Crowley to clear up the charge, which she does, pointing out Romney's mistake.
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2016: When asked during an interview in September what he would do about Aleppo, the epicenter of the Syrian refugee crisis, Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson asked, "And what is Aleppo?" That line became a viral sensation, even earning some rather funny spoofs. Johnson then made things worse when later that month he couldn't name a single world leader -- dead or alive -- during a town hall with Chris Matthews. And just to be sure this second flub would get some traction, Johnson told Matthews he was having an "Aleppo moment." Talk about about a triple whammy.
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2016: Green Party presidential candidate JillS Stein was hoping to be the answer to Bernie Sanders after he dropped out of the primary race. But answer she gave during an AMA reddit sesh put a damper on her plans. Stein, a Harvard Medical School graduate, raised some eyebrows when she took a decidedly anti-vaxxer stance: "As a medical doctor, there was a time where I looked very closely at those issues, and not all those issues were completely resolved. There were concerns among physicians about what the vaccination schedule meant, the toxic substances like mercury which used to be rampant in vaccines. There were real questions that needed to be addressed." Stein later clarified that she was not, in fact, an opponent of vaccines.
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From Richard Nixon’s flop sweat to Rick Perry’s “Sorry oops,” candidates have often stumbled at the podium
1960: During the first televised presidential debate, Richard Nixon refused to wear stage makeup, revealing his sweaty forehead under the hot TV lights. This made the younger John F. Kennedy look much more confident.