SIX days before Christmas, the three Democratic presidential candidates faced off in New Hampshire for the final Democratic presidential debate of 2015 and offered their opinions on issues such as terrorism, gun control, healthcare and foreign policy.
Hosted by ABC, the two-and-a-half hour debate took place Saturday, Dec. 19, in New Hampshire where Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders holds the lead, despite former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s significant national lead. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley also participated in the debate.
During the early stages of the discussion, Sanders apologized to Clinton for a breach of voter data – which is typically shielded by a firewall from other opponents – involving at least one campaign aide.
“This is not the type of campaign that we run, and if I find anybody else involved in this, they will also be fired,” the senator said.
Clinton then thanked Sanders for the apology and the debate pressed forward without much time spent on the breach.
“Now that, I think you know, we have resolved your data, we have agreed on an independent inquiry, we should move on. Because I don’t think the American people are all that interested in this,” she said.
Foreign policy and terrorism
Terrorism consumed the first half of the debate, and all candidates agreed that air strikes on ISIS were necessary, as well as a Sunni army to fight jihadi fighters on the ground.
Clinton expressed support for sending special operations forces to Syria. And when asked if she would shoot down a Syrian military aircraft or Russian airplane, she responded that she didn’t think it would come to that point.
“We are already de-conflicting air space.
“I am advocating the no-fly zone because I think it would help us on the ground to protect Syrians; I’m also advocating because I think it gives us some leverage in our conversations with Russia,” she said.
Sanders was much more skeptical about American involvement beyond bombing, and said the US cannot fight the Islamic State and the Assad regime simultaneously.
“I worry too much that Secretary Clinton is too much into regime change and a little bit too aggressive without knowing what the unintended consequences might be,” Sanders said.
In his opening statement, O’Malley addressed the issue by saying the United States would only defeat ISIS “if we hold true to the values and the freedom that unites us, which means we must never surrender to them terrorists, must never surrender our Americans values to racists, must never surrender to the fascists pleas of billionaires with big mouths.”
Gun control
Following an ISIS-inspired mass shooting in San Bernardino earlier this month, the former Secretary of State also said she does support Republican front-runner Donald Trump’s idea that arming more Americans will make citizens safer.
“Guns, in and of themselves, in my opinion will not make Americans safer. We lose 33,000 people a year already to gun violence. Arming more people to do what I think is not the appropriate response to terrorism,” Clinton said.
Sanders cited that more than half of the population in Vermont – a state with virtually no gun control – owns guns, but said he believes there is a consensus on sensible gun safety regulations.
“Who denies that it is crazy to allow people to own guns who are criminals or are mentally unstable? We’ve got to eliminate the gun show loophole. In my view, we have got to see that weapons designed by the military to kill people are not in the hands of civilians,” he said.
O’Malley cited his own track record when responding to the issue, saying he was the only candidate on Saturday’s stage that approved comprehensive gun safety legislation with a ban on combat assault weapons. However, he said he would not confiscate semi-automatic rifles that an estimated seven to 10 million Americans currently own.
Government programs and the middle class
Contrasts emerged between Sanders and Clinton when it came to addressing domestic issues. Clinton vowed she would not raise taxes on the middle class, specifically those making less than $250,000 annually.
“That is off the table as far as I’m concerned,” Clinton said. “That is a pledge that I am making.”
She said the cost of paid leave could be covered by increasing taxes on the wealthy.
However, Sanders said Clinton’s plan would exempt everyone but 2 to 3 percent of American families, and it would rule out the possibility of any new programs similar to Social Security, which are funded by national taxes.
“She is disagreeing with FDR on Social Security, LBJ on Medicare, and with the vast majority of progressive Democrats in the House and the Senate, who are fighting to end the disgrace of the United States being the only major country on Earth that doesn’t provide paid family and medical leave,” Sanders said.
The senator discussed his own proposal for paid leave, which he said would cost the average household just $1.61 per week.
“Now, you can say that’s a tax on the middle class. It will provide three months paid family and medical leave for the working families of this country. I think, Secretary Clinton, $1.61 a week is a pretty good investment,” he said.
Donald Trump
Sanders and Clinton also agreed they dislike Republican front-runner Donald Trump.
Sanders said Trump’s popularity reflects Americans’ fears of another terrorist attack and put it in the context of stagnant wages, increasing inequality and widespread disaffection with the political process, according to The New Yorker.
“Somebody like a Trump comes along and says, ‘I know the answers. The answer is that all of the Mexicans, they’re criminals and rapists. We’ve got to hate the Mexicans. Those are your enemies. We hate all the Muslims, because all of the Muslims are terrorists. We’ve got to hate the Muslims.’ Meanwhile, the rich get richer,” he said.
Clinton called Trump, who suggested a controversial ban on all Muslims entering the United States, a powerful tool for the Islamic State.
“He is becoming ISIS’ best recruiter. They are going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists.”
Steve Elmendorf, a veteran of Democratic presidential and congressional campaigns, said focusing on Trump was a good strategy for the democratic candidates.
“He provides a useful foil to remind Democrats what the stakes of the election are,” Elmendorf, who is supporting Clinton, told The Wall Street Journal.
Even if Trump doesn’t win the nomination, Elmendorf told the Journal that “it’s in the Democrats’ interest to make the Republican Party own him.
Winners and losers
Various publications had different takes on who won Saturday’s debate.
The New Yorker magazine said there were no winners; Washington Post political reporter Chris Cillizza said Clinton won, while Sanders and O’Malley lost; in an opinion piece, Fox News contributor Douglas Schoen wrote that Clinton won, executing a “masterful strategy,” while O’Malley lost.
“The former secretary of state was the only one on stage Saturday night who looked like she could step into the presidency tomorrow,” Cillizza wrote, citing that her knowledge was evidently significantly greater than her opponents, and that she often focused on the differences between Democratic candidates and Trump rather than disagreements between members of her party.
Cillizza pointed out that O’Malley attempted to portray Sanders and Clinton as old Washington politicians and highlight that he was the youngest candidate. However, Cillizza said this made him appear too scripted and forced.
Schoen wrote Clinton was “the most balanced candidate on how she’d manage the economy.”
He also wrote that Sanders was “completely sincere and passionate, showcasing his major selling points.”
While O’Malley has experience, Schoen said he is not appealing to voters.
“[O’Malley did] his best, but flopped on a number of issues. He took swipes at both Clinton and Sanders that won’t resonate with viewers and voters,” he wrote.
Separate from the issues discussed, Cillizza said there was no justification for hosting the final debate less than a week before Christmas.
“Unless the goal is to ensure that said debate is lightly-watched and, therefore, any mistakes made by the presumptive frontrunner are lessened,” he wrote on “The Fix,” a political blog for the Post.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus expressed a similar view.
“It’s clear the Democrat establishment worked hard to bury their debate on a Saturday night just days before Christmas, when few would be watching, in order to prevent the American people from seeing Hillary Clinton’s record of dishonesty and her role as the architect of the Obama administration’s failed strategy for confronting radical Islamic terrorism,” Priebus said in a statement.
The final debate came less than two months before the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.
