Bernie Sanders showed class and Hillary Clinton appreciation in Democratic Debate
The Democratic Debate was pleasurable to watch. It showed that inasmuch as there were many differences between the candidates, no one felt the necessity for personal attacks. One hopes that each candidate will ensure their surrogates do the same.
Anderson Cooper attempted to be the spokesperson for the Republicans and the Right Wing by attempting to rough-handle Hillary Clinton on the email issue. The three minute segment changed the tone of the debate. The question became demonstratively more substantive.
Hillary Clinton did a great job in answering the questions about her email server. See the transcript below for exactly what she said.
Journalists are supposed to be the dam that holds back the political crap that clouds discourse by inserting fallacies and inaccuracies. For all of those that are concerned with Hillary Clinton’s private server, the reality is there is no private server.
The server was connected to the Internet grid and as such the US government, big brother, always had all of her emails. Moreover, all communications that went to others within the government were implicitly captured. This is a witch hunt that uses the technological ignorance of Americans in the attempt to infuse ethical doubts about Hillary Clinton. There is much to dislike about some of Hillary Clinton’s Wall Street friendly policies. One does not need to distort the woman’s character to have a substantive policy discussion.
After Anderson Cooper’s attack-like questioning, Bernie Sanders came to Hillary Clinton’s defense. He had the most memorable statement. “Let me say this. Let me say — let me say something that may not be great politics. But I think the secretary is right, and that is that the American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn e-mails,” said Sanders. He then proceeded to tell Cooper the substantive issues that should be discussed in the debate. The issues that really affect the American people.
That was enough to get Cooper off the subject after he got Chafee to engage and Hillary Clinton said no to further comments on the subject.
One could not be prouder of the performance of the Democratic candidates . They displayed what one hopes political discourse would look like in America.
Democratic Debate transcript of Hillary Clinton’s ’email scandal’ segment
Anderson Cooper: And welcome back. We are live in Nevada, in Las Vegas, at the Wynn Resort for the first Democratic presidential debate. The questions continue. We begin with Secretary Clinton. Secretary Clinton, you are going to be testifying before Congress next week about your e-mails. For the last eight months, you haven’t been able to put this issue behind you. You dismissed it; you joked about it; you called it a mistake. What does that say about your ability to handle far more challenging crises as president?
Hillary Clinton: Well, I’ve taken responsibility for it. I did say it was a mistake. What I did was allowed by the State Department, but it wasn’t the best choice. And I have been as transparent as I know to be, turning over 55,000 pages of my e-mails, asking that they be made public. And you’re right. I am going to be testifying. I’ve been asking to testify for some time and to do it in public, which was not originally agreed to. But let’s just take a minute here and point out that this committee is basically an arm of the Republican National Committee. It is a partisan vehicle, as admitted by the House Republican majority leader, Mr. McCarthy, to drive down my poll numbers. Big surprise. And that’s what they have attempted to do. I am still standing. I am happy to be part of this debate. And I intend to keep talking about the issues that matter to the American people. You know, I believe strongly that we need to be talking about what people talk to me about, like how are we going to make college affordable? How are we going to pay down student debt?
Anderson Cooper: Secretary…
Hillary Clinton: How are we going to get health care for everybody…
Anderson Cooper: Secretary Clinton, Secretary Clinton, with all due respect, it’s a little hard — I mean, isn’t it a little bit hard to call this just a partisan issue? There’s an FBI investigation, and President Obama himself just two days ago said this is a legitimate issue.
Hillary Clinton: Well, I never said it wasn’t legitimate. I said that I have answered all the questions and I will certainly be doing so again before this committee. But I think it would be really unfair not to look at the entire picture. This committee has spent $4.5 million of taxpayer money, and they said that they were trying to figure out what we could do better to protect our diplomats so that something like Benghazi wouldn’t happen again. There were already seven committee reports about what to do. So I think it’s pretty clear what their obvious goal is.
Anderson Cooper: Thank you.
Hillary Clinton: But I’ll be there. I’ll answer their questions. But tonight, I want to talk not about my e-mails, but about what the American people want from the next president of the United States.
Anderson Cooper: Senator Sanders?
Bernie Sanders: Let me say this. Let me say — let me say something that may not be great politics. But I think the secretary is right, and that is that the American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn e-mails.
Hillary Clinton: Thank you. Me, too. Me, too.
Bernie Sanders: You know? The middle class — Anderson, and let me say something about the media, as well. I go around the country, talk to a whole lot of people. Middle class in this country is collapsing. We have 27 million people living in poverty. We have massive wealth and income inequality. Our trade policies have cost us millions of decent jobs. The American people want to know whether we’re going to have a democracy or an oligarchy as a result of Citizens United. Enough of the e-mails. Let’s talk about the real issues facing America.
Hillary Clinton: Thank you, Bernie. Thank you.
