Leftist Bernie Sanders attacked frontrunner Joe Biden on foreign policy Tuesday, but found himself fighting accusations of sexism in the final presidential debate before Democrats begin choosing who challenges incumbent Donald Trump in November’s election.
With no candidate yet to carve out a clear lead less than three weeks to go before the first votes in the
The largely civilized showdown defied earlier expectations of fireworks, with tensions largely held in check during the two-hour debate.
But a rift between Sanders and fellow Senator Elizabeth Warren appeared to widen
The candidates tangled over everything from troop deployments and foreign policy to health care, international trade, climate change and a woman’s chance of winning the White House.
Sanders, 78, assailed former vice president Biden, 77, over his vote in support of the 2003 Iraq war as the modern-day tensions in the Middle East dominated the opening exchanges.
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With Washington’s conflict with Iran as the backdrop, non-interventionist Sanders drew a sharp contrast, saying that while he opposed an Iraq war that was “based on lies,” former vice president Biden trumpeted the effort.
“I thought they were lying,” Sanders said of the Bush administration’s justifications for war in 2002. “I didn’t believe them for a moment. Joe saw it differently.”
Biden said he had long acknowledged the war was “a mistake” but refrained from sparring with Sanders over Iraq.
Instead, Biden appealed for unity in preventing Trump from winning a second term.
“The American character is on the ballot,” Biden said. “Not what Donald Trump is spewing out — the hate, the xenophobia, the racism. That’s not what we are as a nation.”
Each candidate is desperate for a breakout moment that could give them the vital momentum heading into the Iowa caucuses on February 3 which begins the presidential primary season.
The four candidates in the top tier — Biden, Sanders, Warren and former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg — are bunched together in polling. Senator Amy Klobuchar and billionaire activist Tom Steyer rounded out the debate participants in Iowa’s capital Des Moines.
For months, Sanders and Warren have battled peacefully for the right to wave the campaign’s progressive flag. But their non-aggression pact unraveled in recent days, with Warren
“I didn’t say it,” Sanders insisted
Warren said he did, before insisting that she was “not here to try to fight with Bernie.”
She then proceeded to highlight the
But when the debate concluded, signs of lingering animosity remained: viral video shows Warren refusing to shake Sanders’s outstretched hand and instead of speaking briefly to the senator.
Progressive feud
While lacking the effervescence of
Sanders, who suffered a heart attack in November but has enjoyed a mini-surge in the polls in recent weeks, made Biden his number one target.
“I just don’t think that Biden’s record is going to bring forth the energy that we need to defeat Trump,” Sanders tweeted as he released a damning three-minute anti-Biden video just before the debate.
The
“They haven’t been doing great
The debate risks being overshadowed by a historic political drama: Trump’s looming impeachment trial in the Senate next
There were no disagreements among Democrats that a Senate impeachment trial ought to proceed, with Warren
Polling is tight in Iowa, with Biden at 20.7 percent support and Sanders, Buttigieg, and Warren all less than five percentage points back, according to a RealClearPolitics average of polls.
Klobuchar, credited with a crisp performance in the previous debate, was well behind, at seven percent. Steyer is at 2.7 percent.
But the race remains fluid, with a recent Des Moines Register poll saying six in 10 voters could still be persuaded.
AFP
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