Saturday’s Democratic debate looked way too calmed for a White House nominee dispute, as Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton decided to move past their recent problems, caused by a breach of the former Secretary of State campaign’s valuable voter data. The two were concentrated in talking about national security, Americans’ heightened terrorism fears and the economy, says Chicago Tribune.
The Democratic debate wasn’t as tense as expected
Many expected a more fierce Democratic debate on Saturday, when Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton met for the first time after an interesting case of stolen information. It looks like Sanders’ team gained some intel following a breach in Clinton’s campaign, information used to target voters and anticipate what issues might motivate them, confirms the same source.
The Democratic National Committee was quick to act and temporarily cut off the access of Sanders’ team to its own data. “This is not the type of campaign that we run.”, said Sanders. A worker involved in the breach was fired and two more were suspended, after the whole situation was proclamed inadequate by Sanders.
Trump was Hillary Clinton’s main target
Clinton rather preferred to talk at the Democratic debate about Donald Trump, the front-runner from the Republican party. “Mr. Trump has a great capacity to use bluster and bigotry to inflame people,” said the former Secretary of State, quoted by Chicago Tribune. Clinton also called Trump ISIS’ “best recruiter”. However, Hillary Clinton accepted Sanders’ apologizes. “We should move on, because I don’t think the American people are all that interested in this.”
A more discreet presence in the race for the nomination, Martin O’Malley was the prime voice at the Democratic debate on Saturday. The former Maryland Gov. was aggressive, repeatedly talking over moderators and accusing his rivals of having outdated views on foreign policy, says the same source.
There was one point on which all three candidates agreed on: U.S. should not launch a ground war against ISIS. But their tactics differed. Clinton recommended more direct action, suggesting a no-fly zone over part of Syria and removing Bashar Al-Assad from power.
ISIS should be United States’ main issue, says Sanders
“If the United States does not lead, there is not another leader — there is a vacuum,” she said. Saders had other opinion. He claimed that U.S.’ priority should be defeating the Islamic State, calling Assad a “secondary issue”. “Yeah, regime change is easy, getting rid of dictators is easy. But before you do that, you’ve got to think about what happens the day after.”
The foreign policy focus has took Sanders’ momentum in the Democratic race. The senator can talk economy, but is less confortable when it comes to foreign policy issues, which is a seeked topic among Americans after the latest ISIS attacks. Saturday’s debate was the first for Democrats since the shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., where 14 people were killed by a married couple, confirms Chicago Tribune. This means that national security has been pushed to the forefront of the 2016 White House race.
