Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders engaged in their most heated debate so far in Brooklyn Thursday night, but it still fell short of the acrimony in the down and dirty Republican primary that features personal attacks between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump or Trump and Marco Rubio before Rubio quit the race.
Held on a weekday night in prime television time as opposed to most of the other Democratic debates, the CNN-sponsored event was just five days before the crucial New York primary.
Among other things, the exchanges between the two featured Sanders’ questions about Clinton’s judgment in making money speaking to Wall Street firms and voting for the war in Iraq and Clinton’s allegations that Sanders lacks a grasp of policy and makes promises on which he can’t deliver.
But the most interesting issue that wasn’t brought up — either by the CNN questioners or by Sanders — was the investigation of Clinton’s use of private email to exchange official messages, some of it classified, when she was secretary of state.
It’s a bit puzzling why Sanders, who isn’t shy about casting aspersions on Clinton’s character when it comes to Wall Street, has shied away from this.
Back in October, he famously said he was “sick and tired of hearing about (her) damn emails.” Since then, he has said he thinks the investigation is a “very serious issue,” but there is a legal process taking place and “I do not want to politicize that issue. It is not my style.”
Sanders may have made a mistake early on by boxing himself in with his flippant statement on the emails. They, along with the attack on the U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi, Libya in 2012, are red meat for voters who don't trust Clinton.
But Sanders may not be leaving much on the table by skirting those issues. His appeal apparently is directed more at people interested in income redistribution than national security.
But one thing is for sure. The emails and Benghazi will be brought up in the general election debates if Clinton, as expected, gets the nomination.
