MILWAUKEE — Hillary Clinton, scrambling to recover from her double-digit defeat in the New Hampshire primary, repeatedly challenged Bernie Sanders' trillion-dollar policy plans at their presidential debate Thursday night and portrayed him as a big talker who needed to "level" with voters about the difficulty of accomplishing his agenda.
This new line of attack was a risky attempt to puncture Sanders' growing popularity before the next nominating contests in Nevada and South Carolina. Clinton is wagering that voters will care that Sanders has not provided a political strategy or clear financing plan to enact Medicare for all and provide free public colleges, and that such details will matter more to voters than his inspiring political message.
Clinton pounced from the start, after Sanders demurred from saying how much his ambitious plans would increase the size of the federal government. She stepped in and said that by her estimates, the government would grow 40 percent under Sanders. And rather than bashing him as she did at their debate last Thursday, she appeared to try to get under his skin by implying that he had not been transparent about the cost of his programs, such as his proposed expansion of government health care.
"This is not about math — this is about people's lives, and we should level with the American people," Clinton said. "Every progressive economist who has analyzed that say the numbers don't add up." She then repeated a jab at Sanders' reputation as a truth-teller that she would return to during the debate: "We should level with the American people about what we can do to get quality affordable health care."
"I don't know what economists Secretary Clinton is talking to," Sanders responded, insisting that families could come out with savings. "That is absolutely inaccurate."
Sanders, who has exuded confidence since his New Hampshire win, raising more than $6 million in the 24 hours after the polls closed there, was more pointed and even belittling of Clinton at points. He said bluntly that some of her attacks were wrong-headed, and he was dismissive after she talked about her plans to increase federal spending by about $100 billion a year. After Clinton responded to a question by saying, "once I'm in the White House," he began his next answer by saying, "Secretary Clinton, you're not in the White House yet," drawing some murmurs and jeers.
Sanders, who is facing pressure to appeal to racially diverse voters in Nevada and South Carolina, demonstrated little capacity to broaden his political message in compelling new directions beyond overhauling the economy, campaign finance and health care.
While he said that his Medicare-for-all program would save the average middle-class family $5,000 a year, he did not present his vision in any new way or frame the issue in personal terms for average voters. Instead, he stuck to the familiar themes of his stump speech, blasting America's "rigged economy" and calling for a "political revolution." His advisers said during the debate that his focus was on introducing himself to new voters around the country, who may be intrigued by his candidacy after days of news coverage about his huge win in New Hampshire.
The PBS debate, the sixth of the Democratic race but only the second to include just Clinton and Sanders, came at a moment of rising concern among Democrats about the strength of Clinton's candidacy and the electability of Sanders if he becomes the Democratic nominee. Clinton fared poorly among key parts of the Democratic electorate in the New Hampshire primary, losing a majority of the women who voted, as well as young people, who expressed mistrust of her on the campaign trail. Some party leaders fear she will not easily shake off these vulnerabilities in the coming contests. As for Sanders, some Democrats believe he is too liberal and his proposed tax increases too toxic to win a general election.
Clinton's pointed critique of Sanders was part of a new calculation by her campaign that the debate format, in which Clinton typically excels, was the best way to draw attention to Sanders' record and his minimal expertise in foreign policy. The Clinton campaign had been quick to criticize Sanders for saying in last Thursday's debate in Manchester, New Hampshire, that North Korea was run by "a handful of dictators," rather than the singular Kim Jong-un, and for comparing Iran to Cuba.
Sanders tried to strengthen his foreign policy credentials Thursday night by criticizing Clinton for telling CNN in 2014 that the children who entered the United States from Central America should be sent back, a statement that made some young Latinos question his commitment to their communities.
"I made it very clear that those children needed to be processed appropriately," Clinton said. But she said the United States also had to send a message to parents "not to send their children on this dangerous journey in the hands of smugglers."
"These are children," Sanders said. "I don't think we use them to send a message. I think we welcome them into this country."
The debate also included discussion of white working-class voters, who bolstered Clinton's 2008 campaign but overwhelmingly backed Sanders in Iowa and New Hampshire. When the candidates were asked how they would help this group, Clinton pointed to her proposals for coal-producing regions and to address persistent poverty in communities of all kinds. Sanders turned to trade deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement, which President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1994.
"You are a worker, white worker, black worker, who had a decent job — that manufacturing job is gone," Sanders said. "What have you got now? You're working at McDonald's."
Clinton's critique of Sanders' proposals and his record reflected a newly toughened tone and tactics from a campaign that has been flummoxed by Sanders' popularity. She and her team have been throwing everything at Sanders lately — "the kitchen sink," as he put it — with Clinton bashing him as dishonest and some prominent women who support Clinton seeking to shame young women backing Sanders.
Clinton, who careened last week from describing Sanders as her "esteemed opponent" to accusing him of smearing her as a Wall Street toady, put the political world on notice at Thursday's debate that she was going all-in on her campaign's latest approach: to portray Sanders as a politician who was not being honest with Americans and to position herself as a practical-minded leader who would continue the work of President Barack Obama.
"Why I am a staunch supporter of President Obama's principal accomplishment — namely the Affordable Care Act — is because I know how hard it was to get that done," Clinton said. "If you're having Medicare for all, single-payer, you need to level with people about what they will have at the end of the process you are proposing. And based on every analysis that I can find by people who are sympathetic to the goal, the numbers don't add up, and many people will actually be worse off than they are right now."
Several of Clinton's answers reflected an urgent political imperative: to maintain and energize her deep support among minority voters in order to offset Sanders' popularity with young people, liberals and some working-class white voters. Sanders won support from 83 percent of New Hampshire voters ages 18 to 29, and 60 percent of the liberal base there, according to exit polls, while Clinton did best with older and wealthier voters. She has pivoted quickly this week to highlight new endorsements from the political arm of the Congressional Black Caucus and to target a new television commercial at black voters in South Carolina, where the Feb. 27 primary is now a must-win contest for her.
In her opening statement, Clinton denounced discrimination against African-Americans in employment, education, housing and the criminal justice system. But she was matched by Sanders as he railed against a legal system in which young people have criminal records because of petty drug offenses while Wall Street executives escaped culpability for the great recession.
"Look, we are fighting for every vote that we can get, from women, from men, straight, gay, African-Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americans," Sanders said. "We are trying to bring America together around an agenda that works for working families and the middle class."
Asked about exit polls in New Hampshire that showed women supporting Sanders, rather than getting behind a candidate who could be the first female president, Clinton said, "I have spent my entire adult life working toward making sure women are empowered to make their own choices, even if that choice is not to vote for me."
She pointed out how many women were on the stage, with PBS NewsHour's Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff moderating. "We'll take our progress wherever we can find it," Clinton said.
When asked whether he was potentially blocking a milestone for women by challenging Clinton, Sanders said, "I think a Sanders victory would be of some historical accomplishment as well."