Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was off to a great start at Sunday night's Democratic primary debate. Clinton said that she'd work to raise the federal minimum wage and ensure equal pay for women in her first 100 days in office. But as things got heated between Clinton and fellow contender Bernie Sanders, things got tougher for Clinton.
First, Clinton struggled through a question about millennial voters, congratulating a YouTube creator (YouTube co-sponsored the debate along with NBC News) on garnering 5 million viewers, rather than 5 million subscribers. Clinton then accused Sanders of wanting to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, which Sanders isn't trying to do.
Before Sunday's debate, Sanders released a new health care plan that would provide Medicare for all Americans. According to Sanders' campaign, the plan would cost roughly $1.38 trillion a year. Sanders' campaign website says that the proposal would "build on the success of the Affordable Care Act" — not dismantle it, as Clinton suggested.
Clinton also accused Sanders of wanting to dismantle the Dodd-Frank Act, which isn't true either. The discussion came as Sanders pointed to the fact that Goldman Sachs paid Clinton millions in personal speaking fees. America should "break up these huge institutions on Wall Street," he added. Sanders suggested that Clinton is a defender of Wall Street, while Clinton argued that Dodd-Frank allows the United States to break up the institutions that Sanders mentioned.
"I personally believe that President Obama's work to push through the Dodd-Frank bill and then to sign it was one of the most important regulatory schemes we've had since the 1930s," Clinton said at the debate. "So I'm going to defend Dodd-Frank and I'm going to defend President Obama."
Clinton's remarks came off as a bit defensive — Sanders attacked Clinton for allegedly receiving Wall Street money and he didn't say he wanted to dismantle the Dodd-Frank Act. While the former Secretary of State made some great points about racism in policing, some of her other statements at the debate show that the Democratic primary is still anyone's game.
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