Hillary Clinton-Bernie Sanders New York debate turns into slugfest

Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton and rival Bernie Sanders challenged each other’s judgment and experience in a fiercely combative US presidential debate ahead of Tuesday’s crucial nominating contest in New York.

Ms Clinton and Mr Sanders attacked each other over Wall Street, gun control and other issues on Thursday in a series of exchanges that laid bare the mounting pressures on them both but seemed unlikely to change the dynamics of the race.

While far short of the brawls that have characterised Republican debates, the tone reflected a contentious turn in the Democratic contest. Ms Clinton and Mr Sanders out-shouted each other while a split crowd roared its approval.

“If you’re both screaming at each other, the viewers won’t be able to hear either of you,” moderator Wolf Blitzer of CNN warned during the debate at the historic Navy Yard in the New York borough of Brooklyn.

As the two-hour debate ended, social media analyst Brandwatch said Mr Sanders had more than 173,000 mentions on Twitter, 55 per cent of them positive, while Ms Clinton had more than 191,000 mentions, 54 percent of them negative. Ms Clinton’s mentions were more negative than positive in two out of the three previous debates.

In Manhattan, Republican front-runner Donald Trump, 69, spoke at a party fundraiser while his rivals voiced fears of a disaster in the November 8 presidential election unless they got the nomination.

As protesters chanted outside and waved signs, Mr Trump aligned himself with what he said were the “New York values” of hard work and compassion.

Rival Ted Cruz, a US senator from Texas, charged in a debate earlier this year that Mr Trump’s version of New York values were basically Democratic positions.

Mr Cruz, 45, pointed to opinion polls showing the New York billionaire losing badly to Ms Clinton and getting far less support from women and minority voters.

Another Republican candidate, Ohio governor John Kasich, 63, said Republican candidates for the Congress would be at risk if the candidate topping the ballot was negative.

Both Mr Trump and Ms Clinton, who represented New York in the US Senate, have big leads in state polls heading into Tuesday’s New York contest.

Mr Trump needs a win to further his drive toward the 1,237 delegates needed for the nomination, and avoid a contested July convention that could sow Republican chaos.