US presidential hopefuls Bernie Sanders (from left), Hillary Clinton and Martin O’Malley take the stage for the third Democratic presidential primary debate at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Saturday. — AP
US presidential hopefuls Bernie Sanders (from left), Hillary Clinton and Martin O’Malley take the stage for the third Democratic presidential primary debate at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Saturday. — AP
Hillary Clinton and other US Democratic presidential hopefuls used Donald Trump as a political bogeyman on Saturday to highlight their own calls to defeat jihadist extremists without the bigotry and bluster brandished by their top Republican rival.
Former secretary of state Ms Clinton, Senator Bernie Sanders and Maryland ex-governor Martin O’Malley each hit on the need to boost national security, raise the minimum wage and protect rights of women, minorities and the disadvantaged as they faced off in New Hampshire in their party’s third debate of the primary election season.
They had heated exc-hanges on the economy, guns, tackling the terrorist threat, and the role of the US abroad.
The candidates took turns hitting the Trump punching bag, as they hurled outrage about the Republican’s fear-mongering and recent controversial comments about immigrants — in particular, his call for a ban on Muslims entering the US.
“He is becoming ISIS’s best recruiter,” Ms Clinton said, claiming that jihadists are “showing videos of Mr Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists.” Mr Trump fired back on that point, tweeting overnight that MS Clinton had “lied.”
The New York Times was among several media outlets that found no proof to back up Ms Clinton’s claim
Mr O’Malley also offered a harsh rebuke to the “political danger” wielded by Mr Trump and other “unscrupulous leaders (who) try to turn us upon each other.”
Ms Clinton also backed elements of President Barack Obama’s strategy to fight ISIS militants.
She came under fire from Republicans even before the debate was over for optimistically saying “we now finally are where we need to be” in Syria, and was criticised by Ms Sanders for being too quick to push for regime change.
Meanwhile, Democratic Mr Sanders on Sunday apo-logised to his rival Mr Clinton for inadvertently breaching into her election database to access information about her voters. “Yes, I apologise,” Mr Sanders said replying to a question after he acknowledged that his presidential election campaign “by mistake” intruded into the election data base of Ms Clinton. He said the individual responsible for this has been fired.
