Throughout the presidential campaign, the Democratic side has attempted to be more professional and collected than their Republican counterparts this race, who often sling mud over silly things like the legitimacy of one's citizenship. In recent news, Hillary Clinton has been losing her cool against her only rival, Bernie Sanders, who has vowed to keep his campaign negative. Clinton feels as if he has broken this vow.
A higher-up campaign aide in the Clinton camp told CNN that they refused to do any more debates with Sanders until he changed his "tone." He was referring to Sanders simply suggesting that he may use harsher rhetoric against the secretary. During this interview, he also bashed Sanders for his thinking that superdelegates will help him since they can change their vote, even though that is exactly how they work -- if Sanders became the frontrunner, they would most likely vote for him.
“There’s no risk. She’s done very well in the debates. The debates have been very good, but Senator Sanders doesn’t get to decide when we debate, particularly when he’s running a very negative campaign against us. Let’s see if he goes back to the kind of tone he said he was going to set early on. If he does that, then we’ll talk about debates."
This is a slightly panicked response to the excitement Sanders generates at debates. The campaign later accused the Sanders campaign of "playing political games" because they rejected three dates for a New York debate before the primary. The Sanders campaign said that the proposed times "didn't make sense." One was the day before the Wisconsin primary and on the day of a basketball game, and another took place in the morning. Moreover, they say the Clinton campaign rejected proposed dates as well. The Sanders camp wants as many people to watch the debate as possible. This makes the Clinton campaign look like they do not want many people to watch the debate, as Clinton seems to be polling well in New York, an important state for delegate count. This could be because they do not want Sanders to get out his message, because it is not as well advertised and not as many people know about him, on top of the support he gains after debates.
The real exhibition of Clinton letting her hair down to attack Sanders was her reaction to a Greenpeace activist. At a Clinton rally in New York, Sanders supporters chanted "she wins, we lose," to which she responded, "oh, I know the Bernie people came to say that... What I regret is they don't want the contrast between my experience, my plans, my vision, what I know I can get done, and what my opponent is promising." When the rally ended and Clinton started going through the audience, a Greenpeace activist went up to her. "Thank you for tackling climate change. Will you act on your word to reject fossil fuel money in the future in your campaign?" Clinton immediately went on the offensive, grimacing and pointing her finger in the face of the young activist. "I do not have, I have money from people who work for fossil fuel companies. I'm so sick, I'm so sick of the Sanders campaign lying about this, I'm sick of it!"
Greenpeace is independent and has not endorsed any presidential candidate. Their research found that, throughout her career, lobbyists working on Clinton's behalf for gas and oil industries gave her $1.2 million, up to $4.5 million when counting money from super PACs. In just this cycle, such donors have given Clinton $300,000. The activist seen in the video later said, "we have asked Secretary Clinton multiple times to take our pledge to reject money from fossil fuel interests, yet she continues to downplay the significance of these contributions." She also said she was "shocked" at her reaction. A Clinton spokesman later still attempted to claim Clinton had no money from fossil fuel companies and tried to make Sanders look guilty. However, the activist was not concerned about Sanders, but about Clinton.
There is little criticism of Clinton that Sanders made outside of debates that he has not also brought up in debates. He will bring up his accusations of corruption to her face. The Clinton campaign is further trying to make Sanders look like a joke, as the media has. One rally has her saying it is no wonder young people support Sanders because "he goes around telling young people he's gonna give them free college." This does not help her with the vote of the youth, with which she is struggling, nor does it help her with the more liberal vote when she bashes liberal ideas and the concerns of the liberal youth. Sanders has since called Clinton out for accusing him of lying.
Are things genuinely heating up on the Democratic side of the race? Has this side gotten as childish as the GOP's shenanigans, like Donald Trump insulting Ted Cruz's wife and questioning his citizenship? Is Clinton deteriorating in reaction to Sander's five most recent primary wins? The primary news is heating up once more.
