LF: Hillary's fury at being asked during Democratic debate if she will drop out if she is indicted over emails: 'I am not even going to answer that'

Title: Hillary's fury at being asked during Democratic debate if she will drop out if she is indicted over emails: 'I am not even going to answer that'
Source: Daily Mail Online
URL Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art ... s-m-not-going-answer-that.html
Published: Mar 10, 2016
Author: Francesca Chambers, White House Correspo
Post Date: 2016-03-10 08:52:36 by cranky
Keywords: None
Views: 1592
Comments: 9

Hillary Clinton refused to entertain a question tonight about her email scandal and whether she would drop out of the race if she's indicted.

'Oh for goodness - that is not going to happen. I am not going to even answer that question,' she angrily told Univision's Jorge Ramos during tonight's Democratic debate.

Ramos had to ask her the question twice before she finally acknowledged it, and when she finally did, she was visibly annoyed. Bernie Sanders likewise avoided taking a stance on whether the controversy was a blimp on the radar or a worthy issue and instead changed the subject to climate change and wealth inequality.

The candidates were facing off in their second debate of the week, this time in Miami, Florida, ahead of Tuesday's primary in the state. They also debated on Sunday in Michigan - a state that Sanders went on to win in yesterday's election, injecting new energy into his long-shot campaign.

Debating in state where a quarter of the population in Latino, illegal immigration was a top issue this evening, and both candidates promised to continue President Barack Obama's policy of not deporting children. Sanders took it a step further than either Obama or Clinton - who said she would prioritize criminals but didn't commit to ending all deportations - and promised not to send anyone with a clean record out of the country.

Also, in an intensely personal moment Clinton admitted that she struggles to connect with voters in the same way as Obama and her husband, a former two-term president.

Democrats Bernie Sanders (left) and Hillary Clinton (right) wave to the audience tonight in Miami, Florida as they face off on the debate stage for a second time this week

Clinton acknowledged the defect after The Washington Post's Karen Tumulty questioned her about her low honesty score with voters.

'Is there anything in your own actions and the decisions that you yourself have made that would foster this kind of mistrust?' Tumulty asked.

The former first lady told her, 'Obviously, it's painful for me to hear that.'

But she said, when you are in public life, 'even if you believe that it's not an opinion that you think is fair or founded, you do have to take responsibility, and I do.'

'I also have...very much committed, to the best of my ability, my energies and efforts to helping people. That's something I care deeply about,' Clinton said, 'and I will continue to do that.'

The ex-cabinet secretary, who started her career working for the Children's Defense Fund after Yale law school said she wants people to know they 'can count on me.'

'Look, I have said before and it won't surprise anybody to hear me say it, this is not easy for me. It's not easy to do what I think is right, to help people,' she said, or to hear stories about families who have been separated because of deportation, like a woman who had just questioned her from the audience.

Clinton said, 'I am not a natural politician, in case you haven't noticed, like my husband or President Obama.'

'So I have a view that I just have to do the best I can, get the results I can, make a difference in people's lives, and hope that people see that I'm fighting for them and that I can improve conditions economically and other ways that will benefit them and their families.'

Bernie Sanders got angry at Hillary Clinton for bringing up his support of a 2006 amendment that ensured that the Minutemen, a civilian militia, didn't get ratted out to the Mexican government

Bernie Sanders suggested that Hillary Clinton only picked out pieces of his congressional record and used those to deliver attacks against her rival

Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton exchanged blows on immigration, the auto bailout and her paid speeches to Wall Street at tonight's Democratic debate in Miami

She also promised her emails will not be issue in the election and her party's voters shouldn't let it bother them.

'I am not concerned about it. I am not worried about it. And no Democrat or American should be either,' she said.

Clinton again apologized for her behavior, but stated that it was 'not prohibited' or 'disallowed.'

'It wasn't the best choice. I made a mistake,' she said.

Ramos wanted to know who gave her 'permission' to operate a server out of her home and use a private account to conduct government business.

'There was no permission to be asked,' a clearly frustrated Clinton asserted. 'It had been done by my predecessors. It was permitted.'

Hosted by Univision and broadcast simultaneously on Fusion and CNN, immigration repeatedly came up and the candidates took turns accusing each other of lying about their position on the issue.

Clinton brought up a vote for an amendment Sanders made in 2006 in support of the Minutemen, when he was running for the Senate, but still in the House.

HELLO AGAIN: The candidates were sparring for the second time this week. On Sunday, they debated in Flint, Michigan. Tonight they were in Miami, Florida

Hosted by Univision and broadcast simultaneously on Fusion and CNN, immigration repeatedly came up tonight and the candidates took turns accusing each other of lying about their position on the issue as they argued in front of and took questions from a live audience

'No, I do not support vigilantes and that is a horrific statement, an unfair statement to make,' Sanders shot back.

The U.S. senator said Clinton has a tendency to pick small sections out of large pieces of legislation he supported or opposed and zero in on them.

'Madame Secretary, I will match my record against yours any day of the week,' he said as he ripped into her over he claim in the last debate that he voted against the auto bailout.

Clinton was quick on the draw. 'Let's do that,' she said. 'Let's talk about the auto bailout.'

The former New York senator walked through the 2008 debate and both of their votes for a standalone bailout bill that failed in the Senate.

A month later, a new piece of legislation that contained the money that would be used for the auto bailout came along and Sanders voted against it she said, after President Obama asked Democrats to vote for it.

'It was a hard vote,' she said. 'A lot of the votes you make are hard votes.'

Sanders did vote against that bill, but as he said again tonight, it was because the money for the auto industry was nuzzled in the broader Wall Street bailout package.

The candidates were on the same page tonight as they ridiculed Donald Trump tonight. Sanders continued to hit the Republican front-runner for his claims in the past that President Obama was lying about his birth records and may not have been born in America

That was the bailout of the 'recklessness, irresponsibility and illegal behavior of Wall Street,' he proclaimed.

The Vermont senator turned the tables on Clinton, who he beat yesterday in Michigan, and said she voted for the legislation at the time because it helped big banks in New York - her constituents.

'And then you go to Detroit,' he said, 'and suddenly this legislation helps the automobile workers.'

Sanders has throughout the campaign implied that Clinton is in the pocket of Wall Street and the billionaires that run it because she's collected so much money from them since resigning as secretary of state.

Asked about his calls for her to release the transcripts of her speeches to them tonight, he said, when you get '$225,000 for giving a speech, and she gave several speeches to Goldman Sachs, one of the Wall Street financial institutions whose greed and illegal behavior helped destroy our economy a number of years ago, when you get paid $225,000, that means that that speech must have been an extraordinarily wonderful speech.

'I would think that a speech so great that you got paid so much money for, you would like to share it with the American people. So I think she should release the transcript.'

Even Clinton had to laugh at the back-handed compliment that's become his favorite attack line on the campaign trail in the last week.

Directly asked if he believed she was saying one thing in public and another thing in private, Sanders said, 'That is exactly what releasing the transcripts will tell us.

'There is a reason why Wall Street has provided $15 million just in the last reporting period to the secretary's super PAC,' he said. 'Now, the secretary says it doesn't influence her. Well, that's what every politician says who gets money from special interests.'

For her part, Clinton went after Sanders for praising ex-Cuban dictator Fidel Castro in a 1985 interview for bringing health care and education to his country.

Sanders once praised the 'revolution of values' in the Communist country, she said, 'I just couldn't disagree more.'

'You know, if the values are that you oppress people, you disappear people, you imprison people or even kill people for expressing their opinions, for expressing freedom of speech, that is not the kind of revolution of values that I ever want to see anywhere.'

In tonight's debate Sanders did not disavow his assessment and said, 'Cuba is, of course, an authoritarian un-democratic country.'

'But, on the other hand, it would be wrong not to state that in Cuba they've made some good advances in healthcare – they are sending doctors all over the world – they have made some progress in education.'

The former secretary of state is ahead in the delegate count and her campaign claimed today that it will soon have an 'insurmountable' lead over Sanders. Senior aides are balking at a timeline but they believe it will be sooner rather than later

YES OR NO?: Univision's Jorge Ramos pressed the candidates to commit to a deportation policy that doesn't include children

The candidates were on the same page tonight as they ridiculed Donald Trump tonight, however.

Sanders continued to hit the Republican front-runner for his claims in the past that President Obama was lying about his birth records and may not have been born in America.

'I think that the American people are never going to elect a president who insults Mexicans, who insults Muslims, who insults African Americans,' he said.

Neither would explicitly call Trump a racist, despite goading from Tumulty to do so.

'If I am so fortunate enough to be the Democratic nominee, there will be a lot of time to talk about him,' Clinton said of Trump.

But she claimed she lead the way in criticizing him. 'Others are also joining in making clear that his rhetoric, his demagoguery, his trafficking in prejudice and paranoia has no place in our political system,' she said. 'Especially from somebody running for president who couldn't decide whether or not to disavow the Ku Klux Klan and David Duke.

'So people can draw their own conclusions about him. I will just end by saying this. You don't make America great by getting rid of everything that made America great.'

Clinton said she would as the nominee 'take every opportunity to criticize him.'

'I'm not going to engage in the kind of language he uses,' she pledged. 'I think there's a better way for the American people.'

The Sanders campaign said tonight that the Clinton campaign is mistaken in its calculations.

FIGHT NIGHT IN MIAMI: Democratic Debate attendees file out of the Miami Dade Kendall Campus gymnasium after tonight's two-hour competition between Clinton and Sanders

After Tuesday the southern states Clinton does so well in will have run their course and it will be the senator's time to shine as the West heads to the polls, campaign manager Jeff Weaver told DailyMail.com tonight.He threw out Washington as an example of a state that has a large pledged delegate count that he expects Sanders to do well in.

Also on the horizon - Illinois, Missouri and Ohio. Weaver wouldn't pin them down specifically as targets but he acknowledged, given the senator's performance in states with similar demographics, like Michigan, that they're areas in which his candidate could do well.

Clinton attempted to downplay her opponent's victory there tonight, saying at the top of the debate of the Great Lakes State and Mississippi, which also voted yesterday, 'I won one of the contests and lost another close one.'

'I am continuing to work hard for every single vote across our country. I was pleased that I got 100,000 more votes last night than my opponent and more delegates.'

She added, 'This is a marathon, and it's a marathon that can only be carried out by the kind of inclusive campaign that I'm running, a campaign that reaches out to everybody, a campaign that offers real positive solutions to the problems that we face, a campaign that is based on how together we can make progress, because I am a progressive who likes to get things done.

'So I'm excited about the upcoming contests, including right here in Florida. And we'll continue to work as hard as I can to earn the vote of every single voter.'

Sanders predictably saw it a different way. It was considered by 'some people,' he said, as 'one of the major political upsets in modern American history.'

'I believe that our message of the need for people to stand up and tell corporate America and Wall Street that they cannot have it all is resonating across this country,' Sanders stated. 'And I think in the coming weeks and months, we are going to continue to do extremely well, win a number of these primaries, and convince superdelegates that Bernie Sanders is the strongest candidate to defeat Donald Trump.'

Ol Jorge better update his life / burial insurance, wear a bullet proof vest, keep guards on his car, not board any airplanes, have a food taster, and stay out of Fort Marcy Park.