Live Blog: Democratic Debate from Flint
Posted: March 6, 2016 Filed under: 2016 elections, Live, Live Blog | Tags: CNN, live blog, Michigan Democratic Primary 2016 Debate 105 Comments
Good Evening!
Last night, Louisiana went big for Hillary! I was so proud to be part of a really good campaign effort by the Hillary Field Team and Louisiana Democrats. We managed to overwhelm the results of the caucuses in both Kansas and Nebraska given our state has a much higher delegate count. I will let the Republicans argue about the benefits of size. However, the next few weeks some of the really big important states will vote. This Tuesday, it will be the important state of Michigan. Tonight, there is a Democratic Debate from Flint, Michigan.
On Sunday night, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will face off in their seventh debate, less than a week after Clinton expanded her delegate lead on Super Tuesday and in-between additional primaries and caucuses on Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday.
CNN will host the debate, which begins at 8 p.m. ET, from the Frances Wilson Library on the University of Michigan’s campus in Flint.
Both candidates have repeatedly highlighted the water crisis in Flint during the campaign. Clinton has said that “what happened in Flint is immoral,” and Sanders called on Gov. Rick Snyder to resign a while ago. The crisis dates all the way back to 2014 when a state-appointed emergency manager decided to switch Flint’s water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River to save money. But the water from that river was corrosive and caused lead to seep into old pipes, which has left many Flint residents with long-term health effects associated with lead exposure and might have caused deadly cases of Legionnaires’ disease.
The debate will come just a day after voters headed to the polls or caucus sites in the Democratic race in Kansas, Louisiana and Nebraska, the same day as the Maine Democratic caucuses, and just two days before Michigan and Mississippi hold their primaries.
Clinton racked up a win in Louisiana’s primary Saturday by wide margins, 71 percent to Sanders’ 23 percent. But she also lost Nebraska and Kansas to her rival by several points in each contest.
Michigan has plenty of problems. Flint situation with the water and Detroit’s deterioration will likely be topics. We may also hear about the Auto bailout by the President.
It will be the last time the two will get to argue policy before the Michigan primary Tuesday, and it could possibly be a chance for the two to address the water crisis in Flint, where city residents suffered lead poisoning from the city’s water supply. Ahead of the highly anticipated debate, here are the latest poll numbers showing who is ahead in the race to the national convention.
Hillary Clinton
The former secretary of state has maintained a commanding lead over her main opponent, Sanders, throughout the election cycle. A recent CNN/ORC International conducted Feb. 24-27, found Clinton polling at 55 percent. A poll from Rasmussen Reports had her polling at 53 percent, still at a commanding lead over Sanders among likely voting Democrats. Clinton has won most of the primaries and caucuses so far, and going into the debates Sunday she also has more delegates than Sanders. Clinton has 601 pledged delegates so far, and with 457 superdelegates, that brings her total delegate count to 1,058.
Sanders is making a big play for Michigan because he’s falling farther and farther behind.
A win in a big industrial state could upend the race, they say — and Michigan figured to be especially receptive to the Vermont senator’s economic message.
But with just two days before the state’s delegate-rich primary, Sanders hasn’t yet made the sale. He has trailed by double-digits in each of the nine public polls taken since the beginning of February. Hillary Clinton’s got the backing of both of Detroit’s newspapers, the state’s top Democrats, and the mayor of hard-hit Flint. While there are signs of tightening as Sanders floods the airwaves with ads, Clinton’s big margins among African-Americans elsewhere raise questions about whether the senator can break through in a state where 14 percent of the population is black.
Hillary Clinton is polling strong in Michigan.
In the Democratic contest, Clinton leads Sanders among likely primary voters by 17 points, 57 percent to 40 percent. But the race is closer among the larger potential Democratic electorate — Clinton at 52 percent and Sanders at 44 percent.
Sanders continues to play loose with facts as shown with this NPR Fact-Check on Michigan’s abandoned buildings and NAFTA.
On Thursday, Sanders tweeted, “The people of Detroit know the real cost of Hillary Clinton’s free trade policies,” along with five photos of dilapidated buildings. Shortly after that initial tweet, he added: “43,000 Michiganders lost their jobs due to NAFTA. I opposed that bad deal, @HillaryClinton did not.”
The Big Question:
There’s a lot going on here, so we’re going to break this into two parts:
1. What does free trade (and especially NAFTA) have to do with the devastation Sanders’ tweet depicted?
2. How big of a proponent of NAFTA was Hillary Clinton?
The Short Answers:
1. Probably not much (though it did cost some people their jobs), and
2. She supported it, though she expressed reservations sometimes. (Either way, importantly, it was signed under her husband’s administration.)
I’ve included some pictures of State Senator Karen Carter Peterson who is also doing a great job with the Louisiana Democratic Party and of some of the volunteers who phone banked yesterday to bring the win!
I can hear Bernie spinning tales right now. Tell us what you think!!!
Additionally, there are two primaries today. The Democrats held one in Maine. The Republicans had a primary in Puerto Rico.
We’ve got some preliminary results.
The Associated Press projects Bernie Sanders the victor of the Maine Democratic caucuses. With 85 percent of caucus sites reporting, Sanders led, 64 to 36 percent.
And on the Republican side:
CNN and the Associated Press are projecting Puerto Rico for Marco Rubio, who was widely expected to win the territory. As Vann has noted, if he wins more than half the vote, he’ll take home all of Puerto Rico’s delegates. Right now, CNN has him at roughly 74 percent, with 32 percent of votes counted.
As you can see, my little Hill Dawg Tempe and I are relaxing today! I always wear my Pikachu socks when life’s giving me smiles! We’ve got more work coming up. You can make calls for Hillary from your home if you’d like. I did it in 2007 and I will be trying to call out just as soon as I get my voice back!!
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
mablue2
Mama Lopez
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
I had forgotten how annoying Bernie Sanders’ voice and face are.
I can’,t stand him.
I’ve gone from mild admiration to incredible dislike over the past few months. Whatever they call men, in my book he’s beyond shrill and hysterical.
Same here.
Last night Bernie reminded me of Ratzo Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy: “I’m walkin’ here.”
Yes, you guys in LA delivered for Hillary in a big way. Thank you for all of your work.
Was happy Virginia led the way!! Much BIGGGER state!! But thanks! We gave her a big win!!
Heart all of you for getting out the vote for Hillary!
Oh, here we go. Sanders attacks Clinton on her husband’s policies.
AC brought up the tweet I mentioned in the NPR article up top.
Yeah, lots of people were outraged by that on Twitter. Disgusting.
You know, I almost said it’s nice to see this civil debate without cheap shots between the two and there goes Bernie, pointing and attacking but remember kids, he does not go negative.
Just as I finished tweeting about this, Sanders started up with the crap, after a serious assist from Anderson Cooper.
Oh snap Hillary! Sanders was against the auto bailout!
And that’s the key, isn’t it? You can’t just abandon the business side. I was initially against the bailout, too, but as it turned out, it mostly worked, and saved many jobs. Sanders’ vision for the country is completely unfeasible.
YES! I was just saying she needs to go after his one note campaign and she did!!!
He’s losing his shit and looks bad with all of the pointing and gesturing.
He looks SILLY.
Bernie keeps babbling about Wall Street. He can’t talk about anything else. He sounds like a crazy person.
He continues to try and tie her to Wall Street. Seems like it is all he has.
That’s a given.
Oh FFS can we drop this Wall Street crap already? Anderson, take control of this debate.
Could Anderson ask Bernie WHICH disastrous trade policies? NAFTA? That wasn’t her, meathead.
She’s responsible for all of her husband’s trade policies, but not the booming economy.
Truth out. Bernie looks so damn SILLY.
He just won Maine. I hate caucuses.
Me and you both. And I’m effin’ stuck in an effin’ caucus state.
Maine, Cruz won. Dems. 80.3% reporting 64.2% Sanders, vs 35.6% Clinton.
In a place like Aroostook Co, where they are only a little over 60% reporting with 162 people, it could change delegate count quickly I guess. So, Wapo hasn’t claimed the Sanders win yet.
I am so sick of his holier than thou purity I could just spit!
Holy shit! Anderson just made Bernie agree with Ted Cruz!
Fuck………..yes he did
and he attacked Democrats again. No wonder he can’t get any superdelegates.
But his supporters want the Democrats to change the rules for him because “Waaaa! Super delegates are not fair!”
Well he can just go and get his super delegates from the Socialist Democrats Party. Or Socialist Party. See how well that works for him.
That should be used, again and again within the Hillary Camp. He fucked up.
There he goes with that finger waving again .
Fucking finger….
Bang Bang Ashol, you just shot yourself in the foot…….You, Bernie Sanders voted against it.
Bernie says Yerp instead of Europe. He’s jumping around from topic to topic. I thought we were talking about trade and now he’s changed it to healthcare.
He can’t win the argument on export/iimport bank, that he voted against, so he changes the subject to health care!
You know what, it is too late now for any reform. There are over 300 million guns in just the US alone, one for every citizen.
The barn door has been opened all the way.
We can at least work on risk reduction.
Oh, no he didn’t!!!
http://bluenationreview.com/bernie-sanders-to-hillary-clinton-im-talking/
More than once.
Twice. That’s what is going to be the standout takeaway from this debate.
At the end of that linked piece is this tweet: “Audience reacted pretty strongly against Sanders’ “EXCUSE ME IM TALKING” at Clinton. Clinton, though, seemed unfazed. ”
That’s the thing about her. She’s always unfazed. Personal attacks, lies, smears, or international problems, she just comes back with what makes sense and moves on.
What a world leader she’d make!
Exactly, well put!
She’s used to dealing with it and she’s been a leader long enough to stop the disrespect.
Spot on.
Why we need her.
Just one of the reasons.
How in hell can he be so clueless?!
Downton Abbey. Gotta go.
I hate CNN, I’m getting garbage voice only. Let me know how it goes. NRA? No liability. Sandyhook first graders corporate greed from gun manufacturers. Sanders what happened is bad, are you saying end guns?
Black, 1994, why should I trust you?
He always conveniently forgets he voted to deregulate derivatives. Those were the things that blew up the financial markets. The banks wouldn’t have been this big if the Fed didn’t have to stick the loser banks in to the stronger ones because of those derivatives. Sheesh what an ass!
Wish that Hillary could have brought this up, but maybe too abstruse for average voters. I didn’t even know that about Sanders, but I do know that the wild speculation in derivatives which were essentially packages of junk, was what exploded the housing market and then collapsed it.
She has brought it up in every previous debate. It goes over people’s heads.
Including Bernie’s, I think!
Yeah, he probably has no idea what he voted for.
Damn, I lost my glasses, my pen, and beginning to throw towels at that ashol.
lol!
Oh hell, my glasses and pen was buried in my recliner!
Infrastructure. blah blah
This is important on fracking. I’m going to need to read this.
What is the point of that question? to prove you are a good prayer?
That question was a total waste. WTF has that got to do with anything relevant to being President?
I know, I know, Anderson’s advertisers are paying millions and millions every single second to cut Hillary Clinton off. That’s a fact.
About the two last hours, just remember, the democrats aren’t always right……….so says Bernie Sanders, the independent running inside the democratic structure.
You are losing Bernie, 2 to 1……….get that?
I wish they would keep religion out of it. It is no one’s business either way.
Sander, the family closer and the same old.
And Tad Devine is a disgusting human being. He’s on MSNBC right now.
Clinton- live up to potential, work to do, barriers, start early on ed, reduce debt, systemic racism. Won’t get into the gutter with repugs.
I thought maybe I should watch this a second time, but Hell No, I don’t need to.
I think Clinton scored some points, but it wasn’t one of her finest debates. Still, I don’t think it matters because at this point most people have made up their mind and many others didn’t bother to watch the debate. But it was certainly nice seeing 2 people talk about issues without turning it into a grudge match, although I thought Bernie was going to try on a couple of occasions. In the end I’d give it a “no impact” rating.
Hillary will win on Tuesday, by about 10-15% and she will beat him by 40% in MS. Then on to March 15th and on that day, I believe Bernie will see the handwriting on the wall.
So, if you are one of those who feels the bern, I have a cure, it’s called Heallary!
So, I am watching MSNBC and I am all astonishment. They are actually criticizing Sanders and almost complimenting Clinton. Of course, no Tweetie or Rachel.
Oh wait, the anchor guy is asking Podesta what they are going to do when Clinton is under federal indictment for emails. Nevermind.
The Republicans’ goal, abetted by the media, is to make it look as if any moment she is going to be indicted, thus making it an issue right up until election day. Of course, she never did anything even remotely wrong, since her private server was legal, and known about by the administration. And she never sent or received any classified mails. The fact that the FBI might want to change the definitions of “classified,” has nothing to do with anything she did then, since they weren’t classified then. But this is an absolute textbook anti-Clinton story, akin to Whitewater. And as frustrating and upsetting as it is to us Clinton supporters, the truth is that the Republican attack machine would have come up with another one. They always did with her husband. If the media had the intelligence and the fairness to actually analyze these things, they wouldn’t even be covered. I wonder if Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice are going to be indicted for sending emails which are now considered classified?
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
I want to take that finger and shove it up his ass.
I am so glad I missed this.
How The Sanders Campaign Sees “Excuse Me, I’m Talking” – BuzzFeed News
LOL!
I’d pay to see that!!!!!!!!!
I shit you not, the article on the debate recap in the NYT today describes that moment in last nights debate as if Hillary set it up.
Oh for Pete’s sake! The Twitterverse is ripping him a new one for racism and misogyny.
While Hillary respectfully stood silently and listened to him speak, actually turning toward him and watching him, Bernie spent every second of Hillary’s answers wagging his finger toward her and leaning in toward her as if he wanted to interrupt. He was a mess!!!
That article infuriates me, but it’s typical of NYT stories about Hillary.
Me too. Especially the part where she was eager to “bait him”. It’s always the woman’s fault don’t you know. She is responsible for what he says. Damned Hillary made Bern mad and he had to yell at her.
He spent the entire debate, especially when she was talking, wagging his finger in her direction and mouthing signals to Anderson Cooper that he wanted to talk. It was difficult to concentrate on her response because he was standing to her left finger wagging, leaning toward her, making faces and sending whispered messages to Anderson Cooper.
…whereas Sanders doesn’t get critiqued by the journalist for his rude behavior? And it wasn’t exactly “television” space — it was physical space.
Good work in Louisiana! Nebraska and Kansas? flyovers Hillary wouldn’t spend a cent or an ounce of energy on for either the primary or general. Nicely-played.
Thx Mary!
REJOICE The latest Michigan Poll done 3/6
FOX 2 Detroit/Mitchell 3/6 – 3/6 475 LV 4.5 Clinton 66 Sanders 29 Clinton +37
I used to think people like Bernie were a necessity in life. I’ve gotten to the point where I now think he’s simply an annoyance and honestly wonder what other than ego made him jump into this presidential run.
That aside, what is the thought here about the offer of immunity to the Hillary staffer who handled her home server?
My opinion is this is a big deal about nothing! Unlike the others on her staff who testified, this young man is an IT person who was directly responsible for setting up the offsite server. I’m certain his lawyer advised him to take the 5th in the Congressional hearing and now the immunity deal with the FBI & Justice because he may have violated some sort of State Dept IT protocol that he wasn’t even aware of. Since everyone except him has already testified and have said that they would go on the record again with the FBI & Justice in the investigation of this server, including Clinton, I have absolutely no concern about this. I feel certain that there are people within Justice and the FBI that are pushing this at the behest of the GOP and trying to prolong as long as possible hoping that it can be used to slow her momentum this summer. But when Hillary stands on the stage and accepts the Democratic Nomination for President as the first woman to ever achieve that goal, the GOP will lose any leverage they had or thought they had. There will be no indictment from Justice, no further inquiry from the FBI after April.
The guy did the smart thing based on the experiences of the witnesses called during the White Water witch hunt. Remember that? People who had done nothing wrong (I’m thinking of Susan McDougall) were called to give depositions under oath and wound up in jail for nothing more than not saying what the prosecutors wanted them to say. If I were called to testify for anything at all I would plead the 5th amendment unless and until I was granted full immunity from prosecution for anything I said. Anything. That’s what this guy did. He knows these assholes are looking for any thread at all and they don’t care if they have to take him down and ruin his life in order to get to Clinton. He did the smart thing and it doesn’t mean anything beyond the fact that he’s protecting himself from the witch hunters.
There’s no way I’d talk without counsel or in his case without immunity. He’s in a particularly precarious position because of the role he played in setting up the server.
Analysis: Hillary Clinton Denies Bernie Sanders a Win at Flint Debate
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/analysis-hillary-clinton-denies-bernie-sanders-win-flint-debate-n533031
Bernie steps in his own doo-doo! Twitterverse explodes at the racism expressed in Sanders answer about racism.
MSNBC’s Joy Reid sets Bernie straight: Lots of Americans know what it’s like to live in ghettos
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/03/msnbcs-joy-reid-sets-bernie-straight-lots-of-americans-know-what-its-like-to-live-in-ghettos/
Sanders’ answer is atrocious, considering the word “ghetto” was first used to describe the area where Jews lived.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghetto
Did a quick assessment this morning on the Delegate count.
Hillary 668 / Bernie 475
Todays polls from Michigan have her 13 to 37 points ahead.
A poll also came out this morning for NY that has her ahead 55-34 ……… 21points
A poll came out for ID, which is a caucus, that basically has them tied 47-45 sanders.
Idaho has lots of gun nuts.
I’ll be at the caucus on 22nd. Idaho has lots and lots of Mormons, and patriots. I was surprised that the gay community, supported Bernie right off. I was really disappointed. Not sure if that has changed, but the Boise State is also pushing for Bernie.
Most of the Gay Community is supporting Hillary and these LGBT organizations have officially endorsed her. HRC-The Human Rights Campaign (which is the largest LGBT organization in the country). GLID-Gay and Lesbian Independent Democrats. Equality California. LPAC – Lesbian Political Action Committee. Lesbian and Gay Democratic Club of Queens. Stonewall Democrats AZ-NY. SC Equality Coalition. Not a single LGBT organization has endorsed Bernie.
Obviously like other minority communities we’re not a monolith, but through my interactions with the LGBT community in my area and around the country I can assure you the lions share of LGBT folks are supporting Hillary.
There’s a conversation in Globe and Mail this a.m. between Maureen McTeer (a feminist, lawyer and wife of former prime minister, Joe Clark) and their (adult) daughter, Catherine Clark. It is in honor of International Women’s Day. Here’s how it starts:
“Catherine Clark: Happy International Women’s Day, Mom. What are you planning to do this week to mark it?
Maureen McTeer: I’m planning to celebrate!
CC: Are you celebrating “because it’s 2016”? Or more than that?
MM: More than that, really. Where do you want me to start?
CC: Well, how about Hillary?
MM: You mean the next President of the United States?
CC: I’m not so sure about that. She’s clearly the most qualified, but that doesn’t always amount to much these days.
MM: Being the best candidate, as she is, is no guarantee of success. But she is there every day, battling for the job against all comers. She is showing us that women count. No matter what people may think of her personally, she is breaking new ground, moving women forward, maybe even breaking, at last, the glass ceiling that has kept women from these important positions until now.”
It is so refreshing to read straight up, positive admiration for the job Hillary is doing for all of us without a Y chromosome.
An aside: ‘Y not’ may become my new personal signature line.
Love this!