With accusations of lying, hustling for money and failed leadership, the race for the Democratic nomination took a decidedly negative turn, with Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders exchanging a series of barbs over qualifications for the presidency.
The testy exchanges underscored the heightened stakes for both sides as the race turns to New York, where Sanders hopes to turn his recent winning streak into concrete momentum toward the nomination..
Lagging in delegates and under fire from a frustrated Clinton, Sanders is shifting from his pledge to avoid negative attacks and stinging her with direct accusations.
“This is not the type of politics that I wanna get in,” he told journalists in Philadelphia. “But we’ll get used to it fast. I’m not gonna get beat up. I’m not gonna get lied about.”
Clinton sought to shift attention back to her Republican opponents, telling reporters Thursday: “I will take Bernie Sanders over Donald Trump or Ted Cruz any time, so let’s keep our eye over what’s at stake in this election.”
The race for the Democratic nomination has remained relatively civil as compared to a chaotic and crowded Republican race colored by flagrant attacks.
Clinton has spent much of the past few weeks focused on Trump and Cruz, hoping to rally her party behind her by warning of regression to President Obama’s achievement should a Republican win the election. But after Sanders logged a big win in Wisconsin on Tuesday night – his sixth victory in the last seven contests – she’s been forced to pivot back to her primary opponent.
On Thursday, she took a quick jaunt on the New York City subway, riding the train two stops in the Bronx.
The photo op was aimed at Sanders, who told the New York Daily News in an interview earlier this week that New Yorkers still used tokens to pay for the train. The system switched over to pre-paid MetroCards in 2003.
Clinton unleashed a flurry of attacks against Sanders on Wednesday, questioning his truthfulness and policy expertise.
In a discussion of Sanders interview with the editorial board of the Daily News, Clinton was asked if “Bernie Sanders is qualified and ready to be president.”
She responded, “Well, I think he hadn’t done his homework and he’d been talking for more than a year about doing things that he obviously hadn’t really studied or understood, and that does raise a lot of questions.”
Sanders jumped on the remark, telling more than 10,000 people in Philadelphia on Wednesday night that Clinton has been saying that he’s “not qualified to be president.”
“I don’t believe that she is qualified if she is, through her super PAC, taking tens of millions of dollars in special-interest funds,” he said.
Ignoring their own barbs, Clinton aides pushed back on Sanders attack, with spokesman Brian Fallon writing on Twitter: “Hillary Clinton did not say Bernie Sanders was ‘not qualified.’ But he has now — absurdly — said it about her. This is a new low.”
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Whack reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press writer Lisa Lerer contributed to this report from Washington.