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 Near the end of a Michigan debate that featured sharp clashes over
trade and the auto industry bailout, as well as a lengthy discussion
of religion, Clinton and Sanders both said they could not wait to
face the brash billionaire in the Nov. 8 election to succeed
Democratic President Barack Obama.
"I think Donald Trump's bigotry, his bullying, his bluster, are not
going to wear well on the American people," Clinton said. "We have
to end the divisiveness, we have to unify the country."
Sanders said he would "love" to run against Trump and noted many
opinion polls showed him faring better against him than Clinton did.
He and Clinton urged voters to compare the substance of their debate
with the Republican versions, which last week featured name-calling
and Trump defending his penis size.
"We are, if elected president, going to invest a lot of money in
mental health," Sanders said, then cracked a joke. "And when you
watch these Republican debates, you know why we need to invest in
mental health."
Trump frequently says he will beat either Clinton or Sanders. "I am
the one person that she does not want to run against," he said of
Clinton on Saturday.
The debate in Flint, which is suffering a water contamination and
public health crisis, came as Sanders has struggled to slow
Clinton's march to the presidential nomination. Sanders picked up
some good news on Sunday with a projected win in Maine's caucus.
Clinton, 68, a former secretary of state and first lady, has spoken
on the campaign trail of the need for more love and kindness, a
contrast to Trump's rhetoric about his plans to deport illegal
immigrants and temporarily bar Muslims from entering the country.
"I don't intend to get into the gutter with whoever they nominate,
but instead to lift our sights," Clinton said in the debate.
Describing herself as a "praying person," she said it was hard to
imagine living under the pressure of the White House "without being
able to fall back on prayer and on my faith."
Sanders, asked if he was deliberately keeping his Jewish faith in
the background on the campaign trail, said his father's family was
wiped out in the Holocaust. He described going shopping with his
mother as a boy in Brooklyn, New York, and seeing people with
numbers on their arms from Nazi concentration camps.
"I am very proud of being Jewish, and that is an essential part of
who I am as a human being," Sanders said.
'DISASTROUS' TRADE POLICIES
Earlier, the two candidates exchanged angry jabs over trade, with
Sanders accusing Clinton of backing "disastrous" trade policies that
moved manufacturing jobs out of cities like Flint and Detroit and
shifted them overseas.
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But Clinton said Sanders' opposition to the 2009 auto bailout, a
crucial issue in a state that is home to the U.S. auto industry,
would have cost millions of jobs. The bailout, which Clinton
supported, passed Congress and has been credited with helping save
the U.S. industry.
Sanders, 74 a U.S. senator from Vermont and democratic socialist,
also questioned the sincerity of Clinton's conversion to opposing
the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a proposed 12-nation Pacific Rim
trade deal.
The two contenders cut each other off on several occasions, a rare
occurrence in a race that has been much more polite than the raucous
Republican presidential campaign.
"Excuse me, I'm talking," Sanders said to Clinton when she tried to
interrupt. "If you're going to talk, tell the whole story," Clinton
responded.
Sanders pressed his charge that Clinton was too close to Wall Street
and demanded again that she release the transcript of paid speeches
she has given to Wall Street firms. Clinton said she would release
them when all the candidates, including Republicans, also release
transcripts of similar talks.
'THERE AIN'T NOTHING!'
Throwing up his hands, Sanders said: "I'll release it. Here it is.
There ain't nothing! I don’t give speeches to Wall Street!"
The debate was held in Flint to highlight the city's water
contamination crisis, and both candidates expressed outrage at
Flint's plight and demanded Republican Governor Rick Snyder's
resignation.
The crisis in Flint, a predominantly black city of 100,000, was
triggered when an emergency city manager installed by Snyder
switched the city's water supply to the nearby Flint River from Lake
Michigan to save money.
The change corroded Flint's aging pipes and released lead and other
toxins into the water supply, exposing thousands of residents
including children to high lead levels that have sparked serious
health problems.
(Additional reporting by Alana Wise, Luciana Lopez and Jonathan
Allen; Editing by Caren Bohan and Peter Cooney)
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