ADVERTISEMENT 2
ADVERTISEMENT 3
Error: No articles to display
ADVERTISEMENT 1
ADVERTISEMENT 4
Children categories
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders battled for the crucial backing of black and Hispanic voters in Thursday night's Democratic debate and clashed heatedly over their support for Barack Obama as the presidential race shifted toward states with more minority voters.
Clinton, who has cast herself as the rightful heir to Obama's legacy, accused Sanders of diminishing the president's record and short-changing his leadership.
"The kind of criticism I hear from Senator Sanders, I expect from Republicans. I do not expect it from someone seeking the Democratic nomination," Clinton said in a sharp exchange at the close of the two-hour debate in Milwaukee. Her biting comments followed an interview in which Sanders suggested Obama hadn't succeeded in closing the gap between Congress and the American people — something Obama himself has acknowledged.
Sanders responded sharply: "Madam Secretary, that is a low blow." And he noted that Clinton was the only one on the stage who ran against Obama in the 2008 presidential race.
After splitting this year's first two states with Sanders, Clinton also renewed her assertion that her unexpectedly strong rival was energizing voters with promises "that cannot be kept."
Seeking to boost his own support with minorities, Sanders peppered his typically economic-focused rhetoric with calls to reform a "broken criminal justice system."
"At the end of my first term, we will not have more people in jail than any other country," he said.
In one of many moments of agreement between the candidates, Clinton concurred on a need to address a criminal justice system that incarcerates a disproportionate number of minorities. But she cast her proposals for fighting racial inequality as broader than his.
"We're going to emphasize education, jobs and housing," said Clinton, who was endorsed earlier in the day by the political action committee of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Long viewed as the overwhelming front-runner in the Democratic race, Clinton has been caught off guard by Sanders' strength, particularly his visceral connection with Americans frustrated by the current political and economic systems. Clinton's own campaign message has looked muddled compared to his ringing call for a "political revolution," and her connections to Wall Street have given Sanders an easy way to link her to the systems his supporters want to overhaul.
Seeking to stem Sanders' momentum, Clinton's campaign has argued that his appeal is limited to the white, liberal voters who make up the Democratic electorate in Iowa and New Hampshire. Clinton's team says that as the race turns now to Nevada, South Carolina and other more diverse states, her support from black and Hispanic voters will help propel her to the nomination.
The candidates both vowed to pursue comprehensive immigration reform, using the emotional issue to draw a contrast with Republicans who oppose allowing many of the millions of people in the United States illegally to stay.
"We have got to stand up to the Trumps of the world who are trying to divide us up," said Sanders, referring to Republican front-runner Donald Trump, who has called for deporting everyone in the country illegally and constructing a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Both Clinton and Sanders disagreed with a series of raids authorized by President Obama to arrest and deport some people from Central America who recently came to the country illegally. Immigration advocates and some Democratic lawmakers have condemned the raids, calling them inhumane.
"We should be deporting criminals, not hardworking immigrant families who do the very best they can," Clinton said.
Both candidates were largely restrained in their head-to-head contest — a contrast to their campaign's increasingly heated rhetoric on the campaign trail. While Clinton played the aggressor in the previous Democratic debate, she is mindful of a need to not turn off Sanders' voters, particularly the young people that are supporting him in overwhelming numbers.
The former secretary of state sought to discredit some of the proposals that have drawn young people to Sanders, including his call for free tuition at public colleges and universities and a plan for a government-run, single-payer health care system. Clinton said those proposals come with unrealistic price tags. And she accused Sanders of trying to shade the truth about what she said would be a 40 percent increase in the size of the federal government in order to implement his policies.
Sanders didn't put a price on his policies, but neither did he shy away from the notion that he wants to expand the size of government.
"In my view, the government of a democratic society has a moral responsibility to play a vital role in making sure all our people have a decent standard of living," Sanders said.
Sanders has focused his campaign almost exclusively on a call to break up big Wall Street banks and overhaul the current campaign finance system that he says gives wealthy Americans undue influence. His campaign contends that his message will be well-received by minority voters, arguing that blacks and Hispanics have been hurt even more by what he calls a "rigged" economy.
Clinton was more animated when discussing foreign policy, an area where her campaign believes Sanders is weak. She peppered her comments on the Islamic State and Russia with reminders of her four years serving as Obama's secretary of state
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump and Univision said Thursday they have resolved the lawsuit that the Republican presidential contender filed after the company decided last summer not to broadcast the Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants.
Trump owned the pageants at the time, but has since sold them. Univision dropped plans to televise the contests following remarks Trump made about Mexicans during the announcement of his presidential candidacy. The New York developer, making a promise to build a wall on the nation's Southern border, had said that Mexicans had sent some criminals illegally into the U.S.
Univision claimed Trump had "offended millions" with his comments. Trump fired back with a $500 million lawsuit claiming the Spanish-language broadcaster unjustly broke a contract.
Trump said the two sides had amicably resolved their differences, and neither side gave details about the settlement.
Trump said that he had known Univision's president and CEO, Randy Falco, for two decades and "I'm glad we are able to put these differences behind us."
NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) — Kanye West's new album, "The Life Of Pablo," has ignited a new controversy between the rapper and pop superstar Taylor Swift.
West debuted his album at the Yeezy Season 3 fashion show at Madison Square Garden in New York on Thursday. The album included a song called, "Famous," in which he called the "Bad Blood" singer a "bitch" and said he made her famous.
On his Twitter account, he said the lyric was not an insult. "I did not diss Taylor Swift and I've never dissed her," he wrote.
"I called Taylor and had a hour long convo with her about the line and she thought it was funny and gave her blessings," he wrote.
Tree Paine, Swift's publicist, said in a statement that West did not ask Swift for approval.
"Kanye did not call for approval, but to ask Taylor to release his single 'Famous' on her Twitter account," the statement said. "She declined and cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message. Taylor was never made aware of the actual lyric."
West defended his use of the word "bitch," saying it was an endearing term in hip hop.
Meanwhile, Swift's friends have come to her defense on social media. Taylor Swift's brother, Austin, posted an Instagram video of him throwing Yeezy shoes in a trashcan.
West famously interrupted Swift's speech during the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards when she won for best female video. But the two apparently put differences aside and she introduced him when he won the video vanguard award at the 2015 VMAs.