Sanders and Clinton trade barbs at Democratic debate over foreign policy, race relations – as it happened

Journalists have asked who you do listen to on foreign policy, and we have yet to know who that is...”

Hillary Clinton, after Bernie Sanders attacked Henry Kissinger.

Hillary Clinton may have finally found the line that neutralizes Bernie Sanders’ loud and frequent invocation of her vote in support of the Iraq War:

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders respond to a Facebook question about the size of the federal government:

After Hillary Clinton rattles off a lengthy list of strategies, specific tactics, specific cities and specific forces to be used in fighting Isis, Bernie Sanders elaborates on his singular foreign policy win over Clinton: Not voting in support of the Iraq War.

“I don’t believe that a vote in 2002 is a plan to defeat Isis in 2016,” Clinton retorts.

#RealTalk: With both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton aggressively courting Latino voters in the upcoming Nevada caucuses, their exchange over who has been less faithful to the implementation of comprehensive immigration reform was an important one.

Clinton went after Sanders’ “no” vote on comprehensive immigration reform under George W. Bush in 2007, which Sanders defended as a move encouraged by scores of liberal advocacy groups.

12 Feb 201622.13 EST

Lois Beckett

In April 2014, Dontre Hamilton, a 31-year old Milwaukee man with a history of mental illness, was shot to death in a public park by a white police officer. Tonight, his mother, Maria Hamilton, is Hillary Clinton’s guest at the Democratic Debate in Milwaukee, according to news reports.

Clinton referenced Hamilton in the debate, calling his death a tragedy and saying that his family believed that he should still be alive – and so did she.

Some more background: Officer Christopher Manney approached Hamilton in Red Arrow Park on 30 April 2014, after a complaint from Starbucks employees about a homeless man sleeping in the park. Manney made Hamilton get up and then patted him down. The officer said that Hamilton then began to attack him. The interaction ended in Manney shooting Hamilton 14 times, killing him.

Milwaukee police chief Ed Flynn later fired Officer Manney – not for the shooting itself, but for failing to follow department policy in the interaction that led up to the shooting. Manney’s firing sparked a no-confidence vote against the police chief by the local police union.

The officer never faced criminal charges. The Justice Department reviewed the incident but announced last fall they would not be filing civil rights charges, either.

12 Feb 201622.11 EST

Megan Carpentier

Bernie Sanders said “I am the only candidate up here that does not have a Super PAC.” But candidates don’t have Super PACs, super PACs have candidates. (And candidates are not allowed to coordinate with the Super PACs that support them).

The word “Super PAC” has become an anathema to Democratic voters, akin to the boogeyman of “the Koch Brothers” (who also came up during this campaign finance question), which is why, even though Senator Bernie Sanders absolutely knows that campaign finance law prohibits coordination between a candidate and a Super PAC (let alone the control of the latter by the former), he keeps using this talking point.

So, yes, George Soros and Donald Sussman contributed millions to a Super PAC supporting Clinton; you can read more about the Super PACs supporting her here, from the Sunlight Foundation. Clinton’s candidate PAC, though, is Hillary for America and it is more strictly regulated. The Washington Post has a great graphic breaking down financial industry donations to Clinton’s candidate PAC versus those to the supporting Super PACs; she gets money both ways, but the questions in the debates always conflate the two without noting the legal differences between them.

So while it’s fair to say that Clinton-supporting Super PACs are raking in major donations from Wall Street, to say that Clinton herself is taking their donations because the Super PACs are isn’t entirely accurate. Clinton’s candidate PAC does take donations from people who work in the financial services industry, but when Sanders refers to the Super PAC donations, he’s referring to money that Clinton and her campaign can neither solicit nor control.

Full video of Hillary Clinton distancing herself from finance-sector donations to a super PAC supporting her - and hugging Bernie Sanders tight on their shared online donor support:

After noting that half of Hillary Clinton’s financial sector donations came from just two people - financiers George Soros and John Sussman - Judy Woodruff asks Clinton: “What influence will your campaign contributors have on your administration?”

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After dismissing the question on its face as one that should be asked of super PACs that support her, Clinton states that “I’m very proud of the fact that we have more than 750,000 donors, and the vast majority of them are giving small contributions.”

“I’m going to continue to reach out to thank all of my online contributors for everything they are doing for me,” Clinton continues, “and I think that is the real key here. We both have a lot of small donors, I think that sets us apart from what’s happening on the Republican side.”

Bernie Sanders pushed aggressively against Hillary Clinton’s supposed “squishiness” on the issue of undocumented immigration, particularly her past statements about returning unaccompanied minors to their countries of origin: