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Democrat candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders asked one pointed question, which he believes draws a substantial distinction between his candidacy and Hillary Clinton’s.
“Let’s not insult the intelligent of the American people. People aren’t dumb,” Sanders said. “Why in God’s name does Wall Street make huge campaign contributions? I guess just for the fun of it, they want to throw money around.”
Clinton’s reply? She said she supports the Dodd-Frank law, and the belief that no bank is too big to fail.
Sanders, who has made campaign finance reform a cornerstone of his candidacy, also hit Clinton for the large corporate donations to a Super PAC backing her run. The socialist said early on he decided he did not want a Super PAC to support his candidacy.
The senator said he had been “blown away” by the fact his campaign has received over 3.5 million contributions.
“Now, Secretary Clinton’s Super PAC, as I understand it, received $25 million dollars last reporting period, $15 million dollars from Wall Street. Our average contribution is $27 dollars, I’m very proud of that,” Sanders said.
Clinton responded by saying she is proud of the 1.5 million donations her campaign has received, and noted the Super PAC backing her candidacy is the same that supported President Obama.
Based on CNN exit polling from the New Hampshire primary earlier this week, Sanders holds not only a significant total donors lead over his rival, but also a major credibility margin. Among New Hampshire Democratic primary voters, 34 percent listed honesty as the most important important factor in deciding who to vote for, and of those 92 percent went for Sanders and 6 percent chose Clinton.
Sanders beat Clinton convincingly in the primary, 60 to 38 percent, but the former secretary of state had eight super delegates pledged to her going into the contest, so the candidates each took away 15 delegates overall.