Democratic debate: In their seventh face-off, Clinton and Sanders spar over trade, 1990s reforms

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were challenged during their debate Sunday to confront their white privilege and explain blind spots they may have when it comes to race.

“Being a white person in the United States of America, I know that I never had the experience that so many people in this audience had,” Clinton said. “I think it’s incumbent on me … to urge white people to think what it is like to have ‘the talk’ with your kids, scared that your son or even daughter could get in trouble for no good reason and end up dead in a jail.”

Sanders talked about confronting his shock at the inability of a black colleague decades ago to hail a taxi in Washington because the experience was too humiliating, with the taxis driving by him because of his race. And he also spoke about his experience working with activists from Black Lives Matter, who initially were skeptical but came to appreciate the effort he put into understanding their perspective.

“When you’re white, you don’t know what it’s like to be living in a ghetto,” he said. “You don’t know what it’s like to be poor; you don’t know what it’s like to be hassled when you walk down the street, or you get dragged out of a car.”

Bernie Sanders steered the discussion during Sunday’s Democratic debate back into the 1990s, raising the welfare reform legislation championed by President Clinton and supported by his wife.

“The poorest people of this country have become much poorer as a result of that,” Sanders said.

His debate opponent, Hillary Clinton, bridled at the characterization. “Let’s get the facts straight,” Clinton said. “That bill had a lot of provisions that were stripped out by George W. Bush, by Republican governors.” She said that had it been implemented as the Clintons hoped, the impact would not have been as harsh. But Clinton also made no apologies.

“If we are going to talk about the 1990s, let’s talk about 23 million new jobs,” she said. “Income went up for everyone. Median African American income went up 33%.”

Sanders wasn’t done.

“In the 1990s, you know what we also did?” he said. “We deregulated Wall Street, which allowed Wall street to begin destroying our economy.… You are right. A lot of good things happened. But a lot of bad things happened.”

Hillary Clinton expressed regret for using the term “superpredators” while talking about gang crime in 1996, saying at Sunday’s debate that she should have used different language.

African American activists have seized on her use of the phrase at an appearance in New Hampshire nearly 20 years ago, saying it was a coded -- and racist -- reference to young African American men.

A black activist recently interrupted Clinton at a fundraiser to demand an apology for her use of the phrase and for the high incarceration rate for African Americans during and after her husband’s presidency.

“I am not a superpredator, Hillary Clinton,” activist Ashley Williams said in a filmed encounter that has been widely viewed.

Clinton said Sunday that she didn’t plan to use the phrase, had never used it before and has never used it since.

Sunday night’s debate between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in Flint, Mich., began as a crucial test of whether Sanders can throw the front-runner off her game in a part of the country where he sees opportunity to cut into her lead.

The beginning of the night was dominated by discussion of the water crisis in Flint, a largely African American community grappling with the plight of contaminated drinking water exacerbated by government neglect. Sanders called for the resignation of Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, as he has repeatedly in recent weeks.

Here’s a wrap-up about halfway through the debate:

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CNN’s Don Lemon used this song from the Tony-winning Broadway musical “Avenue Q” to introduce his question about racism in America.

A Chicago Tribune archival photo of a young man being arrested in 1963 at a Chicago protest shows Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, his campaign has confirmed, bolstering the candidate’s narrative about his civil rights activism.

Here’s the story by the Tribune’s Katherine Skiba:

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In a testy exchange during Sunday’s Democratic debate in Flint, Mich., Bernie Sanders accused Hillary Clinton of flip-flopping on free trade, saying Clinton had changed her views about the need to keep jobs from moving overseas.

“I’m very glad Secretary Clinton has discovered religion” on free trade, Sanders said, noting Clinton’s support for the North American Free Trade Agreement reached by her husband’s administration in the 1990s.

“Your story is voting for every disastrous trade agreement and for corporate America,” Sanders said.

Ahead of Tuesday’s primary in in the state, trade has moved to the forefront of the fight for the Democratic nomination, with Sanders arguing that trade agreements Clinton supported have wrecked states with manufacturing economies such as Michigan and Ohio.

Clinton took issue with Sanders’ debate assertion, pointing out that she came out last year against the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement and opposed a similar free-trade agreement while she was serving in the Senate.

Clinton said she preferred not to “argue about the 1990s instead of talk about the future.”

But she lingered there herself for a moment, reminding Michigan voters about the state’s low unemployment rate and high economic growth when her husband left office in 2001.

The Export-Import Bank made a surprise appearance at the Democratic debate. Hillary Clinton supported saving it last year after Republicans tried to shut it down.

Bernie Sanders sided with many in the GOP, saying it chiefly supported giant corporations such as Boeing.

The Times’ Jim Puzzanghera took at look at the controversy recently, showing the bank earned a profit of $432 million for taxpayers last year.

Here’s his story:

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Bernie Sanders has been calling for months for Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder to step down over his role in the Flint water crisis.

During Sunday’s debate, Hillary Clinton joined Sanders in that position, saying Snyder “should resign or be recalled.” As recently as today, Clinton campaign officials had shied away from saying Snyder should step down.

The beginning of the debate was dominated by more than 20 minutes of questions about the city’s lead poisoning crisis.

Sanders and Clinton both condemned the poisoning of the Flint’s water supply as a “dereliction” of duties by officials. Neither would say whether they thought Snyder or others should go to jail, but both said more needs to be done.

“People should be held responsible wherever it leads,” Clinton said. “There has to be absolute accountability.”

She said the state and the federal government has the money to fix the problem.

“I know the state of Michigan has a rainy day fund for emergencies,” she said. “What is more important than the health and well-being of the people? It is raining lead in Flint and the state is derelict in not coming forward with the money that is required.”

The news came just as the Democratic debate began.

See live results here and keep track of the delegate fight here.

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It was little surprise that the seventh Democratic debate began with the Flint, Mich., water crisis.

The Times’ Matt Pearce took a look at how the American public was sold on toxic lead.

Here’s his brief history:

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Sen. Bernie Sanders pounded Hillary Clinton about her past support for international trade deals that he says have cost American jobs.

Clinton has fought back, accusing him of misrepresenting her position but acknowledging that her views have evolved in recent years.

On Friday, she spoke about the failings of trade policies she had supported as part of her husband’s administration.

Here’s what she said:

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(Geoff Robins / AFP/Getty Images)

Bernie Sanders badly needs some big wins, and he is looking to the Rust Belt to deliver them.

Sunday night’s debate against Hillary Clinton in Flint, Mich., will be a crucial test of whether Sanders can throw the front-runner off her game in a part of the country where he sees opportunity to erode her lead.

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(Brynn Anderson / Associated Press)

Mitt Romney and other Republican establishment figures pressed ahead Sunday with their campaign to block Donald Trump from capturing the party’s presidential nomination, casting him as a shady businessman who rips people off with questionable enterprises such as the defunct Trump University.

“I want to make sure that the American people are not subject to the same kind of scam as we nominate a president,” Romney told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

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In a speaking role lasting less than 10 minutes, Arnold Schwarzenegger stepped back into the political world Sunday, endorsing Ohio Gov. John Kasich for president.

His support was no surprise. The former California governor described the GOP hopeful as a longtime friend, going back to Kasich’s first run for Congress in the early 1980s.

Last month, Schwarzenegger called in to a Kasich town hall meeting in New Hampshire, describing Kasich’s attendance at Schwarzenegger’s annual body-building extravaganza here in Columbus. Kasich, he recalled, was “the only politician that had the guts to go in the middle of hundreds of body builders that were oiled up standing there in their underwear.”

Schwarzenegger was less evocative in Sunday’s appearance alongside Kasich at a chilly outdoor rally.

He took a veiled poke at the Republican front-runner, Donald Trump, noting he had come to the United States as a poor immigrant, made a mark as an actor, athlete and politician and also “made a lot of money.”

“This is the land of opportunity,” Schwarzenegger — who has taken over Trump’s role on NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice” — said to cheers and applause. “It is the greatest nation in the world, no matter what anyone says out there.”

Schwarzenegger sported a black fleece jacket that read “Team California” and “Kasich for America”

When Ohio’s governor took his turn at the microphone, he noted he was wearing a piece of custom apparel that Schwarzenegger sent him. Throwing his jacket open, he revealed stitching that read “Governator II” — a play on two of Schwarzenegger’s most famous roles.

Hillary Clinton said Sunday she thinks it’s good news that the staffer who set up her controversial email server while she was secretary of State has decided to talk to investigators looking into the matter.

“I think we’re getting closer and closer to wrapping this up,” Clinton said in an interview on CBS.

Former State staffer Bryan Pagliano has accepted an offer of immunity from FBI investigators in exchange for doing an interview and providing information about the private server.

Administration officials generally use government servers, in part so that classified communiques can be protected and all official messages can be archived. The law enforcement agency has been asking for an interview with Pagliano for months now as they search through Clinton’s emails to determine if there was misuse or abuse.

Though Clinton maintains a strong lead over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary for the presidential nomination, the unresolved investigation hangs over her prospects for a strong run against the eventual Republican nominee in the fall.

Speaking with host John Dickerson on “Face the Nation,” Clinton was upbeat. She said she believes “we’ll be moving toward a resolution of this.”

“We need to get it sorted out and then take action from there,” Clinton said.

Donald Trump says he would try to expand federal law to allow for the use of torture in U.S. detention centers so that the country can “better compete” with Islamic State.

In an appearance on “Face the Nation” that aired Sunday morning, Trump argued that the U.S. has “become very weak and ineffective” and said that is “why we’re not beating ISIS,” using an acronym for the terrorist group.

“We are playing by a different set of rules,” Trump told newsman John Dickerson in the interview.

“ISIS people,” he said, “hear we’re talking about waterboarding like it’s the worst thing in the world, and they’ve just drowned 100 people and chopped off 50 heads. They must think we are a little bit on the weak side.”

The U.S. is “playing by rules,” he said, “but they have no rules. It’s very hard to win when that’s the case.”

Dickerson asked if that difference is part of what “separates us from the savages” and if breaching that divide might turn Americans into savages.

“We have to play the game the way they’re playing the game,” Trump responded. “They’re chopping, chopping, chopping, and we’re worried about waterboarding. I just think -- I think our priorities are mixed up.”

In any other election year, the decision by a failed presidential candidate to back his party’s front-runner would seem inevitable, nothing more than a blip in the news cycle.

But this is no ordinary campaign, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s endorsement of Donald Trump turned out very differently.

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African American voters steadied Hillary Clinton’s campaign in the South and now are poised to propel her forward in a corridor of Northern industrial states where voting kicks off with Tuesday’s Michigan primary.

Much has been made nationally of the power of Latino voters, but black voters actually had more pull in the 2012 presidential election, according to a study by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. It found that African Americans accounted for President Obama’s victories in seven states with 112 electoral votes — without which the nation’s first black president would have lost the White House.

Among those states: Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

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Texas Sen. Ted Cruz had a good day on Super Saturday. But how did the other candidates fare?

Check out the results.

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