Bernie Sanders mopped up the debate floor with Hillary Clinton last night. In a blistering attack that exposed the pay-to-play chink in Clinton's armor, Sanders assailed his rival for "having a super PAC that raised $15 million from Wall Street."
The avuncular Democrat candidate for president went further, calling attention to Clinton and her husband, ex President Bill Clinton, having raised and earned millions from the "special interests" of Wall Street firms.
In the previous debate, Sanders blasted Hillary for receiving nearly $700,000 in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs after she stepped down as Secretary of State in 2013. The more Bernie talked, the better he sounded to his left-leaning base and the worse Clinton looked.
Bernie continued to position himself as someone who "fights for the little guy in America" - as opposed to his millionaire opponent.
Hillary was visibly angry throughout the exchange, accusing Sanders of "smearing" her campaign, but the crowd booed her roundly.
That's when Bernie went in for the kill, pointing out Clinton's deep ties to the very companies she promises she'll police. Sanders even noted that it was her husband, as president, who was responsible for deregulating Wall Street in 1990s, a move that planted the seeds for the 2008 financial meltdown.
"Did it have anything to do with the fact that Wall Street provided - spent billions of dollars on lobbying and campaign contributions?" Sanders asked, rhetorically.
In a fit of desperation, Hillary pulled the well-worn vast right wing conspiracy card the Clintons have been using for the past 20 years, blaming "hedge fund billionaires aligned with Karl Rove, running ads against me to try to get Democrats to vote for you."
"I know this game," she continued.
She sure does! The very "hedge fund billionaires" Hillary blasted are those she opens her hands wide to accept every dollar of donations! According to an Associated Press analysis of public disclosure forms released by her campaign, "Clinton made $9 million from appearances sponsored by banks, insurance companies, hedge funds, private equity firms and real estate businesses."
The more Clinton tried to defend herself, the more desperate she sounded in attempting to obscure her close ties to Wall Street benefactors.
"The Wall Street people at least know where I stand and where I have always stood," she shouted. "They know my record, they know me, they know that I say what I believe and I will do it. And I also have a pretty good understanding about how to stop them."
Indeed, Wall Street knows they can continue to buy political influence with Clinton if she's elected president.
Sanders punched back: "Wall Street is perhaps the most powerful economic and political force in this country." And that Goldman Sachs, who paid her more than half a million dollars in speaking fees "paid a settlement fine with the federal government for $5 billion for defrauding investors."
Does any Democrat voter really believe Clinton would pass any regulations that would prohibit Wall Street "fat cats" - as Democrats love to demonize them - who've made her and her husband so wealthy?
Hillary's weakest, most telling moment, was when she decried, "I don't think you could find any person in political life today who has been subjected to more attacks and had more money spent against her by special interests - among whom you have named a few - than I."
It was a nice try, but that hackneyed argument has been in use since the Clintons occupied the White House in a scandal-plagued administration. Hillary is attacked "with a vengeance" because few politicians are more politically corrupt than the Clintons, who always operate near the boundaries of what's unethical and illegal.
Clinton should have never agreed to last night's hastily added Democrat debate with Sanders. Once mocked by his own party, Sanders proved that even underdogs can still bite. He did so relentlessly, assaulting and exposing Clinton's scandalous record. For that reason, Bernie could be well within striking distance of winning his party's nomination.
All of that makes for entertaining political theater, but it distracts from what is most troubling about Sanders - namely, his ascendant socialist candidacy and its promise of bigger government, an expanded social welfare state and reams of market and personal liberty-restricting regulations. That his socialist message is being heard at all shows just how far off the leftist cliff President Barack Obama has led Democrats.
---
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessary represent those of Headlines and Global News.
Crystal Wright is the author of the newly published book "Con Job: How Democrats Gave Us Crime, Sanctuary Cities, Abortion Profiteering, and Racial Division" and editor and publisher of the blog Conservative Black Chick. As a black conservative woman living in Washington, D.C, some would say she is a triple minority: woman, black and a Republican living in a Democrat-dominated city. Wright is the principal owner of the Baker Wright Group, LLC , a full service public relations firm, specializing in communications counseling, media relations, message development, media training and crisis communications. Follow her on Twitter at @GOPBlackChick.
