AFP, New York :
Hillary Clinton and leftist challenger Bernie Sanders turned up the heat Thursday in the Democratic race for the White House, locking horns over trade and the “Panama Papers” scandal ahead of the New York primary.
Clinton, the frontrunner and former secretary of state, holds a six-point lead over Sanders in the RealClearPolitics national poll average but has lost seven of the last eight nomination contests to the Vermont senator.
The New York primary on April 19 has turned into a battleground, where Clinton needs a commanding win in her adopted home state, which elected her twice to the Senate in 2000 and 2004.
Sanders, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, must build on his recent momentum by winning in New York and then in Pennsylvania on April 26 to keep alive his hopes of snatching the Democratic nomination from party favorite Clinton.
The 74-year-old senator seized on the leaked “Panama Papers,” which expose how terror groups, drug cartels and pariah countries hide money in tax havens, by conflating it with Clinton’s support for a 2012 Panama free trade agreement.
“I don’t think you are qualified if you supported the Panama free trade agreement, something I very strongly opposed,” he told a rally in Philadelphia on Wednesday.
Sanders contended at the time that the free trade agreement would make it harder for the United States to crack down on offshore tax havens in Panama.
Clinton, who said on a campaign stop that she would shut down “outrageous tax havens and loopholes” if elected president, helped push the trade deal through Congress when she was secretary of state.
The two candidates have each questioned whether the other is qualified to be commander-in-chief — Clinton took a fresh swipe Thursday at her self-described democratic socialist rival’s radical promises that few believe he can deliver.
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” she told reporters while campaigning in the Bronx, where she rode the subway joined by a local Democratic politician.
“Know what you want to achieve and then bring everybody together to get the results and that is what I’m going to do.”
New low
New York, America’s largest city and one of its most diverse, has demographics that play well to Clinton’s support base among the wealthy and minorities, but observers warn there may be tougher terrain outside the city.
Hillary Clinton and leftist challenger Bernie Sanders turned up the heat Thursday in the Democratic race for the White House, locking horns over trade and the “Panama Papers” scandal ahead of the New York primary.
Clinton, the frontrunner and former secretary of state, holds a six-point lead over Sanders in the RealClearPolitics national poll average but has lost seven of the last eight nomination contests to the Vermont senator.
The New York primary on April 19 has turned into a battleground, where Clinton needs a commanding win in her adopted home state, which elected her twice to the Senate in 2000 and 2004.
Sanders, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, must build on his recent momentum by winning in New York and then in Pennsylvania on April 26 to keep alive his hopes of snatching the Democratic nomination from party favorite Clinton.
The 74-year-old senator seized on the leaked “Panama Papers,” which expose how terror groups, drug cartels and pariah countries hide money in tax havens, by conflating it with Clinton’s support for a 2012 Panama free trade agreement.
“I don’t think you are qualified if you supported the Panama free trade agreement, something I very strongly opposed,” he told a rally in Philadelphia on Wednesday.
Sanders contended at the time that the free trade agreement would make it harder for the United States to crack down on offshore tax havens in Panama.
Clinton, who said on a campaign stop that she would shut down “outrageous tax havens and loopholes” if elected president, helped push the trade deal through Congress when she was secretary of state.
The two candidates have each questioned whether the other is qualified to be commander-in-chief — Clinton took a fresh swipe Thursday at her self-described democratic socialist rival’s radical promises that few believe he can deliver.
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” she told reporters while campaigning in the Bronx, where she rode the subway joined by a local Democratic politician.
“Know what you want to achieve and then bring everybody together to get the results and that is what I’m going to do.”
New low
New York, America’s largest city and one of its most diverse, has demographics that play well to Clinton’s support base among the wealthy and minorities, but observers warn there may be tougher terrain outside the city.
