Calm, cool Clinton defends emails and Planned Parenthood

Democrats converged on Las Vegas Tuesday night for the first of the party’s presidential debates of the 2016 season. The contest’s main attraction: the first face off between Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton and the dark horse socialist candidate Bernie Sanders.

It was a mostly clean fight, and those in Clinton’s corner likely weren’t disappointed. In this much-anticipated first matchup of Hillary vs. Bernie, the former secretary of state showed the Independent U.S. senator from Vermont she’s ready to go plenty of rounds in the battle for the Democratic nomination.

Clinton appeared calm, cool, and mostly unperturbed in her first major appearance of the primary season before millions of viewers on CNN. Gone were awkward attempts at humor or feigned outrage that had stifled her early image when compared to Sanders, a sincere socialist clearly passionate about a wrongheaded approach to helping millions of struggling Americans.

Indeed, in the first moments of the debate, a question about gun control put Clinton to the left of Sanders—a candidate it has seemed couldn’t go much farther left in his views about the role of government.

Sanders defended his votes against legislation that could have punished gun shop owners if a customer buys a firearm and commits a crime with it. He reasonably contended if an owner sells a gun legally he shouldn’t be held responsible for a buyer’s illegal use of the weapon.

Clinton and fellow Democratic candidate Martin O’Malley, the former governor of Maryland, piled on, saying legislators should pass stiffer gun laws to prevent mass shootings. O’Malley added a tragic note about a family in the audience who lost their daughter in the Aurora, Colo., movie theater shootings.

Sanders stood his ground, saying the Aurora shootings were a good example of the kind of mentally ill shooter who shouldn’t be able to have access to multiple rounds of ammunition and firearms. But he said rural Vermont hunters who have long responsibly bought firearms shouldn’t be punished for the sins of deranged criminals.

The exchange was telling: Sanders hasn’t blushed about his far-left ideology, but when pressed on a position that seems less liberal, he indicated he won’t back down if he sincerely holds it.

But lest Sanders’ supporters fear he was going moderate, the candidate repeated his mantra of what he calls Democratic socialism for much of the debate: Too much wealth is concentrated in too small a percentage of the American population, and the nation’s leaders must find a way to redistribute it.

Sanders’ massively expensive proposals to relieve the middle class and the poor include free college and Medicare for all. Jim Webb, a former U.S. senator from Virginia, interrupted his own time-consuming complaints about getting too little debate airtime to note Congress likely wouldn’t pay for much of Sanders’ plans.

Webb used his remaining airtime to defend his opposition to affirmative action, tout his military record (he served in the Marines and was secretary of the Navy under President Ronald Reagan), and to warn about the threats associated with China. His sometimes Republican-sounding arguments may have won more points with the opposing party than the members of the Democratic audience.

Clinton appeared calm when faced with uneasy questions about the email scandal plaguing her candidacy. She continues to face thorny inquiries about her use of a private server and email address to conduct business while secretary of state.

Clinton seemed to brush off the concerns, saying while it wasn’t the best decision, it wasn’t illegal, and she’ll continue to answer questions about it. Sanders garnered one of his biggest applause lines of the night by defending a delighted Clinton and saying voters want to hear about other issues: “The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails.”

Perhaps not.

CNN moderator Anderson Cooper pointed out the FBI is still very interested in Clinton’s use of private email for highly sensitive government business, and critical questions remain about the content of emails Clinton erased before handing over her server to authorities.

Central to those questions about missing emails is how Clinton handled the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.

While Clinton contended that posting American officials in dangerous places like Libya would always carry risk, the question isn’t whether Libya is dangerous, it’s whether Clinton did enough to respond to an explosive attack on U.S. citizens at a vulnerable consulate.

Clinton will have to answer more questions about Benghazi when she publicly testifies before a congressional committee on Oct. 22.

Though Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., torpedoed his own bid for speaker of the House by suggesting the House committee’s investigation of Clinton was helping damage her poll numbers, the central issues go far beyond campaign politics to the question of Clinton’s role in protecting American citizens and making critical calls about national security in a moment of crisis.

Former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee further questioned Clinton’s foreign policy chops by suggesting her vote in favor of the Iraq war should disqualify her from being president.

It was a line of argument that didn’t go far, and after last night’s debate it seemed Chafee’s candidacy wouldn’t go much farther either. The candidate who called himself “granite” when it comes to issues gave one of the mushiest debate performances in recent history.

In one of his most painful moments, Chafee, who also represented Rhode Island in the U.S. Senate, defended his Senate vote for a banking bill by admitting he hadn’t realized exactly what he was voting for.

O’Malley fared better, getting into the fray and touting what he called Baltimore’s decline in crime, despite the racial flare-ups over the summer. Still, O’Malley’s rallying cry was a banking bill most voters would need to Google to understand, and an insistent promise to put America on a completely clean electric grid by 2050.

On the subject of climate change, most of the contenders clamored to underscore what they see as the massive danger of global warning. But Sanders topped the field. When Cooper asked the candidates what is the greatest threat facing the nation, Sanders skipped ISIS, North Korea, and global terror networks. Instead, he said the greatest threat is climate change.

Clinton didn’t skip opportunities to underscore the threat of Republicans, reminding viewers of the general election she hopes she’ll be competing in soon.

One of her rare moments of ire came as she mentioned Republican opposition to abortion giant Planned Parenthood. Clinton chided Republicans for being against big government, saying, “They don’t mind having government interfere with a woman’s right to choose or to try to take down Planned Parenthood. They’re fine with big government when it comes to that. I’m sick of it!”

While Clinton may be sick of conservative opposition to Planned Parenthood, it likely isn’t going away. Republican presidential candidates continue to call for the federal government to defund the nation’s largest abortion provider, and GOP candidate Carly Fiorina, the only other woman in the race, refuses to back down from her blistering opposition to abortion. Like other conservatives and pro-life supporters, when it comes to Planned Parenthood, she’s sick of it too.