Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, makes his opening statement as Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton listens during a Democratic presidential primary debate hosted by MSNBC at the University of New Hampshire Thursday, Feb. 4, 2016, in Durham, N.H.
Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., gestures towards Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton during the NBC, YouTube Democratic presidential debate at the Gaillard Center on Jan. 17.
FILE - In this Jan. 17, 2016 photo, Democratic presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, stand together before the start of the NBC, YouTube Democratic presidential debate at the Gaillard Center in Charleston, S.C. The Democratic presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders reached an agreement in principle on Saturday to hold another presidential debate next week in New Hampshire and three more later this spring. (AP Photo/Mic Smith) DURHAM, N.H. - Fireworks flying in their first one-on-one debate, Hillary Clinton accused Bernie Sanders Thursday night of subjecting her to an "artful smear" while Sanders suggested the former secretary of state was a captive of America's political establishment.
The two Democrats embraced a markedly more contentious tone than when they last debated before the year's presidential voting began in Iowa, and it signaled how the race for the nomination has tightened five days ahead of the first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire next Tuesday.
The two argued over ideas, over tactics and over who has the liberal credentials to deliver on an agenda of better access to health care, more affordable college, fighting income inequality and more.
It was Clinton who was the main aggressor, saying Sanders could never achieve his ambitious and costly proposals. Then she took after the Vermont senator for his efforts to cast her as beholden to Wall Street interests because of the campaign donations and speaking fees she's accepted from the financial sector.
"It's time to end the very artful smear that you and your campaign have been carrying out," she said.
Sanders, for his part, suggested Clinton's loyalties were colored by a reliance on big corporate donors.
"Secretary Clinton does represent the establishment," he said. "I represent - I hope - ordinary Americans."
Clinton may say the right things, he suggested, but "one of the things we should do is not only talk the talk but walk the walk."
"I am very proud to be the only candidate up here who does not have super PAC, who's not raising huge sums from Wall Street and special interests," he said.
Where Clinton aimed considerable criticism at Sanders, the Vermont senator focused much of his fire on what he says is a political system rigged against ordinary Americans.
He said that when a "kid gets caught with marijuana, that kid has a police record." But when "a Wall Street executive destroys the economy" and pays a $5 billion settlement, he has no criminal record.
"That is what power is about, that is what corruption is about," he said.
Clinton, unwilling to cede the issue to Sanders, insisted her regulatory policies would be tougher on Wall Street than his.
"I've got their number," she said, "the Wall Street guys."
Asked if she would release transcripts of her paid speeches to Wall Street interests and others, Clinton was noncommittal, saying "I'll look into it." She had struggled a day earlier to explain why she accepted $675,000 for three speeches from Goldman Sachs.
Clinton called Sanders' sweeping proposals on health care and education "just not achievable," while Sanders countered that Clinton was willing to settle for less than Americans deserve.
The race for the Democratic nomination, once seen as a sure thing for Clinton, intensified this week after Sanders held the former secretary of state to a whisper-thin margin of victory in Iowa's leadoff caucuses. The tone of their back-and-forth has become increasingly sharp, and the candidates agreed to add four more debates to the primary season schedule, including Thursday's faceoff in Durham.
In fresh evidence of the tightening race, Clinton reported that her campaign had raised $15 million in January - $5 million less than Sanders and the first time she's been outraised by her opponent. Her finance director called the numbers "a very loud wake-up call."
Sanders has a big lead in New Hampshire polls, but he was eager to lower expectations for his finish there, casting himself as an underdog.
Clinton, for her part, signaled her determination to at least narrow the gap before Tuesday's vote. Her prospects are much stronger in primaries and caucuses after New Hampshire, as the race moves on to states with more diverse electorates that are to her advantage.
The two renewed their running debate over who is the real progressive, with Clinton accusing Sanders of quoting her selectively to diminish her credentials.
On foreign policy, Sanders renewed his criticism of Clinton for her vote as a senator to authorize the war in Iraq, a vote she later said was a mistake.
Clinton retorted: "A vote in 2002 is not a plan to defeat ISIS. We have to look at the threats that we face right now."
Sanders allowed that while Clinton had been secretary of state, "experience is not the only point. Judgment is."
On a nagging issue, Clinton was asked if she was sure nothing problematic would come of the ongoing investigation into her use of a private email account and server to handle official messages when she was secretary of state, some of them later classified as top secret.
"I am 100 percent confident," she said.
When the fireworks had died out at the end of two hours, the two candidates had some conciliatory words for one another, with Sanders declaring, "on our worst days, I think it is fair to say, we are 100 percent better than any Republican candidate"
The Durham debate was the first faceoff for Clinton and Sanders since former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley dropped out of the race after a poor showing in Iowa.
The close result in Iowa was the latest twist in an election campaign that, until recently, had been dominated by the crowded and cacophonous field of Republicans, who spread out across New Hampshire this week.
Donald Trump, who finished second in Iowa, stepped up the pace of his campaign and acknowledged he should have had a stronger ground operation in Iowa. Jeb Bush, his campaign lagging, brought in his mom, former first lady Barbara Bush, who praised him as "decent and honest and everything we need in a president."
MOMENT BY MOMENT DEBATE UPDATES
DERRY, N.H. - The Latest on the 2016 presidential campaign (all times local):
11:03 p.m.
Bernie Sanders is ending the last Democratic debate before the New Hampshire primary with an anti-establishment declaration.
Sanders says in his closing statement that he is running for president because "it is just too late for establishment politics and establishment economics."
He is calling for a political revolution "where millions of people stand up and say loudly" that government is for all Americans and not just for a handful of wealthy campaign contributors.
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11:00 p.m.
Hillary Clinton says she hopes New Hampshire voters bring both their hearts and heads with them when they vote in the state primary Tuesday.
Clinton said in her closing statement in Thursday's debate that she doesn't want voters to choose between the candidate they support emotionally and the one they back intellectually.
Clinton says she will bring her heart to the presidency, but "we have to get our heads together" to solve problems facing the country. She says those include fighting racism and sexism, addressing gay rights and combating income inequality.
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10:58 p.m.
Hillary Clinton is promising a "top-to-bottom review" of the government, vowing to "get rid of what doesn't work."
But she said during the Democratic presidential debate that she has no intention of eliminating entire government agencies, as some Republican presidential candidates are promising.
The key to making the government function better, Clinton says, is to allow voters to weigh in.
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10:55 p.m.
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were asked to make a choice between immigration, gun control and climate change as their top priority. They didn't want to narrow it down.
Clinton says she wants to work on an "ambitious, bold agenda" that includes putting half a billion solar panels around the country, improving the health care law, moving forward on paid family leave and improving education.
Sanders says campaign finance reform needs to be a top priority for the next president and is vowing to demand that any nominee to the Supreme Court be willing to overturn the Citizens United ruling.
He says he wants to make changes to health care and the "broken criminal justice system."
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10:50 p.m.
Hillary Clinton is once again being questioned on her delayed opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Clinton said during Thursday's Democratic debate that she wanted to give President Barack Obama the benefit of the doubt and hoped the final version of the trade deal would put her concerns to rest.
She says America must trade with the rest of the world but notes that the U.S. "failed to provide the basic safety-net support" for American workers.
Bernie Sanders, meanwhile, says he believes in trade, but not any existing U.S. trade deals.
Sander says he not only opposes the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada - he protested against it.
10:45 p.m.
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders say Michigan's government has responded inadequately to the lead contamination crisis in Flint, and the federal government should get involved.
Clinton said in Thursday's presidential debate in New Hampshire that the federal government needs to hold Michigan responsible, while also finding ways to remedy the "terrible burden" that people in Flint are facing, such as helping to pay for health care costs.
Sanders renewed his call for Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder to resign, saying there are "children being poisoned."
He suggested that the crisis would have been addressed differently if it had happened in a white suburban community.
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10:40 p.m.
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are stressing their differences on the death penalty.
Clinton said at Thursday's Democratic presidential debate that she supports a federal death penalty, as long as it is reserved for "particularly heinous crimes."
She adds that she has concerns about many state judicial systems. She says they do not provide defendants with proper counsel and fail to enforce high standards for evidence. That makes the application of the death penalty uneven and unfair, she says.
Sanders says he agrees that some criminals commit "barbaric acts." But, he says, "In a world of so much violence and killing, I just don't believe that government itself should be part of the killing."
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10:30 p.m.
Self-described "democratic socialist" Bernie Sanders says he can win a general election by exciting young people, the middle class and working-class people and driving up voter turnout.
The Vermont senator says in Thursday's presidential debate that the rise in turnout will help Democrats keep the White House, gain seats in Congress and win governors' races.
Sanders says, "Democrats win when there is a large voter turnout, when people are excited."
He says Republicans win office when voters are "demoralized" and turnout is low.
Hillary Clinton argues that she is the strongest candidate to take on the Republicans, and she hopes to persuade young people currently backing Sanders to come over to her side.
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10:25 p.m.
Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders is arguing that concerns over the integrity of the Iowa caucus count are overblown.
Asked at Thursday's Democratic debate in New Hampshire whether questions about the caucuses are still unresolved, Sanders noted the Iowa contest "is not like a winner-take-all thing" and urged the media not to blow the issue out of proportion.
The Des Moines Register has labeled the election a "debacle" because of accounts of confusion and errors. The paper is calling for an audit of the results.
Sanders says his team believes they may be entitled to at least two additional delegates, but he says, "No matter how it's recounted, it will break roughly even."
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10:20 p.m.
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are tangling over whether the United States should restore diplomatic relations with Iran.
Clinton says Sanders is wrong to support normalizing relations with a state sponsor of terrorism that she says is "destabilizing the region."
Clinton says if the next administration normalized relations immediately, the U.S. would remove one of the biggest pieces of leverage it has. She says "you have to get action for action."
Sanders says he never said the U.S. should normalize relations with Iran "tomorrow" but should try to "move forward." He points out that Clinton once called then-Sen. Barack Obama "naive" for wanting to talk to the nation's enemies.
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10:15 p.m.
Bernie Sanders is dismissing Defense Secretary Ash Carter's assessment that Russia now poses a graver national security threat to the U.S. than any other nation.
Asked to rank North Korea, Iran and Russia, Sanders is choosing North Korea as the biggest threat.
He calls the East Asian nation "an isolated, paranoid country with atomic bombs."
That makes them more dangerous, he says, than Russia or China.
Still, Sanders says he disapproves of Russian President Vladimir Putin's "military adventurism" in his region.
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10:10 p.m.
Bernie Sanders says the United States can't be the policeman of the world.
The independent Vermont senator was asked during Thursday's Democratic debate to outline how he would approach foreign policy as president. He says "we cannot continue to do it alone. We need to work in coalition."
But Hillary Clinton says the way they approach foreign policy is "a big part of the job interview with voters." She says her experience as a former secretary of state sets her apart from Sanders. She says, "I know from my own experience, you've got to be ready on Day One."
Sanders says it is "not arguable" that Clinton has more experience in foreign policy issues, but voters must also assess the judgment of the candidates.
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10:05 p.m.
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders agree that they do not want to see large numbers of American ground troops return to the Middle East.
Debating Thursday in the first one-on-one Democratic debate, the two describe the U.S. role as providing assistance, through supplies, weapons and special forces - but not a massive ground force.
Clinton says sending ground troops "is off the table."
Sanders says his goal would be keeping the U.S. from getting "sucked into never-ending perpetual warfare within the quagmire of Syria and Iraq."
He adds, "It must be Muslim troops on the ground that will destroy" the Islamic State group.
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9:55 p.m.
Hillary Clinton dodged a request to release transcripts of her paid speeches.
Clinton was asked during Thursday's presidential debate in New Hampshire whether she would release the transcripts of speeches she's been paid to give to Wall Street firms.
She says: "I'll look into it. I don't know the status, but I will certainly look into it."
On Wednesday, Clinton struggled when asked why she accepted $675,000 for three speeches from investment firm Goldman Sachs.
Her rival Bernie Sanders calls Wall Street "an entity of unbelievable economic and political power." He says "the business model of Wall Street is fraud."
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9:50 p.m.
Bernie Sanders says even though he's been critical of corporate America, he could work with corporations if he was elected to the White House.
Sanders reiterated his disgust that some large multinational corporations like General Electric and Boeing have avoided paying U.S. taxes. He says if he's elected president, companies like that "are going to pay their fair share of taxes."
He says that while some companies are good corporate citizens, "there are many corporations who have turned their backs on the American worker." He says he will do his best to "transform our trade policy" and take on companies that try to invest in low-income economies to make higher profits.
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9:45 p.m.
Hillary Clinton says she could have done a better job "explaining my record" to voters who distrust her ties to Wall Street.
Speaking at Thursday's Democratic debate in New Hampshire, Clinton says she warned Wall Street firms before the 2008 crash that their speculative practices could hurt the economy.
She emphasized that her vow to take on the financial sector has industry titans nervous enough to bankroll attacks against her campaign.
She says: "I have a record. I have stood firm, and I will be the person who prevents them from ever wrecking the economy again."
Bernie Sanders is standing by his assertion that Clinton has disconcerting ties to Wall Street, and says he is better positioned to regulate the sector to protect average Americans.
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9:40 p.m.
Bernie Sanders says he considered using the public financing system for presidential elections but concluded it was too antiquated and would be "a disaster."
Sanders was asked why he didn't use the government's public campaign finance system as a way to curb the role of big money in politics. He says he could have had a super PAC but says he doesn't represent "corporate America or billionaires."
Sanders says he went with a second option - raising money from average Americans. It has turned out well for him: Sanders has received 3.5 million individual contributions averaging $27 apiece. The Vermont senator raked in $20 million in January, mostly online.
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9:35 p.m.
Hillary Clinton is telling Bernie Sanders "enough is enough."
Clashing at Thursday's Democratic presidential debate, Sanders said he is running a "transformational campaign" funded by individual supporters and not big-money interests like those who have formed a super PAC to back Clinton.
The former secretary of state is lashing back, saying Sanders is misrepresenting her record in a manner that not "worthy of you. Enough is enough."
Clinton says Sanders has been orchestrating a "very artful smear" against her. She says they should instead be talking about issues affecting the American people.
Clinton says Democrats need to be united to take on problems facing the country. She says she has a better track record and opportunity to get the job done than Sanders does.
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9:23 p.m.
Bernie Sanders says his liberal vision is worthy of the Democratic Party nomination even if he's spent his political career as an independent.
At the Democratic presidential debate in New Hampshire Thursday, Sanders is stressing that he has always caucused with Democrats in the Senate.
He confirms he "would like to see changes in the Democratic Party" to make it friendlier to working people.
His rival Hillary Clinton is responding by noting that many elected Democrats in Sanders' home state of Vermont have endorsed her.
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9:20 p.m.
Hillary Clinton says Bernie Sanders is making an "unfair" accusation when he suggests she's not a progressive.
Clinton also says Sanders' definition of who is a progressive Democrat would leave out President Barack Obama and other party leaders.
Clinton and Sanders have been squabbling this week over whether the former secretary of state is a liberalDemocrat. Sanders has cited Clinton's previous statements that she's a moderate, saying she can't be both.
Sanders says he does believe Obama is a liberal, despite his support for a sweeping Asia-Pacific trade pact that Sanders has called "disastrous."
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9:15 p.m.
Hillary Clinton is taking aim at the costs of Bernie Sanders' proposals, saying at Thursday's Democratic debatethat his numbers "just don't add up."
She says she doesn't want to "plunge" the nation into another contentious debate over health care and thinks college should be affordable, not free.
Sanders says there's no reason the United States can't make health care a right for people, not a privilege, and says Wall Street should pay to cut the costs of college.
Sanders says the "middle class bailed out Wall Street in their time of need, now it is time for Wall Street to help the middle class."
He adds that the notion that he would "dismantle" President Barack Obama's health care law is inaccurate.
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9:08 p.m.
Hillary Clinton is attacking her Democratic opponent Bernie Sanders in her opening statement of their first one-on-one debate.
Clinton said Thursday in the New Hampshire debate that she is "not making promises that I cannot keep."
She addressed Sanders' campaign promise to provide universal health care for all and free college tuition.
Clinton is also acknowledging that "the economy has not been working for most Americans." She also says special interests are doing too much to "rig the game."
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9:05 p.m.
Bernie Sanders is using his opening statement in Thursday's Democratic debate to stress his vow to overhaul American politics and the economy.
"The economy is rigged," he says. He adds that a "corrupt campaign finance system" is "undermining American democracy."
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9:00 p.m.
The first one-on-one debate between Democratic presidential rivals Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders is underway in New Hampshire.
The two took the stage in the MSNBC-hosted debate Thursday night with just days to go until the first-in-the-nation primary.
The two faced off in the leadoff Iowa caucuses Monday, with Clinton grabbing a razor-thin victory. Sanders appears to be leading in New Hampshire preference polls.