Democratic Presidential candidates go head to head at third debate

George Skene/Orlando Sentinel/TNS with permission

Hillary Clinton speaks at a campaign rally at the Meadow Woods Recreation Center in south Orlando, Fla., on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015.

Joey Bloch, Editor-in-chief

On Saturday, the third democratic presidential debate was held in Manchester, New Hampshire, which is one of the early primary states in the 2016 race. The debate was broadcast on ABC and moderated by David Muir and Martha Raddatz. The debaters included presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley. Each one is said to have contributed something interesting to the conversation.

Clinton immediately went after Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump when asked what she would say to those supporting his ban of Muslims from entering the United States.

“He is becoming ISIS’s best recruiter,” Clinton stated on the attack. “They are going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists.”

Unfortunately, for Clinton, there has been no found evidence that supports her claim which as you can imagine made Trump very anxious to retaliate. He felt so insulted by the comments that she made about him that he demanded an apology. Her response, “Hell No!”

Even though Clinton dropped the most significant criticism Trump, she wasn’t the only one to weigh in on the Republican front-runner. Sanders complained about the way the self-made billionaire has been running his campaign and how his comments are negatively perceived.

“Somebody like a Trump comes along and says I know the answers,” Sanders said with rage in his speech. “The answer is they’re all of the Mexicans. They’re all criminals and rapists.”

O’Malley put the former reality star in the same category as Hitler when referring to what the leadership style would be like under President Trump.

“Fascist pleas of billionaires with big mouths,” O’Malley said.

As much mud throwing as there was at Trump, it still wasn’t enough to blind side democrats from what went down between the democratic candidates on the debate stage. The candidates debated over a slew of issues that included gun laws, taxes, and Isis.

The blow exchange became so bad that at one point O’Malley criticized the other two politicians on the stage.

“For crying out loud,” O’Malley said when referring to a spat had by Clinton and Sanders. “We are listening to the bickering back and forth.”

Although there was bickering towards the middle of the debate, the beginning was quite uneventful. Even when the moderators brought up Sanders’s recent troubles with the DNC and the Clinton campaign, the Vermont senator immediately owned up to the mistakes made by his campaign by apologizing not only to Clinton, but to all of his supporters as well.

“Our staff found information on our computer from the Clinton campaign,” Sanders said. “Not only do I apologize to secretary Clinton–and I hope we can work on an independent investigation from day one, I also want to apologize to my supporters.”

Of course, being that the former Secretary of State has also had recent tech problems, she readily forgave Sanders. In fact, she wanted America to forget all about this. Unfortunately, Sanders still hasn’t because he is still going forward with his lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee.

One of the most interesting moments of the debate was when Clinton tardily returned from the commercial break in which she responded with “Sorry…”

It was later revealed that she had to go to the bathroom and the facility was far away, making it difficult for her to get back on time. Surprisingly, this was more than a momentary experience for some people.

Trump seized the moment to interject some sophomoric bathroom humor at a rally in Michigan on Monday.

“I know where she went. It’s disgusting,” Trump said. “I don’t want to talk about it. It’s too disgusting.”

If you enjoyed this debate, you’ll just love the next one which is Jan. 17 on NBC, broadcast live from Charleston, South Carolina.

So as Clinton ended last week’s debated, “Thank you, good night, and may the force be with you.”