
And she went after her rival aggressively over his attempts to portray her as being in the pocket of Wall Street because of the campaign donations and the fees she had received for after-dinner speeches.
"It's time to end the very artful smear that you and your campaign have been carrying out," she said.
Mr Sanders, a senator of Vermont, used a favourite attack line against her, that she backed the Iraq War, but she questioned his foreign policy expertise.The debate comes five days before the second state-by-state contest in the battle for the presidential nominee, in New Hampshire on Tuesday.
When in doubt, say you're with Barack Obama. It was telling in this last debate before the New Hampshire primary that both candidates, when forced to defend themselves on grounds where they felt vulnerable, turned to Barack Obama for protection.Early in the debate, when pressed by the Vermont senator on her ties to Wall Street, Mrs Clinton noted that Mr Obama had taken donations from the financial industry and still passed comprehensive reform. He did it because he was a "responsible president," she said.
Later in the evening, Mr Sanders was pressed on his foreign policy views and willingness to normalise relations with Iran. He noted that he agreed with Mr Obama on the issue, despite Mrs Clinton criticising the then-senator in 2008 for being "naive".
The Democratic president is still overwhelmingly popular among Democrats - and he proved to be a reassuring refuge.But if this, in fact, revealed where the candidates were weakest, that can only be good news for Mr Sanders. Polls overwhelmingly show Democrats are much more concerned about the economy than they are about international affairs.
Despite the tensions over policies, the debate ended on a warm note, when Mrs Clinton said the first person she would call would be Mr Sanders, if she won the nomination.
The debate was their first without the presence of the former governor of Maryland, Martin O'Malley, who quit the race on Monday night.He was a distant third in the first state to vote, Iowa, where Mrs Clinton narrowly beat Mr Sanders after a prolonged count.Mr Sanders holds a big lead in polls in New Hampshire, which borders the state where he is a senator, Vermont.Both Republican and Democratic parties will formally name their presidential candidates at conventions in July.Americans will finally go to the polls to choose the new occupant of the White House in November.The winner of the Democratic contest will likely face one of Ted Cruz, Donald Trump or Marco Rubio, who finished in that order in the Iowa primaries.
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