Bernie Sanders gave Hillary Clinton a gift when he took the damaging FBI email investigation off the table in the first presidential debate — one many pundits deemed it so valuable a gesture that he was branded foolish for ‘handing her the nomination.’ But Hillary Clinton, who, according to her staff has a spotty reputation when it comes to thanking people, just had to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Sanders said he gave the former Secretary of State a pass on the emails so the debate would be a high-minded one, about ideas, policy, qualifications and judgment. Perhaps Hillary Clinton didn’t think she was winning the fair fight on those terms, because she has lately been telling some outrageous whoppers about Sanders in debates and on the stump and torquing him off in the process:

In the Flint debate, she parsed Sanders’ vote against the Wall Street bailout as a vote against the auto industry, whose own assistance package was tucked inside. Among those who cried foul were Obama strategist David Axelrod and the New York Times , which endorsed her in January and pinned part blame for the Michigan loss on her duplicity.

, which endorsed her in January and pinned part blame for the Michigan loss on her duplicity. Two days later, at the Univision debate, she told the same lie again, and Axelrod again called her out on Twitter the second time in the week:

Also at the Univision debate, Clinton tried to tie Sanders to Democrat nemeses the Koch Brothers, controversial border militia the Minutemen and also painted him as a foot-dragger on climate change.

Though PolitiFact did rate the Minutemen claim ‘mostly true’, it gave the climate change claim a flat “false.” But all three charges are frankly so at odds with Sanders record and positions that Clinton was either aiming at the lowest of low-information voters or trying to make him explode right there on the stage.

Though he didn’t pop, Sanders did indeed puff up, and viewers saw a much more pungnacious and sarcastic side of the Senator.

Nearer the beginning of the campaign, Sanders would have listened to Clinton try to pass of one of his ideas as one of her own while basking in the applause but choose to hold his tongue. Maybe he’d give an “Oh, brother” cheek puff or, in extreme cases, one of his patented side eyes.

But Sanders 2.0 waited until the cheers died down for ‘Clinton’s’ call for the U.S. government to stop profiting from student loans, forcefully interrupted the moderators, and delivered this backhander of a smackdown:

“I think that what Secretary Clinton just said is absolutely right. I believe I said it many months before she said it. Thanks for copying it; it’s a great idea.”

Salty Sanders (#SaltySanders make it viral, people) is even better with the orchestra conductor gestures in the Brooklynese accent, so a shout out is due to excellent independent journalists The Young Turks for this helpful “best lines” roundup:

Tonight’s election returns could help influence whether Sanders rachets up the “contrast” even more. If he wins three or more of the five states and his path to the nomination remains clear, albeit narrow, he and his advisors might decide to delve deeper on more of Clinton’s influence peddling past than dinging her for the Goldman Sachs speeches. He needs to win big in the upcoming states to catch her in delegates and, in her shameless dissembling, she’s been sticking out a serious glass jaw.

I’m among those who think he should hit her hard for selling her influence as a sitting Secretary of State, overseeing billions in arms sales to repressive countries who wrote fat checks to the Clinton Family Foundation.

Because authenticity and decency are his hallmarks, there is little chance Sanders is going to get in the gutter and go lie-for-lie with Clinton. But frankly, she’s such a weak and compromised candidate (and he provides such an ethical counterpoint) that he would have little trouble making short work of her if that’s the place he decided to go.