Clinton hits Sanders: 'A president has to deliver in reality'

Hillary Clinton further sharpened her attack on Bernie Sanders on Thursday, saying that a "president has to deliver in reality."

"I'll tell you, I'm not interested in ideas that sound good on paper but will never make it in the real world. I care about making a real difference in your life,” Clinton said during an organizing event in Indianola, Iowa. “And that gets us to the choice that you have to make in this caucus. Now, Senator Sanders and I share many of the same goals, but we have different records and different ideas about how to drive progress."


As the race between the two has tightened in the polls, Clinton has been increasingly distinguishing herself from the Vermont senator — particularly on health care — but the attacks on Thursday were stronger.

Clinton talked about her plan to continue and expand on the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act and then brought up Sanders’ call to switch to a single-payer Medicare-for-all system.

“I know Sen. Sanders cares about covering more people as I do but rather than build on the progress we’ve made he wants to start over from scratch,” Clinton said. “In theory there's a lot to like about some of his (Sanders’) ideas. But 'in theory' isn't enough. A president has to deliver in reality."

“Sen. Sanders has been in Congress for 25 years, he’s introduced his health-care plan nine times but he’s never got a single vote or co-sponsor," Clinton said.

The back-and-forth between the two camps over health care came to a head Wednesday after Sanders said that groups like Planned Parenthood and the Human Rights Campaign (who have both endorsed Clinton) were part of "the establishment" in an interview with MSNBC the previous night. Both groups and other high-profile progressive groups — such as Emily's List and NARAL Pro-Choice America — condemned the comments. In a memo provided to POLITICO on Thursday, Planned Parenthood went further in breaking down what they called "glaring holes" in the senator's health-care plan.

But Clinton did not limit herself to Sanders' health-care proposal — she attacked him on foreign policy, too.

"Senator Sanders doesn’t talk much about foreign policy but when he does, it raises concerns,” she said, slamming Sanders' assertion during Sunday's debate that he would favor a normalization of relations with Iran akin to what the U.S. pursued with Cuba.

Clinton excoriated Sanders' plans on putting Iranian troops in Syria to fight the Islamic State.

“That is like asking the arsonist to be the firefighter. As bad as things are in Syria, and they are, more Iranian troops are only going to make it worse,” she said, echoing a line by policy adviser Jake Sullivan in a video Clinton’s campaign released earlier Thursday hitting Sanders on his comment during Sunday's debate.

In the video, Sullivan talks about Sanders’ policies — touching briefly on the fact that Sanders and Clinton agree not to put troops on the ground before laying into Sanders.

“I have the greatest respect for Sanders, but when you look at the rest of his ideas, they just don’t make a lot of sense,” Sullivan said. He goes on to take down Sanders’ policies and tout Clinton’s experience as secretary of state.

"When you look at all of these ideas, it's pretty clear that he just hasn't thought it through,” Sullivan said. Clinton repeated a variation of the line to her supporters.

Sullivan and spokesman Brian Fallon also held a press call Thursday afternoon to hammer home their points. Fallon said Sanders' statements reflect "a grave underestimation of Iran” and are "concerning for anyone who wants to be the next president." He said those views will be hard to defend in a general election as the GOP has already put a huge focus on foreign policy.

During the debate Sunday Sanders called for the U.S.to "move as aggressively as we can to normalize relations with Iran." Though he cautioned that it shouldn't be overnight.

And Joel Benenson, Clinton’s chief strategist, went on CNN Thursday to attack Sanders’ foreign policy experience, echoing similar arguments Clinton made on the trail.

“The major argument against him is people need a president who can do all of the job,” Benenson said.

The two candidates who until the beginning of 2016 had been tip-toeing around each other have both begun to draw stronger contrasts. Sanders has surged in polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, and Clinton now holds a 4.7 point lead over Sanders in Iowa, a number not much higher than many polls' margins of error. Sanders is ahead with Democratic voters in New Hampshire by 12.6 percentage points, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average in the states.

And it isn't just comments on the trail. Over the past few days the two have been releasing very different ads. On Thursday, Sanders released a feel-good ad to a Simon and Garfunkel song titled "America," featuring footage of Americans on the farm, in their cities and at Sanders rallies. Clinton released an ad on Wednesday touting her experience as senator and secretary of state and playing off the Democratic fear of Ted Cruz or Donald Trump in the White House.

Nick Gass contributed to this report.