Rivals for Democratic nomination discuss gun control, immigration and the email row in first TV debate in the race to the White House

Hillary Clinton has cemented her status as the Democratic presidential nominee-in-waiting with a commanding and assured performance at the first televised debate of the party’s primary race for the White House.

Democratic debate – at a glance Read more

The former secretary of state appeared unfazed by the controversies that have beset her campaign, including her use of a personal email server at the State Department, portraying the scandal as one concocted by partisan opponents and insisting: “I’m still standing.”

Bernie Sanders, in contrast, stumbled over his past policy on gun control and, in what was a pivotal moment of the debate, opted to give Clinton a pass over the issue that has dogged her campaign.

“I think the secretary is right,” he said in turning to Clinton, shortly after she was pressed over her use of the email server by the CNN moderator, Anderson Cooper. “And that is that the American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails.”

The line prompted thundering applause from the Democratic audience and a heartfelt “thank you, me too” from Clinton, who smiled and shook Sanders’ hand.

The Vermont senator prefaced the remark about Clinton’s emails by saying it “may not be great politics” to defend her – and he may have been right.

His display of magnanimity defused a politically toxic issue for Clinton and compounded the sense that the debate in Nevada provided a much-needed boost to her campaign.

In the end, it was a debate that highlighted stylistic rather than policy differences between the five Democratic candidates, and one leaving no doubt that Clinton – the only woman on stage, and a candidate with unrivalled experience at all upper echelons of American government – is the party’s clear frontrunner.

The former New York senator and first lady dealt confidently when pressed on trade, climate change, the Black Lives Matter movement and the civil war in Syria, portraying herself as a policy wonk with a pragmatic bent.

“I’m a progressive, but I’m a progressive who likes to get things done,” Clinton said when challenged over whether she was a “moderate” masquerading as a leftwinger to win over the party faithful lured by Sanders.

“I know how to find common ground, and I know how to stand my ground,” she said. “And I have proved that in every position that I’ve had, even dealing with Republicans who never had a good word to say about me.”

‘The next president of the United States’

Clinton, who was poised and unruffled throughout the two-hour debate, deftly portrayed the controversy over her use of the potentially un-secure private email server as the focus of conservative adversaries and, in particular, the Republican House committee that has called her to testify this month.

“It is a partisan vehicle, as admitted by the House Republican majority leader, Mr [Kevin] McCarthy, to drive down my poll numbers,” she said. “Big surprise. And that’s what they have attempted to do.”

She added: “I’m still standing. I am happy to be part of this debate. And I intend to keep talking about the issues that matter to the American people.”

In the so-called “spin room”, where campaign surrogates congregated after the debate to debrief reporters, Clinton’s team was confident that her performance would leave voters feeling “energized”.

“That was obviously a really important stage because it’s the biggest one that we’ve had for a substantive conversation like this,” Clinton spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri said. “I feel like she was able to communicate particularly the issues she feels really passionate about, and I felt we saw that this is the next president of the United States.”

The former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley also came to Clinton’s support by insisting the email controversy was a distraction from more important issues.

O’Malley was another beneficiary from the CNN platform, the first of six Democratic debates that provide underdog candidates with primetime TV exposure. The former governor, who supporters insist remains a plausible candidate for the White House, held his own in several exchanges with Clinton and Sanders on Tuesday.

It was a spirited performance from O’Malley, who told reporters after the debate his team had been informed, ahead of time, that more questions would be directed at Clinton and Sanders due to their higher standing in the polls.

The two other candidates who were on the stage – the former Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee and the former Virginia senator Jim Webb – struggled to make an impression, with the latter repeatedly complaining that he was not being provided the same airtime as his rivals.

CNN had set aside a podium for the vice-president, Joe Biden, who chose not to take it after continuing his protracted consideration over whether to enter the race.

‘I don’t think I am pandering’

Given Clinton’s sky-high ratings among Democrats, it was perhaps unsurprising that Sanders, O’Malley and the others chose not to forcefully attack the frontrunner, including over her emails.

From the opening moments at a Las Vegas hotel auditorium, it was not Clinton but Sanders, the senator beloved by liberals in the party, who appeared under pressure.

The Vermont senator’s aides briefed reporters in advance that the 73-year-old had not wanted to overindulge in debate preparation. That was apparent as soon as the populist senator began replicating the impassioned pitch that has proved so popular at outdoor rallies – only inside a TV studio, where it appeared to strike an angry tone.

Clinton, in contrast, was poised and well-prepared, and pounced at the Vermont senator’s main weakness: his past positions on gun control.

Bernie Sanders faithful brush off gun control stumble for TV 'revolution' Read more

While Clinton has a long history of advocating for a wide range of stricter gun laws, Sanders has only recently adopted a more aggressive tack against the gun lobby as high-profile mass shootings have grown increasingly routine.

Asked if her opponent was tough enough on guns, Clinton replied: “No, not at all,” and highlighted his 1993 vote against legislation mandating background checks and waiting periods for gun purchases, known as the Brady bill, as well as his vote supporting legislation to grant legal protections to gun makers.

While Sanders sought to explain his vote to shield the firearm manufacturers from litigation as part of “a large and complicated bill”, Clinton noted that she, too, was in the Senate at the time and did not find it “that complicated” when voting against the measure herself.

“It was pretty straightforward to me that he was going to give immunity to the only industry in America,” Clinton said. “Everybody else has to be accountable, but not the gun manufacturers.”

“This has gone on too long and it’s time the entire country stood up against the NRA,” she said.

Sanders insisted he received “a D-minus” grade from the National Rifle Association but later hedged, attempting to defend his past positions with regards to the rural makeup of Vermont.

“As a senator from a rural state, what I can tell Secretary Clinton [is that] that all the shouting in the world is not going to do what I would hope all of us want,” he said.

The awkwardness was compounded by O’Malley, who as governor passed one of the most comprehensive gun control packages in the country despite Maryland having its share of rural areas.

“We were able to pass this and still respect the hunting traditions of people who live in our rural areas,” O’Malley said. “And we did it by leading with principle, not by pandering to the NRA and backing down to the NRA.”

“I don’t think I am pandering,” Sanders shot back. “But you have not been in the United States Congress.” O’Malley then quipped: “Well, maybe that’s a healthy thing.”

‘Casino capitalist’

It was an inauspicious start for Sanders, whose insurgent campaign has ignited the progressive wing of the Democratic party searching for a more radical alternative to Clinton and raised almost as much in donations as the frontrunner.

The Vermont senator did appear to recover his confidence as the debate progressed, delivering a string of impassioned and angry critiques of a global economic system he argued was warped to benefit a tiny sliver of the most wealthy.

His condemnation of Wall Street banks and critiques of the Pacific trade deal sparked raucous applause in the auditorium.

Sanders, who notoriously embraces the label of a “democratic socialist”, also gave a qualified concession to the accusation that he was “not a capitalist” – a declaration that would usually be considered sacrilegious in American politics.

“Do I consider myself part of the casino capitalist process by which so few have so much and so many have so little, by which Wall Street’s greed and recklessness wrecked this economy? No, I don’t,” he said.

Clinton gave a more even-handed response, and one more likely to to appeal to moderates in the party.

“It’s our job to rein in the excesses of capitalism so that it doesn’t run amok and doesn’t cause the kind of inequities we’re seeing in our economic system,” she said.

“But we would be making a grave mistake to turn our backs on what built the greatest middle class in the history.”

The civil policy debates between Clinton and the other candidates – and the extent to which they appeared to agree on the foundational questions of the day – stood in stark contrast to the two Republican debates.

The crowded and highly unpredictable Republican race has so far been dominated by the billionaire frontrunner Donald Trump and other anti-establishment candidates, revealing deep ideological fissures in a party unsure about what it stands for.

The Democratic candidates, in contrast, were in agreement over almost everything, with the possible exception of foreign policy and military intervention.

Clinton, who voted for the Iraq war before disavowing her previous position, and is a relative hawk on foreign policy, advocated a tough response to Russian military aggression. She also stood by her controversial advocacy of a possible no-fly zone over Syria, a proposal she said was being “hotly debated” in Barack Obama’s administration.

Sanders said the policy was dangerous and “could lead to real problems”, a point echoed by O’Malley, who said any such move “would be a mistake”. “Especially with the Russian air force in the air, it could lead to an escalation because of an accident that we would deeply regret,” the former Maryland governor said.

Asked about the legal fate of Edward Snowden, both Sanders and Clinton called for the whistleblower to face trial, though the Vermont senator said Snowden “played a very important role in educating the American public”.

Meanwhile, the subject that had all the politicos talking in the run-up to the debate – whether Biden would enter the race – did not even get a mention.

As a politician known for political gaffes, the vice-president, who was reported to be watching the debate from his residence in Washington, may have empathised with Chafee, who delivered arguably the only stumble that was deemed truly embarrassing.

When asked to explain his vote to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act, a law that separated traditional and investment banking, Chafee repeatedly blamed his decision on having just arrived in the US Senate and it being his first vote.

He was pressed by Cooper, the CNN moderator, on why he cast a vote without knowing what he was voting for. Chafee grew defensive and added: “I think you are being a little rough.”