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“Because it was a racist term, and everybody knew it was a racist term," Bernie Sanders said. | AP Photo Sanders accuses Clinton of using 'racist term'

Hillary Clinton used a "racist term" in a 1996 speech, Bernie Sanders said during Thursday's Democratic presidential debate.

At a campaign event last weekend, the Vermont senator went after the Clintons for their handling of race, pointing to the former first lady's description of gang members as "super predators" during an address on the 1994 crime bill at New Hampshire’s Keene State College and called out her husband former President Bill Clinton for embracing her use of it.

Explaining why he had criticized the Clintons, Sanders said Thursday: “Because it was a racist term, and everybody knew it was a racist term.”

The exchange on Thursday came after the former secretary of state was asked if she regretted her advocacy of the Violent Crime Control Act, whose provisions have become increasingly controversial, especially in the African-American community.

“I'm sorry for the consequences that were unintended and that have had a very unfortunate impact on people's lives," Clinton said of the bill. "I've seen the results of what has happened in families and in communities."

After the question was asked Clinton’s spokesman Brian Fallon tweeted about what he saw as hypocrisy of the question: “Not sure why Bernie Sanders wasn't asked if he was sorry for his support of the crime bill too. He did, you know, vote for it.”