Hillary Clinton said tonight at a Democratic Party dinner that Republican White House candidates are using 'coded, racial' language to talk about President Barack Obama and the poor.

'What I really find so appealing, is the insulting, mean-spirited derogatory language that is used,' she said, talking about the GOP's presidential debates, 'starting first and foremost against our president.'

They're going after immigrants and refugees, and 'now they've thrown in New Yorkers,' Clinton said at the annual First in the South dinner, held this year in Charleston, South Carolina.

Hillary Clinton said tonight at a Democratic Party dinner that Republican White House candidates are using 'coded, racial' language to talk about President Barack Obama and the poor

The GOP presidential candidates took their fair share of punches during the dinner from national Democrats, including White House aspirants Bernie Sanders, left, and Martin O'Malley

'Republicans are so quick to demonize President Obama or to demean him.'

'Both Ted Cruz and Chris Christie called him a child the other night,' Clinton said, continuing. 'Too often we hear Republicans talking in coded, racial language about free stuff, takers and losers.'

Her voice growing louder as she went on, the Democratic presidential candidate said, 'That has absolutely no place in our democracy and in our politics and we should all stand up and say that loudly and clearly.'

Clinton said that 'instead of insulting our president, we should be thanking him for saving our economy and'leading our country through some very dangerous times.'

The country should also be thanking him for 'saving' the auto industry, tough regulations on Wall Street and 'repairing the damage he inherited from the prior administration when it comes to our standing in the world.'

'Now I have noted that very often my name is linked to the president. Now, I personally consider that a great compliment,' she said, to clapping and cheers.

Clinton noted that Republicans like to call it the 'Obama-Clinton foreign policy' and said, 'Well my goodness, I heard that during the early debates, and I thought to myself, "Well maybe they just don't know what President Obama and I got done." '

'So I sent them all a copy of my book "Hard Choices." I wrote each of them a letter, and I said, "You know there are so many of you you could have a book club." '

Clinton told her audience the letter to her Republican rivals - at one point there were 17 - said, if you want to know about crippling sanctions on Iran and how to get China and Russia on board, 'You can read about it.'

'There's just a lot of useful information,' she said of her memoir that details her time at the helm of the State Department.

She added, 'I have not gotten one thank you note. I'll let you you know that right now.'

Clinton said tonight she sent the GOP candidates a copy of her book to educate them on her tenure as secretary of state. I wrote each of them a letter, and I said, "You know there are so many of you you could have a book club" '

South Carolina Democrats are seen here dancing and singing while they wait for Clinton to arrive at Senator Jim Clyburn's Fish Fry tonight. All three candidates spoke at a Democratic Party function across town before stopping in at the second event

The GOP presidential candidates took their fair share of punches at the dinner from local and national Democrats, including party chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who compared the opposing party's race to a circus and said that like a Ringling Brothers show, the elephants in the GOP are about to be out of work.

Martin O'Malley, the first of the Democratic Oval Office aspirants to speak, said of the Republican Party's leading candidates, 'I'd like to say that Donald Trump is the most outrageous and unqualified person to ever run for president, but that's not fair to Ted Cruz, is it.'

Sticking with the assaults on Trump, O'Malley repeated the Republicans claim that wages are 'too high, and said, 'Hello, American wages too high?'

'I'll tell you what's too high,' he said. 'College tuition...the number of Americans who live in poverty...'Donald Trump's opinion of himself, that's too high.'

O'Malley, the governor of Maryland until last year, said, 'Donald Trump is running to be president of the Divided States of American. I am running to be president of the United States of America.'

Bernie Sanders called Republicans 'cowardly' and claimed they want 'to suppress the vote in minority communities all over this country.'

Sanders said that in all the elections he has been on the ballot in, 'it has never, ever occurred to me, not for one second to think about how I can deny the right to vote of people who might be voting against me.'

'So I say to those cowardly governors and and legislators, if you don't have the guts to part in a free and fair election get another job!'

'What I really find so appealing, is the insulting, mean-spirited derogatory language that is used,' Clinton said tonight, talking about the GOP's presidential debates, 'starting first and foremost against our president.' She's seen here at the fish fry later in the evening

Later in his remarks Sanders again jabbed Republicans as he talked about the financial crisis at the beginning of Obama's presidency.

'Unfortunately our Republican friends suffer from amnesia,' he said. 'Every problem in the world is caused by Barack Obama.

He added, 'If it rains it's Obama's fault. If it's too hot it's Obama's fault.'

'But the truth is, under the leadership of' Democrats, 'we have made enormous progress,' the independent senator running for the Democratic nomination to the presidency said.