The event in Milwaukee was the first time Clinton has been on stage with Sanders since her rival for the Democratic nomination beat her by 22 percentage points in New Hampshire Tuesday. Clinton sought to portray herself as a champion of struggling working-class people, women, and racial minorities.

In sharp exchanges late in the debate, the candidates revealed how pivotal the politics of race have become in the Democratic nominating contest for president as it heads to South Carolina later this month and other Deep South states in March.

MILWAUKEE — Hillary Clinton competed aggressively with Bernie Sanders to demonstrate greater affinity for issues of importance to black voters in a debate Thursday night, accusing Sanders of being insufficiently supportive of President Obama.


The most memorable exchange came at the end, when Clinton pointed out ways in which she and Obama are in sync and accused Sanders of undermining the first black president.

“The kind of criticism that we’ve heard from Senator Sanders about our president, I expect from Republicans,” she said. “I do not expect [it] from someone running for the Democratic nomination to succeed President Obama.”

Sanders offered a measured response at first, saying that it’s not usual to disagree on some fronts with the party leader.

“Have you ever disagreed with a president? I suspect you may have,” Sanders quipped, showing his signature humor.

Clinton went for the jugular.

“Calling the president weak, calling him a disappointment, calling several times that he should have a primary opponent when he ran for reelection in 2012 – you know, I think that goes further than saying we have our disagreements. . . . . Those kinds of personal assessments and charges are ones that I find particularly troubling.”

Sanders, annoyed, called the comments “a low blow,’’ then shot back: “One of us ran against Barack Obama; I was not that candidate.”


The PBS NewsHour and CNN debate here at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee arrived at an unexpectedly tense time for Democrats, who have long assumed that Clinton would easily win the party’s nomination.

Instead, a combination of Sanders’ narrow loss in Iowa, his overwhelming New Hampshire win — with a particularly strong showing among women, whose votes Clinton is counting on — and his prodigious fund-raising has upended expectations and showered attention on the longtime Vermont senator.

The notion of a surging Sanders even set off musings, far-fetched as they may seem, within the Democratic Party Thursday of a possible contested convention, in which case the party wouldn’t settle on a nominee until July. Senate majority leader Harry Reid, in an interview with CNN, said “it would be kind of fun” if the nomination contest lasts until the summer.

Clinton tried to define Sanders as a one-note candidate whose rants against Wall Street, the rigged economy, and the campaign finance system ignore many other issues facing Americans.

“I’m running for president to knock down all of the barriers that are holding Americans back,” said Clinton in her opening remarks.

She named African-Americans, young people, and immigrants as groups that should have more access to “ladders of opportunity.”

Both campaigns have launched an all-out scramble to woo African-American and Hispanic voters. Minorities make up a larger part of the Democratic electorate in the next two contests in Nevada and South Carolina, compared with New Hampshire, and those elections could clarify who has a stronger path to the nomination.


Sanders noted that black Americans are disproportionately in jail and have higher childhood poverty rates and higher youth unemployment rates.

“Clearly we are looking at institutional racism,” he said. “We are looking at an economy in which the rich get richer and poor get poorer. And sadly in America today, in our economy, a whole lot of those poor people are African-American.”

At one point in the debate, moderator Gwen Ifill chimed in to shift directions, saying, “I want to talk to you about white people.”

Sanders seemed incredulous, asking, “White people?”

Said Clinton, “I am deeply concerned about what happens in every community in America. That includes white communities where we are seeing an increase in alcoholism, addiction, earlier deaths,” talking about a plan to revitalize communities where coal is a primary economic driver.

Sanders said that the economic problems were driving some of the racial tensions.

“You are a worker. White worker, black worker, who had a decent job. That manufacturing job is gone, what do you have now? You’re working at McDonald’s?” he said. “That is why there is massive despair all over this country. People have worked their entire lives, they’re making half or two-thirds what they used to make. Their kids are having a hard time finding any work at all.”

Both Sanders and Clinton pledged to create a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants, but they also said they would halt some of the deportations currently underway under the Obama administration.


“I am against the raids, I’m against the kind of inhumane treatment that is being visited upon families,” Clinton said. “We should deport criminals, not families.”

“We’ve got to stand up to the Trumps of the world,” Sanders said, referring to the Republican candidate Donald Trump’s call for mass deportations.

The candidates got into a vigorous debate over their records on immigration, with Sanders criticizing Clinton for wanting to prevent children from Honduras, who had fled violence in their country, from staying.

Hispanic groups have criticized Clinton for her stance on the issue.

“I made it very clear that those children needed to be processed appropriately,” Clinton said. “But we also had to send a message to families and communities in Central America not to send their children on this dangerous journey in the hands of smugglers.”

“Who are you sending a message to?’’ Sanders responded. “These are children who are leaving countries and neighborhoods where their lives are at stake. That was the fact. I don’t think we use them to send a message. I think we welcome them into this country and do the best we can to help them get their lives together.”

Clinton, on the other hand, criticized Sanders for not supporting immigration reform legislation in 2007.

“With respect to 2007 bill, this was Ted Kennedy’s bill,” Clinton said. “And I think Ted Kennedy had a very clear idea about what needed to be done, and I was proud to stand with him and support it.”


“I loved Ted Kennedy,” Sanders said, adding that he voted against the legislation because it was opposed by several other progressive groups and didn’t do enough to support guest worker programs.

Clinton distanced herself from controversial comments made in New Hampshire by former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, who seemed to be trying to shame women into supporting Clinton by saying that there’s a “special place in hell” for women who don’t support other women.

“I have spent my entire adult life working to be sure women are empowered to make their own choices, even if that choice is not to vote for me,” Clinton said. She added that Albright has repeated the line frequently over the past 25 years.

Clinton pointed out that the debate itself showed some progress that women on the issue. Because the moderators, Ifill and Judy Woodruff, were women, it was the first presidential primary debate in American history, she said, where there were more females on the stage than males.

Woodruff smiled, and turned to Sanders for the next question: “Senator Sanders, you are in the minority but we still want to hear from you.”

Though much has been made of the possible historic nature of Clinton’s candidacy, Sanders would also mark a first in US history: He’d be the nation’s only Jewish president.

The Vermont senator chose instead to point out his ideology when asked how he felt about potentially blocking the first female presidency.

“Somebody with my background, somebody with my views,” Sanders said, “would be of some historic accomplishment as well.”

Though the two were polite to each other, there was a frostier edge to their exchanges.

“Once I’m in the White House we will have enough political capital,” Clinton said, referring to one of her proposals.

Sanders quickly responding with a rejoinder, “Secretary Clinton, you’re not in the White House yet.”

Annie Linskey can be reached at annie.linskey@globe.com.