FAIRFIELD, Iowa — The Clinton camp says Bernie Sanders is scared. The Sanders campaign says Hillary Clinton is desperate.

It’s part of a game of debate one-upmanship that’s preoccupied the two leading Democrats in the final days leading up to the Iowa caucuses.


The candidate debates – or lack of them -- have been a persistent issue throughout the campaign. But in recent days, the two camps have been engaged in a back-and-forth that reveals how much has changed since the grumbling began months ago – and how freighted the debate issue has become.

The latest flare-up began Tuesday after the Union Leader newspaper and MSNBC announced they would host a New Hampshire Democratic debate. It made business sense for both: Each outlet had recently lost Republican debates that they had been scheduled to host.

It made sense for the Clinton campaign, too: Looking back at her strong early debate performances, some of Clinton’s top advisers have privately expressed regret over not pushing for more debates earlier — despite the fact that her team had initially wanted fewer than the six official debates that were eventually scheduled. There was also a push to increase Clinton’s visibility since the weekend of the last debate two week ago in South Carolina, according to several sources familiar with the conversations.

As Sanders gained on her in Iowa and solidified his lead in New Hampshire, they said, the unpleasant memories of 2008 loomed large.

“There was a shift a week to ten days ago,” said one person close to the campaign team. “It was the realization that this is a real race."

Clinton herself went on television to point out her willingness to have additional debates – and when the Sanders campaign remained silent, her campaign turned the screws.

“The Sanders campaign is the one holdout,” said Clinton press secretary Brian Fallon on CNN Wednesday. “We think they should join us in saying that they’ll be there in New Hampshire next week."

If the incentives for Clinton to immediately agree to additional debates are clear, they aren’t as obvious to the Sanders campaign now that it’s running neck-and-neck with Clinton in Iowa and leading in New Hampshire.

Sanders himself bristles at the idea that he’s been portrayed as a debate dodger, given the limited number of Democratic National Committee-sanctioned debates and his earlier calls for more debates.

“Anybody who looks at the number of debates that were scheduled, and when they were scheduled [understands the intention]. I think the debate here in Iowa was on the night of the University of Iowa-Iowa State football game,” said Sanders at a breakfast with reporters Wednesday, echoing his campaign’s contention that the national party hasn’t been a fair broker when it comes to the debates. “It is obvious. Of course the establishment is for Secretary Clinton, that’s not a debate."

Yet the campaign’s initial foot-dragging in agreeing to the newly-scheduled Union Leader/MSNBC debate led to a pummeling from influential liberals like Rachel Maddow — a would-be moderator. An unflattering storyline emerged, pushed by Clinton and her allies, that this was the move of a cautious, calculating politician.

“How ironic that when the pressure’s on, Senator Sanders is acting like a typical establishment candidate and refusing to debate,” said Clinton fundraiser and DNC member Robert Zimmerman at the time.

By Wednesday afternoon, flying back to Iowa from his Oval Office meeting with President Barack Obama, Sanders and his advisers hammered out their response -- a statement agreeing to the new debate, but on the condition that Clinton agree to three further new ones in March, April, and May.

“This idea that Bernie Sanders doesn’t want to debate is ridiculous,” Sanders’ chief strategist Tad Devine explained Thursday. “We’ve been saying since the beginning there should be more. The debate structure was put in place, we think, to inoculate Hillary Clinton from exposure. That’s why you have a debate on the Saturday night before Christmas. That’s why you have a debate on the Sunday of a holiday weekend, you know?"

The demand for late spring debates was designed to sting -- it flew in the face of the Clinton team’s desire to wrap up the contest in early March after a strong showing in the first multi-state primary on March 1. But the Clinton campaign then called Sanders’ bluff Thursday, insisting in a statement that they’ve always been willing to add additional debates beyond the six scheduled events -- and were ready to begin discussions on scheduling debates in April and May.

Devine insists it’s all a cynical ploy, beginning with the newly-added Feb. 4 New Hampshire debate.

“Now Hillary Clinton and her campaign have decided they’d like to have a debate in New Hampshire?” said Devine. “We think the motivation for that is obvious. She’s trailing in every poll in New Hampshire, so they want to have a debate there."