Clinton looks past debate to attack GOP The Democratic front-runner tries to present herself as the inevitable pick.

Hillary Clinton on Saturday night looked past the debate stage upon which she stood, turning the evening into a Democrat-vs.-Republican battle rather than focusing on the two remaining contenders badly trailing her in national polls.

"I'm very clear that we have a distinct difference between those of us on this stage tonight and all of our Republican counterparts," Clinton said, just one of many references to her Republican rivals throughout the night. "From my perspective, we have to prevent the Republicans from rolling back the progress that we've made," she said, ticking off GOP desires to repeal Obamacare, cut taxes for the wealthy and continue allowing people on the no-fly list to buy guns.


The night also brought a de-escalation in the blowup involving Bernie Sanders' campaign's viewing and downloading her voter data information, with the Vermont senator apologizing, despite indications that his campaign wanted to keep up the fight over the issue.

“Yes, I apologize,” Sanders said to Clinton, when asked whether the former secretary of state deserved an apology. He continued, “I want to apologize to my supporters. This is not the type of campaign that we run. And if I find anybody else involved with this, they will be fired."

Clinton accepted the apology, herself lowering the temperature after her campaign had emphatically cried foul on Friday, saying at the debate Saturday night that Americans are not interested in the fracas. “I very much appreciate that comment, Bernie. It really is important that we go forward on this," Clinton said.

But the more lasting theme of the evening was Clinton's attempt to position herself as the inevitable Democratic pick, despite the fact that Sanders is still edging her in New Hampshire, the setting of Saturday's showdown.

“The difference between us and the Republicans is night and day,” Clinton said, laughing frequently while responding to barbs from both Sanders and long-shot Martin O’Malley at ABC News’ third Democratic debate. "I think it's great standing up here with the senator and the governor talking about these issues because you're not going to hear anything like this from any of the Republicans who are running for president."

That didn’t mean Sanders and O’Malley let Clinton make the contrast without challenging her — both the Vermont senator and former Maryland governor called her out for her connections to Wall Street and made the case that her record at the State Department inadvertently helped lay the groundwork for the rise of ISIL, also known as ISIS.

But Clinton didn’t let the criticisms slow her attempt to paint herself as presidential, not just the best Democratic candidate. When asked whether corporate America would love a President Hillary Clinton, her ready answer was, “Everybody should," which drew laughs from the crowd and defused another attack on her Wall Street donor base.

Some of the most notable tangling among the candidates involved gun control — an issue that has divided the field as each contender has pledged to put up the toughest fight against the gun lobby.

Clinton, who has repeatedly hit Sanders for his mixed record on gun control measures, pivoted a discussion about fighting radicalization and terrorism to gun control. “You have to look at both the terrorism challenge that we face abroad and certainly at home, and the role that guns play in delivering the violence that stalks us,” she said.

The Vermont senator sought to defend his past votes by pointing to the existing gun culture of his home state, while insisting that he currently stands with most Democrats on the issue. “We’ve got to eliminate the gun show loophole, in my view; we have got to see that weapons designed by the military to kill people are not in the hands of civilians,” he said, while O’Malley sought to get a word in.

“Secretary Clinton changes her position on this every election year,” said O’Malley, who backed her in 2008, as Clinton paid Sanders a backhanded compliment for his move closer to her own position on the issue.

The candidates provided a unified front, however, when it came to one man: Donald Trump.

“Mr. Trump has a great capacity to use bluster and bigotry to inflame people and to make them think there are easy answers to very complex questions,” said Clinton, in response to a question about how she would address those who currently back the New York real estate magnate and Republican poll leader.

She later blasted Trump — who O’Malley earlier called a “billionaire with [a] big mouth” — for his proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States, calling it ill-advised to insult the people who the U.S. will need to work with to defeat ISIS.

Calling this a “very dangerous moment in American history," thanks to both terrorism and income inequality, Sanders also went after the billionaire businessman. "And somebody like a Trump comes along and says, 'I know the answers, the answer is that all of the Mexicans, they're criminals and rapists. We gotta hate the Mexicans. Those are your enemies. We hate all of the Muslims because all of the Muslims are terrorists. We gotta hate the Muslims,’” Sanders added. "Meanwhile the rich get richer," he said, also noting that Trump supports a low minimum wage.

The broadsides against Trump — and Clinton’s attempts to elevate herself — came after the two leading candidates agreed to move past the data breach that rocked the race on Friday.

The Vermont senator's apology for his campaign’s viewing and downloading of her voter data information was a public easing of the war that gripped the Democratic Party for the previous 48 hours. The kind words came after a nasty hurling of accusations among the Sanders campaign, the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, which had temporarily suspended Sanders’ access to the voter file database, a move that threatened to cripple the Sanders' field operation.

While Sanders' campaign admitted inappropriate behavior on the part of members of its staff — who took advantage of a technology glitch — and fired its national data director, it accused the DNC of trying to “sabotage” the senator's presidential run and of blatantly favoring Clinton.

The Sanders campaign regained access to the national voter file after it filed suit in federal court on Friday — a massive escalation that added a dose of chaos to the race.

Pivoting from its defensive position to an attempt to gain politically, Sanders’ campaign sought to paint the day as a perfect encapsulation of Clinton’s alleged ownership of the Democratic establishment. Raising campaign cash off the saga, Sanders’ team brought in over $1 million on Friday alone.