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March 28, 2024

Blog: Clinton, Sanders make pitch to sway voters at Las Vegas town hall

Town Hall

MSNBC

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is shown at a town hall meeting at the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016, in downtown Las Vegas.

Updated Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016 | 11 p.m.

Just two days before Nevada Democrats caucus, presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders made a final pitch to state voters Thursday night at a town hall event in Las Vegas.

The televised forum, held at the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, featured the candidates in separate, back-to-back appearances. It was moderated by NBC's Chuck Todd and Jose Diaz Balart and co-sponsored by cable news network MSNBC and Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo.

The crowd of about 350 supporters peppered both candidates with diverse questions involving issues such as immigration, the economy, Social Security and health care. Some questions — and follow-ups — were surprisingly tough, appearing to catch the presidential hopefuls off guard.

Sanders, the Vermont senator, opened the town hall question-and-answer session before the former secretary of state took her turn.

Check below for some highlights from the two-hour forum.

9 p.m.

In a brief, 15-minute speech outside of the union hall to a crowd of several hundred supporters, Clinton praised the state’s diversity, saying it is reflective of America’s diversity.

“Well, you got to see the town hall right? I just love answering questions and making clear where I stand, where I’ve always stood and what I’m going to do as your president,” Clinton said. “I am going to fight for you because we’ve got to knock down every single barrier that’s holding Americans back.”

Clinton was accompanied by U.S. Senate candidate Catherine Cortez Masto, the former Nevada attorney general. Clinton praised her, saying she hopes Cortez Masto is elected because she’ll need help in the Senate.

8:15 p.m.

A packed crowd has gathered at the Laborers International Union in Las Vegas, awaiting Clinton’s arrival after the Democratic town hall. A mariachi band is keeping the crowd entertained with music.

Three large American flags surround the outdoor space, as well as a large Nevada state flag and signs that urge the crowd to “Caucus conmigo.”

7:58 p.m.

Last question for Clinton asked if Cuba has earned a visit from President Barack Obama, scheduled for next month.

"There’s so much traffic now between Cuba and the United States,” Clinton said. "I think it’s not just a presidential visit, it’s a punctuation point."

"I don’t think the Castros are going to live forever, so there will be a new generation, and I want the president to look in the eyes of the new generation,” she added.

The town hall concludes as Clinton is swarmed onstage by many of the town hall’s 350 participants, seeking handshakes and selfies.

7:53 p.m.

A member of the audience asked Clinton if she would support a minimum wage of $15 per hour.

"I support states going higher than the federal minimum wage,” Clinton said.

The former secretary of state pointed at New York, Seattle and Los Angeles as examples of cities raising their minimum wage for workers.

“I will support that as a floor and encourage states that can afford to go higher to do so."

7:45 p.m.

A UNLV student asked Clinton what she would do to deserve votes, given that her generation “is a little wary of placing another politician in the White House.”

In response, Clinton painted herself as the one with less experience, citing Sanders’ extensive time in the Senate compared to her eight years in the Senate and time as secretary of state.

“We’ve got to have big, bold plans,” Clinton said. “We’ve got to have our ideals and our values and then we’ve got to figure out how we are going to get it done, how are we going to make it happen.”

7:40 p.m.

Clinton didn’t want to put a number on where she thinks that the cap on Social Security should be raised to.

“This is the kind of issue that you’ve got to try and figure out where the Congress might be,” Clinton said. “I’ve laid out a number of different approaches to get the money.”

Clinton also said she would not favor raising the retirement age.

“People who have worked hard for many years, people who have often really broken down by the physical or repetitive labor that they’ve done, their lifespan is much lower than the people like you and me who had a different sort of life,” Clinton said.

7:30 p.m.

A 24-year-old Hispanic man tells Clinton about his difficulties in securing credit for his home, saying the number of hoops he had to jump through were “unprecedented."

“If you were not a Hispanic you would not have had as many hoops,” Clinton said. “That has to end. It’s not right and it’s not fair.”

Generally referring to the housing market in Nevada, Clinton noted the houses in the state still underwater and said the federal government must do more to stave off foreclosures in the future.

“I know how hard hit Nevada was,” Clinton said.

7:26 p.m.

Clinton criticized the Republican Party, singling out front-runner Donald Trump, for "meanspirited” attacks on immigrant communities. Speaking to the Hispanic majority crowd, Clinton shouted in Spanish “basta” (“enough”) to the Republican rhetoric.

7:25 p.m.

Under current law, people who qualify for green cards because of their relationship to a U.S. citizen or resident must leave the U.S. to get their green cards and cannot reenter the country for three or 10 years. Clinton said tonight that she would remove that three and 10-year requirement legislatively, calling all Republican and Democrat legislators to get it done.

“I met a young Dreamer,” Clinton said. “Her father is a legal resident, her mother is undocumented, her mother cannot leave their family for three or 10 years to go back to where she came from leaving her family and her daughters alone to wait.”

7:15 p.m.

In response to a question about recent remarks Sanders made criticizing her husband, former President Bill Clinton, Clinton jumped on the offensive against Sanders.

“Maybe it’s that Sen. Sanders wasn’t really a Democrat until he decided to run for president,” Clinton said. “Maybe he doesn’t know what the last two Democratic presidents did.”

Her reply was received both with resounding applause and significant boos by audience members.

“It’s true, it’s true,” she insisted. “You know it’s true. It happens to be true.”

7:13 p.m.

MSNBC’s Chuck Todd and Telemundo's Jose Diaz-Balart asked Clinton about two “magic wand” comments during campaign rallies, one from last month and another from a campaign eight years ago.

"I am a progressive who likes to make progress,” Clinton said. "I don’t want to make promises I can’t keep.”

Clinton wasted no time going to attack on Sanders, to a combination of applause and booing from the crowd.

"I think it’s important for democratic voters to take a look at all of the candidates, and ask themselves who is most qualified for the job,” Clinton said.

7:05 p.m.

Sanders responds to a question by a Southern Paiute man about public lands, including Native American lands, and how they would be protected against private interests.

Sanders cited the repeated, poor treatment of Native Americans by the U.S. government in the past.

“I don’t have to explain to you or I hope anybody in this room or anybody watching the outrageous and unfair way that governments have treated Native Americans from Day One,” Sanders said, adding that the government needs to do more to work with the Native American community.

He also said that the land needs to be protected, for instance, against the extraction of fossil fuels.

7:03 p.m.

Sanders advocates to end human trafficking from around the world, saying it’s something “we need to stop.”

He says the United States should respond to the “humanitarian crisis” in Syria and Afghanistan by welcoming refugees from those countries to the United States.

But the vetting process for international refugees needs to be stronger, Sanders said, to prevent possible United States enemies from doing “terrible things."

6:54 p.m.

Sanders argues for strengthening the childcare workforce, saying that educators who work with “the little ones” are more important than college professors.

“We need quality child care for all working families and make sure that those who work with the little ones are well paid and well trained,” Sanders said.

6:54 p.m.

MSNBC host Chuck Todd asks how Americans could avoid long lines with a universal Medicaid program.

Sanders said people who need surgeries or operations might have to wait, but people who need to be seen right away could receive the care they need.

“We are the only country in the industrialized world that doesn’t provide universal health care," Sanders said. "I believe health care is a right for all people."

“We could do a lot better than we’re currently doing,” he added.

Click to enlarge photo

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is shown at a town hall meeting at the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016.

6:50 p.m.

Sanders says he will respond to Islamophobia “bluntly and directly.”

“This country has struggled too much and for too many years,” Sanders said, criticizing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for remarks he’s made on the campaign trail.

In answering the question, Sanders took an opportunity to criticize those who have questioned the legitimacy of Obama’s presidency by suggesting he was not born in the United States because his dad was from Kenya.

“Nobody asked me if I’m a citizen or not,” Sanders said. “My dad came from Poland.”

6:50 p.m.

William Anderson, 42, says he doesn't know which candidate he's going to support. He was hoping to ask a question about how the candidates would handle public land and Native American issues.

Dr. Sandra Mack, from the Las Vegas Urban League Guild, said she is supporting Clinton. The 76-year-old wanted to ask Sanders how "he's going to do all these things he says he's going to do," she says. "I haven't heard any hows."

Mack intends to caucus for Clinton on Saturday, she says.

6:47 p.m.

Sanders fields back-to-back questions on care for veterans:

“Everybody thanks veterans but sometimes when they come home we have a tendency to forget them and the struggles they go through,” he said.

He cited a $17.6 billion bill, passed during his time as the chairman of U.S. Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee for veterans health care. He said veterans also should be given preference in both government and private-sector jobs upon returning from their service.

"We have to prioritize making sure the federal government and private sector hire veterans, there’s a lot to be done,” he said. "When people put their lives on the line to defend us, we have to defend them every way they can."

Answering the second question, on veterans' health care, Sanders cited his effort to bolster national Veterans Affairs centers suffering from a lack of doctors and nurses.

"We brought many new community outreach clinics to this country,” he said. "We made significant progress to expediting health care to our veterans, who deserve the highest quality healthcare that money can provide."

6:45 p.m.

In Nevada, the unemployment rate for 9/11 veterans is three times higher than the state’s overall level. Given that fact, a young female veteran asked Sanders what he was going to do as president to get veterans jobs “commensurate with their skills and their abilities.”

Sanders responded by saying that veterans need to have priority for employment with the federal government.

“People in the military develop a lot of really good skills, whether it’s driving a truck or whatever it may be, being a paramedic,” Sanders said.

6:37 p.m.

Brian Seligman, 45, of Simi Valley, Calif., showed up to the town hall scene dressed like Sanders, complete with makeup and glasses. He says he's a U.S. Marine who was rendered disabled when he was struck by a drunken driver and isn't able to work.

He says a Sanders presidency could create a medical system in which employers lose the power to deny employment to disabled people in order to save health insurance funds. "He really cares about all the people," he says. "Not just billionaires or corporations."

Seligman did not have a ticket to the event but has been volunteering for the Sanders campaign and is expecting to be here through the end of the week.

Alejandra Vallejo, of Washington, D.C., is in Southern Nevada to campaign for Clinton. She called Clinton, who she's supported since 2008, "more experienced " and someone she trusts.

Vallejo, 47, says she was interested in coming to the valley to see how the Hispanic participation will play out.

6:32 p.m.

Sanders admitted that his plan of raising the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour would likely raise some costs for consumers.

“Look the truth is, yes, you may end up paying a few cents more for a hamburger at McDonalds,” Sanders said. “If you’re that worker going from $8 to $10 an hour to $15 an hour, you’re going to be a lot better off."

Sanders stressed the time he had spent with fast food workers fighting for a $15 minimum wage in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere.

“Bottom line is in America today, we have massive levels of income and wealth inequality,” Sanders said.” The rich are getting much richer.”

6:30 p.m.

Jessica Apuna, an 18-year-old high school student, asked how a $70 billion spending plan to make college free could work for Americans.

“I believe that today, when we talk about public education, it should include free tuition at public colleges and universities,” Sanders said.

“It’s Wall Street’s time to help the country; I think that will raise the money we need,” he added.

6:25 p.m.

One Clinton supporter asked Sanders how creating jobs for low-income earners would stop police brutality and mass incarceration. Sanders responded by saying that there is a connection between economics and people ending up in jail, saying that kids don’t get in trouble when they have jobs.

"The secretary will say what she’ll say,” Sanders added. "I was arrested when I was 22 years old at the University of Chicago. You know what I was arrested for? Fighting segregation."

6:15 p.m.

Local Dreamer Dulce Valencia, who recently endorsed Hillary Clinton, challenged Bernie Sanders on immigration, asking why he voted against an immigration reform bill in 2007 because it “wasn’t perfect.”

"As president, would you veto a shot at immigration reform if it wasn’t deemed perfect by you?” Valencia asked Sanders.

Sanders responded, saying that he voted against that bill because of its guest worker provision, saying he didn’t want to see workers exploited.

“Nothing is perfect,” Sanders said. “That had particular egregious provisions in it."

6:11 p.m.

MSNBC’s Chuck Todd and Telemundo’s Jose Diaz-Balart kicked off the town hall just after 6 p.m. with an audience of 350 people. The event opened with a focus on topics that resonate with Hispanic voters in Nevada.

Sanders, who won a coin toss allowing him to speak before Clinton, was put on the spot right away with the first question. Diaz-Balart goes right at Sanders with the first question, asking him to respond to Sanders’ stance as a single-issue candidate.

“Do I think the focus has to be on the economy,” Sanders said, “yeah, I think we need to focus on that.”

Hillary Clinton Visits Casino Employees

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton stands with a supporter as she visits hotel and casino workers in the employee dining room Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016, at the Rio. Launch slideshow »

He criticized Citizens United the Supreme Court case, saying it could undermine the American democracy by allowing billionaires and Super PACs to buy elections.

“This is the underlying important issue,” Sanders said.

Click to enlarge photo

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., center, is greeted by a culinary worker protesting outside Sunrise Hospital on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016, in Las Vegas.

Sanders also told the host anchors he believes a happy-medium could be reached between protecting Americans’ privacy rights and using government intelligence to prevent terrorism.

I am very fearful about Big Brother and not just the federal government getting into emails or what books you’re taking out of the library,” he said. “I worry about that very much. But I worry about a terror attack on our country. We can fight terrorism without undermining our constitutional rights."

Sanders spent the first 10 minutes mostly on the defensive. More to come as the attention turns to the audience, who will have the chance to question the Vermont State Sen.

5:20 p.m.

Before showing up at the Democratic town hall, both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders made brief appearances at a picket line of Culinary Union workers and other union members in front of Sunrise Hospital. “What do we want? Affordable health care. When do we want it? Now,” union members yelled through a megaphone as Clinton walked down the line shaking hands with union workers.

Sanders showed up a couple of minutes later, taking up the megaphone himself.

“Thank you very much for standing up for affordable health care," Sanders said. “Thank you for saying that large corporations should not be making millions of dollars in profit when people cannot afford to go to the doctor or the hospital.”

• • •

With recent polls placing them neck-and-neck here, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will plead their final cases with Nevadans tonight in the last nationally televised appearance before the Democratic caucuses on Saturday.

The town hall meeting at the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health comes on the day that a new poll places Clinton just six points ahead of Sanders in Nevada. A CNN poll released Wednesday showed the candidates virtually tied, with Clinton at 48-percent and Sanders at 47-percent.

The two-hour event is sponsored by the Nevada State Democratic Party, and televised on MSNBC and in Spanish on Telemundo.

Over the weekend, both candidates spent time in Nevada making appeals to voters. They returned today in advance of the town hall and will stay through the caucuses.

After arriving in town late Wednesday, Clinton made a middle-of-the-night stop to the linen room at Caesars Palace where she greeted workers. Today, she stopped off at an employee dining room at the Rio to speak with hotel employees.

Clinton spent a couple of minutes talking with a hotel worker who identified herself only by her first name, Blanca. With their arms on each others’ shoulders, Blanca, through tears, told Clinton how she had immigrated to the United States in 1965 and supported Clinton in her 2008 bid for the presidency.

“Be strong. That’s what I like about you,” the woman told Clinton. “You’re a strong woman.”

Sanders, meanwhile, met with a group of nine civil rights leaders in New York this morning, the same group that Clinton met with two days earlier.

Tonight at the town hall, they are expected to take questions from audience members about some of the most pressing issues facing Nevadans and the country as a whole.

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