Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both
said they were committed to running positive campaigns. But in the
recent debates and especially off the stage among their aides, it's
becoming a very different story.
And if
the new trajectory holds up -- a highly competitive and pitched battle
between the two -- the sniping, hits and accusations are likely only to
escalate as the primary season wears on.
It's
not master attacker Donald Trump and the free-for-all on the GOP side,
but it's not what the Democratic party had ever imagined.
Beneath the talk of common ground,
agreement and mutual admiration, there is a latent animosity between the
Clinton and Sanders campaigns that now threatens to boil over.
n interviews with CNN following Thursday
night's faceoff, representatives from both campaigns accused the other
side of mudslinging and negative campaigning even as, in the same
breath, they continued to tout the Democratic primary as a model of good
behavior when compared to that of the Republicans.
Sanders'
campaign manager Jeff Weaver first insisted that "the Democrats are
running a more issue-oriented campaign than the Republicans." Only
seconds later, he accused Clinton of "flinging personal mud" at Sanders.
"The mudslinging seemed really out of place," Weaver said. "It seemed very much like what you see in a Republican debate."
Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton's
communications director, struck a similar tone: "Have you seen a
Republican debate? It's a very different deal," she said when asked
about the tension between the two candidates.
But Palmieri then added, "In the last
month, Sanders has got increasingly personal and negative. He's had a
lot of innuendo about how she took donations [from Wall Street] and how
that must mean it's affecting her views -- without any evidence."
Make
no mistake, Clinton and Sanders are on common ground on several issues.
At least nine times during Thursday night's showdown, the candidates
professed to have the same position on the issues.
"I
think we're in vigorous agreement here," Clinton said at one point.
"Let me concur with the Secretary," Sanders said at another.
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