Bernie: Climate is Top Threat

Despite terror attacks in Paris that left 129 dead, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said at a Democratic debate Saturday that he still believes the biggest threat to America is global warming.

“In fact, climate change is directly related to the growth of terrorism,” he said.

Hillary Clinton, for her part, urged caution on the part of the United States, saying the U.S. should make use of diplomacy and law enforcement resources to deal with the terrorists who routinely behead hostages and slaughter women and children.

“This cannot be an American fight,” she said.

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley said it is important for the United States adapt to a new world. “We must be able to work collaboratively with others,” he said. “We must anticipate these threats before they happen.”

But the candidates did not back off their previous pledge to bring in 65,000 Syrian refugees, saying only that they should be properly screened.

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In a throwback to President Obama’s 2012 campaign, Clinton found a way to blame George W. Bush for events that occurred well after he left office.

“I think that what happened when we abided by the agreement that George W. Bush made with the Iraqis to leave by 2011 is that an Iraqi army was left that had been trained and that was prepared to defend Iraq,” she said. “Unfortunately, Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, set about decimating it.”

And she took a swipe at Obama’s declaration on Friday that the Islamic State had been contained, saying, “We have to look at ISIS as the leading threat of an international terror network. It cannot be detained. It must be defeated.”

Both Sanders and O’Malley knocked Clinton for her vote to authorize the war against Iraq. Sanders called it “one of the worst foreign policy blunders in the modern history of the United States.”

All three candidates danced around a question about whether the attackers should be labeled radical Islamists.

All three candidates danced around a question about whether the attackers should be labeled radical Islamists. Clinton expressed preference for jihadists. The Democratic hopefuls also went out of their way to say most Muslims do not support the extremists. O’Malley called Muslims in America the country’s “first line of defense.”

Polls will show who won the debate, but Sanders got the most Google searches during the event.

The rest of the contest included familiar themes. Clinton positioned herself far enough left to satisfy the base of the party, yet pragmatic enough to achieve wins that her opponents never could.

Sanders recited his well-worn diatribe against “millionaires and billionaires,” as well as his promises to take on the “corrupt campaign finance system” and break up the big banks. He said there would be no place for Wall Street representatives in his cabinet and suggested that greed is not just a byproduct of investors.

“The business model of Wall Street is fraud,” he said.

As for O’Malley, his main challenge was to grab attention from a Democratic electorate that mostly has ignored him so far. One way to do that was over-top rhetoric, such as when he referred to that “immigrant-bashing, carnival barker Donald Trump.”

O’Malley also more forcefully challenged front-runner Clinton, calling her Wall Street reform plan “weak tea” and accusing her of being “on three sides” of the issue of gun control during her career.

“There’s a big difference between leading by polls and leading by principle,” he said.

Sanders said Clinton’s financial support from Wall Street shows she cannot be trusted to reform large investment banks.

“Maybe they’re dumb and they don’t know what they’re going to get,” he said. “But I don’t think so.”

In her response, Clinton managed to invoke gender politics and 9/11.

“I represented New York on 9/11,” she said. “Where were we attacked? We were attacked in downtown Manhattan where Wall Street is … (Rebuilding Wall Street) was a way to rebuke the terrorists who had attacked our country.”

The mostly friendly questioning actually ended seven minutes early, “giving Iowa Democrats the chance to catch the end of the No. 5-ranked Hawkeyes’ game against the Minnesota Golden Gophers,” Politico reported.