ROCK HILL, S.C. — The Democratic primary race entered a new phase on Friday night, with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Gov. Martin O’Malley escalating their attacks on front-runner Hillary Clinton.
With her numbers on the rise after a summer slump, Clinton finds herself increasingly targeted by her primary opponents — a marked tonal shift for a race that stayed largely civil for much of the early primary.
But in South Carolina on Friday night, there was far less Southern gentility on display.
In individual interviews with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, both Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Gov. Martin O’Malley cast themselves as the party’s liberal standard-bearers, questioning Clinton’s commitment to the causes Democrats hold dear.
Though careful never to mention Clinton by name, Sanders wasted little time drawing a sharp contrast with her on everything from campaign finance reform to foreign affairs.
He noted his opposition to the war in Iraq and his refusal to accept super PAC donations and said he opposes the Obama administration’s recent decision to send special forces to Syria, a position that Clinton supports. He also undermined Clinton’s opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, which was officially rejected by President Barack Obama’s administration hours earlier after a long campaign by liberal activists.
Clinton said she opposed the pipeline in September, a project she said she was “inclined” to support back in 2010 when she was Obama’s secretary of state.
“I said to no to Keystone on Day One,” he said, calling the decision a “no-brainer.”
