Hillary Clinton, Sanders go for dirty jabs

Bernie sanders

The genial relationship between Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders in the US Democratic race for the White House has snapped,, assuming the same complexion of the feud between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, in the Republican camp.

Matters were expected to degenerate, anyway as Sanders had won 7 out of eight Democrat primaries, and has whittled down Hillary ‘ s hitherto unassailable delegate lead, leaving Hillary wondering what has hit her.

Tempers between the two candidates flared into the open Thursday with General Electric Co’s chief executive joining the fray, supporting Hillary Clinton’s campaign on Thursday in questioning Bernie Sanders’ anti-corporate agenda, while the populist Democratic White House contender pushed his accusations that Clinton is too close to big business.

Sanders hit back at the Clinton camp for coming after him in “some kind of really uncalled-for way” and questioned the Democratic front-runner’s own fitness for the Oval Office, particularly over her support for the Iraq war and money she raised from Wall Street.

“Are you qualified to be president of the United States when you’re raising millions of dollars from Wall Street, an entity whose greed, recklessness and illegal behavior helped destroy our economy?” the U.S. senator from Vermont said at a news conference in Pennsylvania.

The American presidential race’s focus has shifted to the April 19 primary in New York, home to Wall Street as well as two of the leading presidential candidates for the Nov. 8 election: Democrat Clinton and Republican real estate mogul Donald Trump.

Sanders, born in Brooklyn, spoke after criticism from GE CEO Jeff Immelt and the Clinton camp of a New York Daily News interview in which Sanders appeared to stumble on some central policy issues of his campaign, including a pledge to break up big banks.

In a Washington Post opinion piece on Thursday, Immelt criticized Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, for linking his company to corporate greed at its worst.

Hillary Clinton

Writing that the 124-year-old company has “never been a big hit with socialists,” the CEO pointed to 200 GE plants nationwide that sustain 125,000 U.S. jobs, including more than 1,340 in Vermont. He said Sanders unfairly focused on GE operations abroad.

Immelt disputed Sanders’ assertion that GE pays no taxes, writing “we pay billions.”

“It’s easy to make hollow campaign promises and take cheap shots in speeches and during editorial board sessions, but U.S. companies have to deliver for their employees, customers and shareholders every day,” Immelt wrote.

“I’m proud of all that we do, and how it all figures into ‘the moral fabric’ of America is so plain to me,” he added. “It seems Sen. Sanders is missing the point.”

On Wednesday, the Clinton campaign, stung by a string of recent losses, including in Wisconsin on Tuesday, attacked Sanders’ understanding of bank reforms.

Correct the Record, a Super PAC supporting Clinton, circulated a mash-up of television pundits criticizing Sanders’ perceived missteps in the Daily News, quoting one calling it “almost Trumpian.”

In the interview, Sanders appeared uncertain about how to break up banks deemed “too big too fail.” Asked if the Federal Reserve had that authority, he said, “Well, I don’t know if the Fed has it. But I think the administration can have it.”

Clinton, who represented New York as a U.S. senator for eight years, told CNN on Wednesday it was “unclear as to whether he understood how Dodd-Frank works,” referring to a Wall Street reform law.

Sanders bristled at the attacks on Thursday.

“If Secretary Clinton thinks that I just come from a small state of Vermont and we’re not used to this, well, we will get used to it fast,” he said. “I’m not going to get beaten up, I’m not getting lied about. We will fight back.”