--- title: Democratic Debate: Sanders and Clinton Address Data Breach description: At the debate Bernie Sanders offered background on the issue, criticism of the DNC, an apology to Clinton and a hope to move forward. canonical: https://time.com/4156151/democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-data/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-20T01:56:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:40:30.110Z article:section: Politics og:title: Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton Address Data Breach og:description: It was the first question at the Democratic debate. og:url: https://time.com/4156151/democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-data/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe7c2c07b9e3628b/69887638a988ca7bd26b5cea/sanders-clinton.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Senator Sanders addresses former Secretary of State Clinton about the campaign data breach scandal during the Democratic presidential candidates debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton Address Data Breach twitter:description: It was the first question at the Democratic debate. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe7c2c07b9e3628b/69887638a988ca7bd26b5cea/sanders-clinton.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton Address Data Breach > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=a79cd227-6ed9-4af9-9f28-8aabcf28b63d&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: The Third Democratic Debate, In Under Two Minutes [Watch (HLS stream): The Third Democratic Debate, In Under Two Minutes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/lTPNqlFm.m3u8) (1:54)  _Published 2015-12-20. Here are the highlights from the final Democratic debate of 2015._  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Dec 20, 2015 1:56 AM UTC  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Dec 20, 2015 1:56 AM UTC The first question of Saturday night’s Democratic debate went straight to the recent controversy in the party, allowing Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to respond to the breach by his staff that allowed him to access Hillary Clinton’s voter data. Sanders first offered background on the breach, saying that two months ago his staff also found information on their computers from the Clinton campaign. Sanders said that at the time “Our staffers said, ‘Woah what’s going on here?’ They went to the DNC quietly.” That, he added, was “exactly the right thing.” He then talked about the new data breach. “In this case our staff did the wrong thing,” Sanders said. “They looked at that information. As soon as we learned they looked at that information, we fired that person.” Sanders pivoted to the Democratic National Committee, criticizing the group for its handling of the issue, calling it an “egregious act” when the DNC “arbitrarily, without discussing it with us… shut off our access to our own information, crippling our campaign.” Sanders [has filed a federal lawsuit](http://time.com/4155942/bernie-sanders-voter-data-breach-lawsuit/?xid=homepage) against the DNC. The party has since allowed Sanders access to the data again. After Sanders called on former Secretary of State Clinton to agree to a joint independent investigation into the matter, he said he was sorry. “I apologize. Not only do I apologize to Secretary Clinton… I want to apologize to my supporters. This is not the type of campaign that we run, and if I find anybody else involved in this, they will also be fired.” Clinton accepted his apology and said she hopes now they can “move on.” “I don’t think the American people are all that interested in this,” she said, to loud cheers from the New Hampshire crowd. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Does secretary Clinton deserve an apology tonight? Yes, I apologize. We should move on because I don't think the American people are all that interested in this. [ MUSIC ] We're listening to the bickering back and forth. Maybe that's normal politics in Washington, but that is not the politics of higher purpose the people expect from our party. [ MUSIC ] And excuse me, no. Governor, now to be able to abide by the rules here, we'll call on you shortly. But I do wanna pick up on something. Actually passed, Comprehensive guns, safety legislation with a ban on combat assault weapons David. [ MUSIC ] They want American soldiers on the ground fighting them. [ MUSIC ] Giving them many more targets, and giving them a great recruiting opportunity. I believe in action, in which we put together a strong coalition of forces. [ MUSIC ] Out of pocket costs have gone up too much. And prescription drug costs have gone through the roof. The greed of wall street is destroying this economy. And it's destroying the lives of millions of Americans. This one falls under the category of " I have actually done this ". I believe that all of our kids should go into an income- based repayment plan. [ mmm ] [ MUSIC ] Must never surrender them to the fascist pleas of billionaires with big mouths. He is becoming ISIS's best recruiter. They are going to people showing videos- [ APPLAUSE ] Of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4156151/democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-data/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4156151/democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-data/"},"headline":"Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton Address Data Breach","datePublished":"2015-12-20T01:56:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-05T08:40:30.110Z","description":"A quick apology to the frontrunner","url":"https://time.com/4156151/democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-data/","keywords":["Bernie Sanders","Hillary Clinton","democrats","2016 Election","Democratic debate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe7c2c07b9e3628b/69887638a988ca7bd26b5cea/sanders-clinton.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltfe7c2c07b9e3628b/69887638a988ca7bd26b5cea/sanders-clinton.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Senator Sanders addresses former Secretary of State Clinton about the campaign data breach scandal during the Democratic presidential candidates debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester","caption":"Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Senator Sanders addresses former Secretary of State Clinton about the campaign data breach scandal during the Democratic presidential candidates debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester","creditText":"Brian Snyder—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/bernie-sanders/","name":"Bernie Sanders"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4156151/democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-data/","name":"Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton Address Data Breach"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Third Democratic Debate, In Under Two Minutes","description":"Here are the highlights from the final Democratic debate of 2015.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/lTPNqlFm/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-12-20T05:14:20.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/lTPNqlFm.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4156151/democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-data/","duration":"PT1M54S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4156151/democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-data/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```