--- title: Democratic Debate: Bernie Sanders Heated Moment description: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders got testy with front-runner Hillary Clinton at Thursday's Democratic debate. canonical: https://time.com/4249193/democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-excuse-me-talking/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-07T03:41:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:25.137Z article:section: Politics og:title: The Most Heated Moment at the Democratic Debate og:description: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders got testy. og:url: https://time.com/4249193/democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-excuse-me-talking/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2c6b303085ae5801/698880710b72e340916e86e8/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-flint-michigan-clash-democratic-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4776 og:image:height: 2687 og:image:alt: Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Most Heated Moment at the Democratic Debate twitter:description: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders got testy. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2c6b303085ae5801/698880710b72e340916e86e8/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-flint-michigan-clash-democratic-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Most Heated Moment at the Democratic Debate > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### 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. by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Mar 7, 2016 3:41 AM UTC  Hillary Clinton argues a point as Bernie Sanders reacts during a Democratic presidential primary debate at the University of Michigan-Flint in Flint, Mich. on March 6, 2016. Hillary Clinton argues a point as Bernie Sanders reacts during a Democratic presidential primary debate at the University of Michigan-Flint in Flint, Mich. on March 6, 2016. Carlos Osorio—AP by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Mar 7, 2016 3:41 AM UTC Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders got testy with front-runner Hillary Clinton at Thursday’s Democratic debate during an exchange trade policies and the 2009 auto industry bailout when Clinton attempted to interrupt him. “Excuse me, I’m talking,” he fired back at Clinton, in a moment that was the second-most discussed on Twitter of the debate. As the presidential primary has gone on, debates between Sanders and Clinton have gotten increasingly prickly, with the Vermont Senator often casting side-eye or waving his hands at her remarks—moments that some Clinton supporters saw as derogatory or even sexist, while others thought just showed poor manners. > [](https://twitter.com/1978BABY/status/706661969479086080) > [](https://twitter.com/speechboy71/status/706652650243280896) > [](https://twitter.com/Dawn%5FRitchie/status/706673744564129794) This response wasn’t the only time during the night when Sanders raised his voice to Clinton after an interruption—he shouted “Can I finish, please?” during a later exchange between the two on gun control. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4249193/democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-excuse-me-talking/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4249193/democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-excuse-me-talking/"},"headline":"The Most Heated Moment at the Democratic Debate","datePublished":"2016-03-07T03:41:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:25.137Z","description":"'Excuse me, I'm talking'","url":"https://time.com/4249193/democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-excuse-me-talking/","keywords":["Debates","Hillary Clinton","democrats","2016 Election","Bernie Sanders"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2c6b303085ae5801/698880710b72e340916e86e8/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-flint-michigan-clash-democratic-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2c6b303085ae5801/698880710b72e340916e86e8/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-flint-michigan-clash-democratic-debate.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton","caption":"Hillary Clinton argues a point as Bernie Sanders reacts during a Democratic presidential primary debate at the University of Michigan-Flint in Flint, Mich. on March 6, 2016.","creditText":"Carlos Osorio—AP","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/debates/","name":"Debates"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4249193/democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-excuse-me-talking/","name":"The Most Heated Moment at the Democratic Debate"}}]}] ```