--- title: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Bash Republican Debates description: At the Democratic debate, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders made sure the crowd remembered who the real fight is against: the Republicans. canonical: https://time.com/4249195/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-republicans/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-07T03:08:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T16:51:23.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Clinton and Sanders Throw Shade at the Last Republican Debate og:description: "Compare the substance of this debate with what you saw on the Republican stage last week" og:url: https://time.com/4249195/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-republicans/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt68dd3e46979064f6/69888071e20a8771ada8fda6/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-democratic-debate-smiling.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2500 og:image:height: 1406 og:image:alt: Democratic U.S. presidential candidates Clinton and Sanders pose together onstage at the start of the U.S. Democratic presidential candidates' debate in Flint og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Clinton and Sanders Throw Shade at the Last Republican Debate twitter:description: "Compare the substance of this debate with what you saw on the Republican stage last week" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt68dd3e46979064f6/69888071e20a8771ada8fda6/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-democratic-debate-smiling.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Clinton and Sanders Throw Shade at the Last Republican Debate > 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=08e5bdb4-865e-4bce-834c-a7db2885a91f&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1)  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Updated: Dec 13, 2023 4:51 PM UTCPublished: Mar 7, 2016 3:08 AM UTC  Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders pose together onstage at the start of the U.S. Democratic presidential candidates' debate in Flint, Michi. on March 6, 2016. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders pose together onstage at the start of the U.S. Democratic presidential candidates' debate in Flint, Michi. on March 6, 2016. Carlos Barria—Reuters  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Updated: Dec 13, 2023 4:51 PM UTCPublished: Mar 7, 2016 3:08 AM UTC Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders may have been [battling for the Democratic nomination ](http://time.com/4248784/clinton-sanders-flint-debate/)Sunday night, but they made sure the audience remembered who the real fight is against: the Republicans. “I just want to make one point,” former Secretary of State Clinton said near the end of the [debate](http://time.com/4249183/democratic-debate-flint-full-text-transcript-seventh/). “We have our differences, and we get into vigorious debate about issues. But compare the substance of this debate with what you saw on the Republican stage last week.” (Last week, among other things, Republican frontrunner Donald Trump [defended the size of his penis](http://time.com/4247366/republican-debate-donald-trump-small-hands-penis/).) Vermont Sen. Sanders agreed with Clinton, cracking a policy joke: “We are, if elected president, going to invest a lot of money in mental health,” he said. “And when you watch these Republican debates, you know why we need to invest in mental health.” Both Clinton and Sanders laughed along to cheers from the audience. Clinton then elaborated more specifically on the prospect of facing Trump in a general election. “I think that Donald Trump’s bigotry, his bullying, his bluster, are not going to wear well on the American people,” she said. “So I will look forward to engaging him, because I don’t think we need to make America great again. America didn’t stop being great. We have to make it whole again.” And she previewed her strategy for dealing with the personal attacks she may face in the general, especially given the escalating [insult comedy strategy](http://time.com/4242827/donald-trump-marco-rubio-insults/) of the Republican primary. “I don’t intend to get in the gutter with whoever they nominate,” Clinton said. “But instead to life our sights, to set big goals, to make it clear that America’s best days can be and are ahead of us.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4249195/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-republicans/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4249195/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-republicans/"},"headline":"Clinton and Sanders Throw Shade at the Last Republican Debate","datePublished":"2016-03-07T03:08:20.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T16:51:23.000Z","description":"\"Compare the substance of this debate with what you saw on the Republican stage last week\"","url":"https://time.com/4249195/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-republicans/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","photography","Bernie Sanders","Flint"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt68dd3e46979064f6/69888071e20a8771ada8fda6/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-democratic-debate-smiling.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/blt68dd3e46979064f6/69888071e20a8771ada8fda6/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-democratic-debate-smiling.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Democratic U.S. presidential candidates Clinton and Sanders pose together onstage at the start of the U.S. Democratic presidential candidates' debate in Flint","caption":"Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders pose together onstage at the start of the U.S. Democratic presidential candidates' debate in Flint, Michi. on March 6, 2016.","creditText":"Carlos Barria—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/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4249195/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-republicans/","name":"Clinton and Sanders Throw Shade at the Last Republican Debate"}}]}] ```