--- title: Democratic Debate: Bernie Sanders Recycles a 2008 Argument description: Bernie Sanders harkened back to Hillary Clinton's stumble in 2008 on the question of giving undocumented immigrants licenses. canonical: https://time.com/4253522/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-immigrant-license/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-03-10T03:12:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:48:40.893Z article:section: Politics og:title: Sanders Recycles a 2008 Argument Against Clinton og:description: Over driver's licenses. og:url: https://time.com/4253522/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-immigrant-license/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt59b270b9dd273aad/69888a6af887dc63f8e94fb8/democratic-presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-election-2016-04.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4560 og:image:height: 2565 og:image:alt: TIMEPOL Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sanders Recycles a 2008 Argument Against Clinton twitter:description: Over driver's licenses. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt59b270b9dd273aad/69888a6af887dc63f8e94fb8/democratic-presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-election-2016-04.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sanders Recycles a 2008 Argument Against Clinton > Sponsored content. 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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 [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Mar 10, 2016 3:12 AM UTC  Democratic presidential candidates, Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders participate in a debate in Kendall, Fla. on March 9, 2016. Democratic presidential candidates, Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders participate in a debate in Kendall, Fla. on March 9, 2016. Wilfredo Lee—AP  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Mar 10, 2016 3:12 AM UTC During Wednesday night’s Democratic debate, Bernie Sanders opened up an old line of attack against Hillary Clinton. The Vermont Senator harkened back to one of Clinton’s stumbles from her 2008 campaign about whether undocumented immigrants should be able to get driver’s licenses. “When we talk about efforts to assist immigrants, Secretary Clinton prevailed upon the Governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, who wanted to do the right thing and provide drivers licenses to those who are undocumented. She said don’t do it, and New York State still does not do it.” “In Vermont by the way, I worked with officials, and undocumented people in Vermont do have the ability to get drivers licenses,” he continued. When he invoked the license issue, Sanders was referencing [a moment](http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/us/politics/01words.html) during a Democratic debate in 2007 when the moderators were unable to pin Clinton down on her views on whether or not to give undocumented immigrants drivers licenses. After defending the reasoning behind Spitzer’s bill, Clinton said, “I did not say that it should be done, but I certainly recognize why Governor Spitzer is trying to do it.” When the moderators continued pressing her on giving a yes or no answer, she replied, “This is where everybody plays gotcha,” and still refused to answer directly. Clinton later came out against driver’s licenses for the undocumented. But in her current campaign, she has taken has [taken a firm stance](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/04/16/this-time-hillary-clinton-supports-giving-drivers-licenses-to-undocumented-immigrants/) this election cycle in favor of them. During the debate, Clinton brushed off the attack and did not respond. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4253522/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-immigrant-license/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4253522/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-immigrant-license/"},"headline":"Sanders Recycles a 2008 Argument Against Clinton","datePublished":"2016-03-10T03:12:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:48:40.893Z","description":"Bernie Sanders harkened back to Hillary Clinton's stumble in 2008 on the question of giving undocumented immigrants licenses.","url":"https://time.com/4253522/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-immigrant-license/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Immigration","Bernie Sanders"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt59b270b9dd273aad/69888a6af887dc63f8e94fb8/democratic-presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-election-2016-04.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/blt59b270b9dd273aad/69888a6af887dc63f8e94fb8/democratic-presidential-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-election-2016-04.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIMEPOL Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders","caption":"Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders","creditText":"Wilfredo Lee—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/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4253522/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-immigrant-license/","name":"Sanders Recycles a 2008 Argument Against Clinton"}}]}] ```