--- description: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders engaged in their first direct face-off during the Democratic debate on Tuesday title: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Spar on Capitalism in First Debate image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6103aeebbee7b4f7/6988682acf40a84ae7c402eb/was8972728.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [2016 Election](/tag/2016-election/) ## 2016 Election Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Spar on Capitalism in First Debate  by [Tessa Berenson](/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Updated: Dec 14, 2023 12:33 AM CUTPublished: Oct 14, 2015 1:22 AM CUT  Hillary Clinton (R) gestures while standing beside Bernie Sanders during a photo spray of the candidates during the first Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas, Nevada on Oct. 13, 2015. Hillary Clinton (R) gestures while standing beside Bernie Sanders during a photo spray of the candidates during the first Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas, Nevada on Oct. 13, 2015.Frederic J. Brown—AFP/Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Updated: Dec 14, 2023 12:33 AM CUTPublished: Oct 14, 2015 1:22 AM CUT Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders engaged in their first direct face-off during [the Democratic debate](http://time.com/4071814/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-cnn-first/?xid=homepage "undefined") on Tuesday after Sanders was asked if he identifies as a capitalist. “Do I consider myself part of the casino capitalist process by which so few have so much and so many have so little?” he responded. “By which Wall Street greed and recklessness wrecked this economy? No I don’t.” He then said he admired the economies of Sweden and Denmark. Clinton jumped in, saying: “When I think about capitalism I think about all the business that were started because we have the opportunity and the freedom to do that and to make a good living for themselves and their families… We would be making a grave mistake to turn our backs on what built the greatest middle class in the history.” “We are not Denmark,” she said. “I love Denmark. We are the United States of America.” ### See the Covers of the 2016 Presidential Hopefuls’ Memoirs ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4072583/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-capitalism/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4072583/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-capitalism/"},"headline":"Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Spar on Capitalism in First Debate","datePublished":"2015-10-14T01:22:00.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-14T00:33:48.000Z","description":"\"We are not Denmark\"","url":"https://time.com/4072583/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-capitalism/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election topic","Bernie Sanders","Democratic debate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6103aeebbee7b4f7/6988682acf40a84ae7c402eb/was8972728.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/blt6103aeebbee7b4f7/6988682acf40a84ae7c402eb/was8972728.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-VOTE-DEOMOCRATS-DEBATE","caption":"US-VOTE-DEOMOCRATS-DEBATE","creditText":"Frederic J. Brown—AFP/Getty Images","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/4072583/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-capitalism/","name":"Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Spar on Capitalism in First Debate"}}]}] ```