--- title: Democratic Debate: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Spar description: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders engaged in their first direct face-off during the Democratic debate on Tuesday canonical: https://time.com/4072583/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-capitalism/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-14T01:22:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-14T00:33:48.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Spar on Capitalism in First Debate og:description: "We are not Denmark" og:url: https://time.com/4072583/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-capitalism/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6103aeebbee7b4f7/6988682acf40a84ae7c402eb/was8972728.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3700 og:image:height: 2081 og:image:alt: US-VOTE-DEOMOCRATS-DEBATE og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Spar on Capitalism in First Debate twitter:description: "We are not Denmark" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6103aeebbee7b4f7/6988682acf40a84ae7c402eb/was8972728.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Spar on Capitalism in First Debate > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Updated: Dec 14, 2023 12:33 AM UTCPublished: Oct 14, 2015 1:22 AM UTC  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](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Updated: Dec 14, 2023 12:33 AM UTCPublished: Oct 14, 2015 1:22 AM UTC 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) 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","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. 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