Bernie Sanders often attacks Hillary Clinton for being in favor of overthrowing dictators around the world, but at the Democratic debate Saturday night, she took a swipe back at him on the issue.
Speaking about overthrowing the government of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya in 2011 and the ensuing chaos, Former Secretary of State Clinton said, “There’s always retrospective to say what mistakes were made, but I know that we offered a lot of help and I know that it was difficult for the Libyans to accept help.”
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Vermont Senator Sanders then recited to Clinton his usual attacks against regime change. “The truth is it is relatively easy for a powerful nation like America to overthrow a dictator,” he said. “But it is very hard to predict the unintended consequences and the turmoil and the instability that follows after you overthrow that dictator… I’m not quite the fan of regime change that she is.”
But Clinton invoked Sanders’ record in the Senate to paint him as a hypocrite on the issue. “I think it’s only fair to put on the record, Senator Sanders voted in the Senate for a resolution calling for ending the Gaddafi regime and asking that the UN be brought in,” she said.
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Write to Tessa Berenson Rogers at tessa.Rogers@time.com