--- title: Democratic Debate: Clinton Hits Sanders On Libya Vote description: Clinton invoked Sanders' record in the Senate to paint him as a hypocrite on the issue of regime change. canonical: https://time.com/4156220/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-libya/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-20T04:12:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T13:31:37.255Z article:section: Politics og:title: Hillary Clinton Hits Bernie Sanders On Libya Vote og:description: Clinton invoked Sanders' record in the Senate to paint him as a hypocrite on the issue of regime change. og:url: https://time.com/4156220/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-libya/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17a2f16d239d6499/69887638a988ca83dc6b5ce6/democratic-debate-1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Democratic U.S. presidential candidate U.S. Senator Sanders listens to the opening statement of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Democratic presidential candidates debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hillary Clinton Hits Bernie Sanders On Libya Vote twitter:description: Clinton invoked Sanders' record in the Senate to paint him as a hypocrite on the issue of regime change. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17a2f16d239d6499/69887638a988ca83dc6b5ce6/democratic-debate-1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hillary Clinton Hits Bernie Sanders on Libya Vote  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Dec 20, 2015 4:12 AM UTC  Democratic U.S. presidential candidate U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders listens to the opening statement of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Democratic presidential candidates debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire Dec. 19, 2015. Democratic U.S. presidential candidate U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders listens to the opening statement of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Democratic presidential candidates debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire Dec. 19, 2015.Brian Snyder—Reuters  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Dec 20, 2015 4:12 AM UTC 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.” [Read More: Democrats Clash in Final Debate of 2015 ](http://time.com/4155432/democratic-debate-third-data-breach/?xid=homepage) 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. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4156220/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-libya/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4156220/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-libya/"},"headline":"Hillary Clinton Hits Bernie Sanders on Libya Vote","datePublished":"2015-12-20T04:12:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:31:37.255Z","description":"Clinton invoked Sanders' record in the Senate to paint him as a hypocrite on the issue of regime change.","url":"https://time.com/4156220/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-libya/","keywords":["Hillary Clinton","2016 Election topic","Bernie Sanders","Democratic debate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17a2f16d239d6499/69887638a988ca83dc6b5ce6/democratic-debate-1.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/blt17a2f16d239d6499/69887638a988ca83dc6b5ce6/democratic-debate-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Democratic U.S. presidential candidate U.S. Senator Sanders listens to the opening statement of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Democratic presidential candidates debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester","caption":"Democratic U.S. presidential candidate U.S. Senator Sanders listens to the opening statement of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Democratic presidential candidates debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester","creditText":"Brian Snyder—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":"https://time.com/4156220/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-libya/","name":"Hillary Clinton Hits Bernie Sanders on Libya Vote"}}]}] ```