--- title: Democratic Debate: Bernie Sanders Takes High Road on Clinton description: He declined an opportunity to attack Bill Clinton for his past misdeeds. canonical: https://time.com/4184102/democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-scandals/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-18T05:12:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T14:12:46.522Z article:section: Politics og:title: Watch Sanders Take the High Road on Clinton, Again og:description: He declined to attack Bill Clinton over his past transgressions og:url: https://time.com/4184102/democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-scandals/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt18aa0a95bd3a6aa0/69887984cd1bba09ad6fefda/democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-003.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 and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders smiles as he speaks at the NBC News - YouTube Democratic presidential candidates debate in Charleston og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Sanders Take the High Road on Clinton, Again twitter:description: He declined to attack Bill Clinton over his past transgressions twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt18aa0a95bd3a6aa0/69887984cd1bba09ad6fefda/democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-003.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch Bernie Sanders Take the High Road on Clinton, Again by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jan 18, 2016 5:12 AM UTC  Democratic U.S. presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders smiles as he speaks at the NBC - YouTube Democratic presidential debate at the Gaillard Center in Charleston, S.C. on Jan. 17, 2016. Democratic U.S. presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders smiles as he speaks at the NBC - YouTube Democratic presidential debate at the Gaillard Center in Charleston, S.C. on Jan. 17, 2016.Randall Hill—Reuters by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Jan 18, 2016 5:12 AM UTC Senator Bernie Sanders again sidestepped an opportunity to take a jab at [Hillary Clinton](http://time.com/4184019/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-president-obama/) in their[ battle for the Democratic presidential nomination](http://time.com/4183625/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders). The Vermont Senator, who said during the first debate that Americans are [“sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails,”](http://time.com/4072553/democratic-debate-transcript-primetime-cnn/) declined an opportunity during the[ fourth debate Sunday](http://time.com/4183952/democratic-debate-full-text-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders/) to criticize Bill Clinton’s past transgressions. Sanders scoffed when he was asked if he regrets [calling the past misdeeds of the former President “totally, totally, totally disgraceful and unacceptable”](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/bernie-sanders-bill-clinton-unacceptable-217522) at a town hall in Iowa recently. “That question annoys me,” Sanders told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell when asked about Bill Clinton again on Sunday. “I cannot walk down the street — Secretary Clinton knows this — without being told how much I have to attack Secretary Clinton, want to get me on the front pages of the paper, I’d make some vicious attack.” “I have avoided doing that,” he said. “Trying to run an issue-oriented campaign.” **Read More:** [_Full Text of the Fourth Democratic Debate in Charleston_](http://time.com/4183952/democratic-debate-full-text-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders/) Sanders added that though he does find some of Bill Clinton’s past behavior “deplorable,” his goal is to debate the issues, not the former President. “I’m going to debate Secretary Clinton, Governor O’Malley, on the issues facing the American people,” he said, “not Bill Clinton’s personal behavior.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4184102/democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-scandals/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4184102/democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-scandals/"},"headline":"Watch Bernie Sanders Take the High Road on Clinton, Again","datePublished":"2016-01-18T05:12:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T14:12:46.522Z","description":"\"That question annoys me\"","url":"https://time.com/4184102/democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-scandals/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election topic","Bill Clinton","Bernie Sanders","Debates"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt18aa0a95bd3a6aa0/69887984cd1bba09ad6fefda/democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-003.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt18aa0a95bd3a6aa0/69887984cd1bba09ad6fefda/democratic-debate-bernie-sanders-003.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Democratic U.S. presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders smiles as he speaks at the NBC News - YouTube Democratic presidential candidates debate in Charleston","caption":"Democratic U.S. presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders smiles as he speaks at the NBC News - YouTube Democratic presidential candidates debate in Charleston, South Carolina January 17, 2016. 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