Hillary Clinton targeted Bernie Sanders’s electoral appeal with some of her strongest language yet in a debate on Sunday night, seizing onMr. Sanders’s recent policy shifts on universal health care and gun control to try to undercut his image as an anti-political truth teller.Mrs. Clinton also repeatedly aligned herself with a former political rival, President Obama, as she sought to portray her current one,Mr. Sanders,Hillary Clinton as a fringe candidate who did not stand with Mr. Obama on major issues like Wall Street regulation.
Mr. Sanders, in turn, gave no quarter as he criticized Mrs. Clinton as dishonest in her attacks.
With Mr. Sanders gaining on her before the Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses, Mrs. Clinton cast herself as the defender of Mr. Obama’s record andMr. Sanders as playing into Republican hands with proposals like replacing the Affordable Care Act with a single-payer plan, which Mr. Sanders describes as “Medicare for all.”