Who Won Wednesday's Democratic Presidential Debate? 5 Moments To Ponder

MIAMI, FL — The two Democratic presidential hopefuls came out swinging in Wednesday night’s final debate before primaries in such crucial states as Florida, Ohio and Illinois.

Following Sen. Bernie Sanders’ upset victory in the Michigan primary, Clinton’s once-anticipated easy path to the Democratic nomination has become less than assured. The resurgence of Sanders’ campaign was evident in his aggressive responses to moderator questions at the Univision-sponsored debate at Miami Dade College. The gloves came off as Clinton and Sanders grappled with each other over such issues as the environment and immigration.

At one point, moderators Karen Tumulty of The Washington Post, and Maria Elena Salinas and Jorge Ramos of Univision lost complete control as Sanders and Clinton talked over each other about their stands on the environment, their messages largely drowned out in the process.

While the winner of Wednesday’s debate will, no doubt, not be called for a few days to give pundits plenty of opportunity to weigh in, here are a few key moments to ponder:

Hillary Takes a Page from Bill’s Book

Put on the spot about 104 emails sent from her private server that have been deemed classified by the federal government, former Secretary of State Clinton responded much like her husband, former President Bill Clinton, when he was questioned about Monica Lewinsky.

While Hillary, of course, wasn’t denying sexual relations, she did deny any wrongdoing in her use of the private server.

“It was not prohibited and it was not disallowed,” she insisted. “I did not send or receive any emails marked classified at that time.”

Instead, she insists the emails were “retroactively classified.”

As for her willingness to step out of the race if she’s indicted on federal charges in regard to those emails, “It’s not going to happen,” she insisted.

Donald Trump Bashing Offers Common Ground

Sanders and Clinton were in Miami to debate with each other, but they had no problem finding common ground in regard to a very pointed question about whether or not Donald Trump is a racist.

“You don’t make America great by getting rid of everything that made of America great,” Clinton said. When asked how she’d describe Trump’s character, she quickly responded, “It’s un-American.”

“I think that the American people are never going to elect a president who insults Mexicans, who insults Muslims, who insults women, who insults African Americans,” Sanders agreed.

The Night’s Catchphrase

If there was a catchphrase for the debate, it would have had to have been “comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship.” Both candidates repeatedly expressed their support for making sweeping changes to make it easier for undocumented workers to stay in the country and eventually become citizens.

Ramos especially pressed Clinton about the deportation of undocumented children, demanding to know if she would become a “deporter in chief” if elected.

“My priorities are to deport violent criminals, terrorists and anyone who threatens our safety – stop the raids, stop the roundups.”

That answer didn’t quite fly with Ramos. He pressed again on the specific topic of deporting children, asking for a straight yes or no.

“I will not,” Clinton finally acquiesced.

No Need For Trump’s ‘Great Wall,’ The ‘Work Is Done’

Trump was an ongoing theme in the debate. Not surprisingly, his dream to build a giant border wall and get the Mexican government to pay for it came up at one point.

When asked the difference between the fencing and security measures she and Sanders voted for during their time in the Senate and Trump’s proposal, Clinton fired back, “It’s just a fantasy.”

As for border security, Clinton says the work has been done.

“We have the most secure border we’ve ever had,” she said. “That part of the work is done. We have a secure border,” which led her right back to the night’s catchphrase, “let’s move (onto) comprehensive immigration reform.”

Viva la Revolucion

With Miami being the host site for the debate, the environment, of course, was a very big point of discussion. While both candidates agreed manmade climate change is a major concern, the event took a heated turn as the two candidates spoke over each other while trying to describe just how they would tackle the issue.

Sanders seemed to score a knockout punch by saying the country needed to get the guts to take on the fossil fuel industry. “We need a political revolution in this county where millions of people in this country stand up” against the fossil fuel industry, he said. His call for “ending fracking” also earned a rather boisterous response from the crowd.

Primary races are scheduled in Florida, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri and North Carolina on Tuesday, March 15.

Univision screenshot