[UPDATED] Democrats' Debate in Flint Sunday: Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders Spar on Trade, Guns, Auto Bailout

Updated at 11:55 p.m.

FLINT, MI – After a cordial opening, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders sparred on issues like trade policy, gun control and the auto industry bailout during Sunday’s CNN Democratic debate.

The debate took place in Flint, a mostly black and mostly poor city, where a massive scandal has erupted over lead contamination in the public drinking water supply. The two candidates met days before Michigan’s March 8 presidential primary, where 147 pledged delegates are at stake, and fielded questions from CNN's Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon, several Flint residents and Bryn Mickle of The Flint Journal, the local media partner.

The Flint water crisis loomed heavily in the debate, with both candidates focusing on it in their opening statements. Sanders said Republican Gov. Rick Snyder’s “dereliction of duty was irresponsible.”

“Amen to that,” Clinton said.

Both candidates called for Snyder’s resignation or recall for office, Clinton for the first time. Both called for a full investigation that, if warranted, could lead to criminal charges.

Clinton criticized Snyder and the Legislature for not using its rainy-day fund to address the water crisis. “It’s raining lead in Flint,” she said.

“It’s a disgrace beyond belief,” Sanders said, pointing out that residents of Flint are “paying three times more for poison water than I am paying in Burlington, VT, for clean water.”

Democrats have been accused of exploiting the the crisis for political gain — and Michigan Republican Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel reiterated that in a statement released after the debate — and they were pressed on that issue during the debate, as well as what they will do to restore Flint residents’ faith in a government system that allowed the crisis to develop.

Flint switched its water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River in 2014 while under the control of a state-appointed emergency management. The more corrosive water from the river caused lead in the aging pipes to leach into the water supply, exposing an unknown number of people to dangerously high levels of lead and causing potentially irreversible brain damage in scores of young children.

Clinton said that when she heard about the crisis, she immediately sent in advisers to find out what was going on. “I will be with Flint all the way through this crisis in whatever capacity,” she said, adding that if she wins the presidency, “it will always be a priority.”

Sanders said he “met very quietly with parents” after hearing of the crisis and held a town meeting that he tried to make as non-political as possible.

He acknowledged it’s legitimate for Flint residents to fear “at a certain point the TV cameras … are going to disappear and that people are going to be left struggling to live in a safe and healthy community.”

Clinton "Discovered Religion" on Trade

Sanders called Clinton out for what he suggested was a disingenuous change of heart on trade policies, a passionate theme in his populist campaign.

In particular, he took jabs at Clinton for supporting the North American Free Trade Agreement implemented during her husband’s administration, and for her flip-flop on the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

"I am very glad that Secretary Clinton discovered religion on this issue but it's a little bit too late," Sanders said. "Secretary Clinton supported virtually every one of the disastrous trade agreements written by corporate America."

Clinton aimed back, saying her “clawback” proposal would require corporations that received incentives to repay them if they take jobs overseas, and criticizing Sanders for opposing the 2009 auto industry bailout that saved 4 million jobs.

“We had the best year that the auto industry has had in a long time,” Clinton said, pointing out that if Congress had voted with Sanders on the bailout, the industry would have collapsed.”

Sanders defended his vote, saying it was against the “recklessness, greed and illegal behavior of Wall Street” that threw the country into its worst economic downturn since the 1930s.

"When billionaires on Wall Street destroyed this economy, they went to Congress and they said, 'please, we'll be good boys, bail us out,'" Sanders said. "You know what I said? I said, 'let the billionaires themselves bail out Wall Street.' It shouldn't be the middle class of this country."

Sanders called Clinton out at one point during the exchange, admonishing her to wait her turn and allow him to finish his answer.

Gun Loopholes, Immunity

He did it again during a question about gun control from Gene Kopf, whose 14-year-old daughter, Abigail, was critically wounded by an Uber cab driver in Kalamazoo who shot eight people, killing six of them, on Feb. 20.

Kopf, citing 42 mass shootings this year alone, asked Clinton and Sanders how they would curb violence beyond background checks and mental health screenings — which the suspect in Kalamazoo cleared.

Clinton favors comprehensive gun-control legislation that would close the gun show and online loopholes and strengthen background checks, as well as engaging in a cultural conversation about the pervasiveness of firearms and gun violence.

Sanders boasted his D-minus rating from the National Rifle Association, said he supports legislation that would ban bullets that can pierce police armor, and would, like Clinton, support closing the so-called “Charleston loophole” in the federal law that allowed the alleged killer of nine people in a Charleston, SC, church to buy a gun without a completed background check.

Where the two disagreed was on the issue holding gun manufacturers and sellers accountable for crimes committed with their products. Clinton supports a lawsuit filed by families of children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting against the manufacturer of the assault rifle used in the killings.

Clinton said “giving immunity to gun sellers and gun makers was a huge mistake.”

“You talk about corporate greed?” she said, borrowing Sanders’ theme against Wall Street. “The gun manufacturers sell guns to make as much money as they can make.”

Sanders disagreed.

“What happened at Sandy Hook, what happened in Michigan, what has happened far too often all over this country is a terrible, terrible tragedy, and we have got to do everything we can, as I mentioned a moment ago, to end these mass killings,” he said. “But it, as I understand it … and maybe I’m wrong, what you’re really talking about is people saying, ‘Let’s end gun manufacturing in America.’ That’s the implications of that, and I don’t agree with that.”

Taking on Trump

Both candidates say they welcome a chance to take on Republican frontrunner Donald Trump in the Nov. 8 general election.

The tone at the debate was markedly different than three days ago, when Republican presidential contenders debated in Detroit. The candidates referenced it only briefly, with Clinton urging voters to “compare the substance of this debate to what you saw on the Republican stage last week.”

But Sanders got the laugh, promising that if elected president, his administration will “invest a lot in mental health.”

“When you watch these Republican debates,” he said with comedic timing, “you know why.”

Both candidates said they’re in the best position to defeat Trump, who so far has amassed about 3.6 million votes.

“There’s only one candidate in either party with more, and that’s me,” Clinton said. “I think Donald Trump’s bigotry, his bullying, his bluster are not going to wear well on American people. I will look forward to engaging him.”

Sanders said recent polls show he stands a better chance than Clinton of stopping the billionaire’s run for the White House.

“I would love to run against Donald Trump,” he said. “For a start, almost every poll has shown that Sanders vs. Trump does a lot better than Clinton vs. Trump.”

He also cited big wins in Maine, Nebraska and Kansas as evidence of growing excitement among working-class and young Americans “demanding government that represents all of us, not just a few.”

» Photos by Gage Skidmore via Flickr / Creative Commons