Sanders Slams Clinton as Not 'Qualified'

Suddenly, it's the Democratic race making headlines for fireworks between the candidates. On Wednesday, Bernie Sanders said Hillary Clinton isn't "qualified" to be president—and ticked off several reasons to make his case, reports CNN. In response, the Clinton campaign said he had reached a "new low." In a speech at Temple University, Sanders said his string of primary wins was apparently making Clinton nervous. "She has been saying lately that she thinks I am quote-unquote not qualified to be president," he said. "Let me just say in response to Secretary Clinton, I don't believe that she is qualified if she is through her super PAC taking tens of millions of dollars in special-interest money. I don't think you are qualified if you get $15 million through Wall Street for your super PAC." And he didn't stop there: "I don't think you are qualified if you have voted for the disastrous war in Iraq. I don't think you are qualified if you have supported virtually every disastrous trade agreement which has cost us millions of decent paying jobs."

Clinton herself didn't respond to the attack, but campaign spokesman Brian Fallon did in a tweet: "Hillary Clinton did not say Bernie Sanders was 'not qualified.' But he has now - absurdly - said it about her. This is a new low." Sanders' remarks came after Clinton criticized Sanders for providing what she deemed to be shallow answers to questions about breaking up big banks and other policy issues. "He'd been talking for more than a year about doing things that he obviously hadn't really studied or understood, and that raises a lot of questions," she said. Clinton also reiterated that she thinks Sanders is big on "arm-waving and hot rhetoric" instead of practical reform. But as Politico notes, she didn't quite call Sanders unqualified to be president, though she avoided a question about whether he was qualified three times. Instead, she said she would "leave it to the voters to decide." All of it is leading up to what the Washington Post calls New York's "make-or-break" primary on April 19. (More Bernie Sanders 2016 stories.)