Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders held town hall meetings in Des Moines, Fort Dodge, Mason City and Newton over the weekend. Sanders drew big cheers in Newton with his call for campaign finance reform.
“My campaign is the only non-billionaire campaign,” Sanders said, pausing as the crowd cheered. “I won’t name names, but we are the only non-billionaire campaign that doesn’t have a super PAC.”
The Priorities USA Action Super PAC that is supporting Hillary Clinton’s campaign has raised more than $40 million. Sanders was also asked in Iowa this weekend what action he could take to stop expansion of a pipeline to take crude oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
“You are looking at one of the guys who has led the effort against the Keystone Pipeline from day one,” Sanders said.
Sanders did not mention Hillary Clinton’s announcement last week in Iowa that she opposes the pipeline, but Martin O’Malley did during an interview on CNN. O’Malley, who was speaking by satellite from Des Moines, said Clinton took her stand against the pipeline after putting her “finger to the wind” and confirming the position polled well.
“I came out against the Keystone Pipeline over a year ago,” O’Malley said. “Why? Because I believe it’s contrary to our nation’s best interests of moving forward to a clean energy future and that’s what real leadership is about.”
O’Malley also repeated his call for more debates among the Democratic candidates. “Otherwise our party is being defined by Hillary Clinton’s email scandal and it’s not good for our party and it’s not good for our country,” O’Malley said on CNN’s “State of the Union”.
Clinton said Sunday during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that it was her lawyers, not her, who waded through the email she sent while serving as secretary of state to decide which were work-related and which were personal.
CNN will host the first Democratic candidate debate on October 13th in Las Vegas.