Senator Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have worked out their scheduling conflicts and agreed to a 9 p.m. debate in Brooklyn, New York on April 14. The debate will be televised nationally on CNN and moderated by Wolf Blitzer. Those local to New York will also be able to watch the debate on NY1.
The two presidential hopefuls had previously gone back and forth over when to hold a potential debate. Sen. Sanders had previously asked for a debate in Brooklyn, but the two campaigns could not agree on a specific time. It has been nearly one month since the candidates debated March 9 on Univision. The Clinton campaign accused Sanders of being too negative and would only agree to a debate if Sanders changed his tone.
With the New York Democratic Primary happening just five days after, this debate is vital for Sanders. He’s down in the polls by about 11 points but currently on an upward trend. The Senator is battling a narrative that he can’t win in diverse states with a high number of people of color. Even after landslide victories in states with large populations of people of color, like Hawaii and Alaska, the Senator can’t seem to shake the belief that his campaign only attracts young Caucasian voters.
A Sanders win would also be a monumental defeat for Clinton, who represented New York as a U.S. Senator from 2001 to 2009. New York has 291 delegates on the line with 44 of them being superdelegates. Sanders has been more than meeting his delegate goals according to FiveThirtyEight’s projections. Sanders has repeatedly stated that he intends to stay in the race all the way to the convention and won’t be forced out. One thing is certain: the Democrats are clearly the only adults in the room.
Featured image via Flickr by Phil Roeder under a Creative Commons Attribution Generic 2.0 license.
