Clinton Debate Quotes & Sayings

Let there be no mistake, Sen Sanders, his campaign and the vigorous debate that we've had about how to raise incomes, how to reduce inequality, increase upward mobility, has been very good for the Democratic Party and for America. — Hillary Clinton

What we have to do ... is to find a way to celebrate our diversity and debate our differences without fracturing our communities. — Hillary Clinton

We don't have the Democrats doing a Fox News debate. They have decided they want to boycott Fox News, at least this election cycle. I don't see Hillary [Clinton] and Bernie Sanders doing a Fox News debate.And they should. We have great journalists on this network. I'm an opinion person. It wouldn't be me - that I think would do a great job. But if they're not going to put themselves in an environment like this, do you have to now reconsider, in other words, going forward, that maybe these liberal networks don't deserve the access to these candidates? — Sean Hannity

In the 1992 presidential debate, third-party candidate Ross Perot famously warned about a 'giant sucking sound' of American jobs going south of the border to low-wage nations once trade protections were dropped.

Perot was right, but no one in our government listened to him.

Tariffs were ditched, and then Bill Clinton moved into the White House...He continued Reagan's trade policies and committed the United States to so-called free-trade agreements such as GATT, NAFTA, and the WTO, thus removing all the protections that had kept our domestic manufacturing industries safe from foreign corporate predators for two centuries. — Thom Hartmann

The not-visibly-insane Democrats all claim they'll get rough with the terrorists, but they can't even face Brit Hume. In case you missed this profile in Democrat machismo, the Democratic presidential candidates are refusing to participate in a debate hosted by Fox News Channel because the hosts are "biased." But they'll face down Mahmoud Ahmadinejad! At this, even Hillary Clinton was thinking, "Come on, guys let's grow a pair. — Ann Coulter

We are Americans, We have the right to participate and debate any administration. — Hillary Clinton

I don't mind the debates, they're good for America, but we shouldn't be out there attacking each other all the time. — William J. Clinton

I think the debate was really some powerful moments of clarity. We saw that Donald Trump, substantively, has the same issues on issue after issue as Hillary Clinton. He agreed with Hillary Clinton on Libya, toppling the government in Libya. That led directly to Benghazi, led to handing that country over to radical Islamic terrorism. — Ted Cruz

If Hillary Clinton had to face me on a debate stage, at the very least, she would have a hitch in her swing. — Carly Fiorina

We have arrived at socialized medicine in America. I do not report this as either a good or bad event but simply as something that has happened with hardly anyone realizing it. This is the first result - and probably the most important - of the national health care debate launched last week by President Clinton. Our politics and economy will never again be the same. — Robert J. Samuelson

If President Clinton has his way, we will have a false debate in the 1996 election campaign. It will not engage real political choices - choices framed by our appetite for government services and our distaste for taxes - but rather artificial choices crafted by Clinton to advance his reelection. Clinton has clearly been using the budget as an election platform ... I dislike using the word 'lies,' but Clinton exploits such forbearance (widespread in the press) to spread untruths. — Robert J. Samuelson

Freedom means the right to assemble, organize, and debate openly. It means not taking citizens away from their loved ones and jailing them, mistreating them, or denying them their freedom or dignity because of peaceful expression of their ideas and opinions. — Hillary Clinton

Senator [Ben] Sanders and I share some very big progressive goals. I've been fighting for universal healthcare for many years, and we're now on the path to achieving it. I don't want us to start over again. I think that would be a great mistake, to once again plunge our country into a contentious debate about whether we should have and what kind of system we should have for healthcare. — Hillary Clinton

In the very first debate I was asked am I a moderate or a progressive and I said I'm a progressive who likes to get things done. Cherry picking a quote here or there doesn't change my record of having fought for racial justice, having fought for kids rights, having fought the kind of inequities that fueled my interest in service in the first place going back to my days in the Children's Defense Fund. — Hillary Clinton

During the debate over NAFTA President Clinton said, 'I believe that NAFTA will create a million jobs in the first five years of its impact.' WRONG. According to the Economic Policy Institute, NAFTA has led to the loss of more than 680,000 U.S. jobs. I voted against NAFTA and other bad trade agreements and am fighting to stop the TPP. — Bernie Sanders

At the debate, Donald Trump backed off of his health care position for 20 years. For 20 years, he has agreed with Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders on socialized medicine, saying Obamacare doesn't go far enough. He wants the government to pay for everyone's health care and to control it. — Ted Cruz

I've heard - when I first started, people were saying, You know if it ends up being Trump against [Hillary] Clinton, it's going to be the highest-rated debate in the history of television - or, show in the history of television. And they also said something else. It'll probably be the greatest voter turnout in the history of this country. That could very well be. — Donald Trump

During the 1999 debate over Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China President Bill Clinton said, 'In opening the economy of China, the agreement will create unprecedented opportunities for American farmers, workers and companies to compete successfully in China's market. WRONG: Our trade deficit with China has increased from $83 billion in 2001 to a record breaking $342 billion in 2014. — Bernie Sanders

I can tell you is all nine of the people here [ on debates] would make an infinitely better commander in chief than Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. — Ted Cruz

The weakness in a model in which one assumes that the electorate gets what it needs from Bill Clinton is that our system doesn't institutionalize the oppositional voice, and one needs to be able to hear the exchange of the debate in order to create an informed electorate. — Kathleen Hall Jamieson

The Republican candidates clashed on terrorism, immigration and foreign policy in their fifth debate.They all said President [Barack] Obama and Hillary Clinton have not kept America safe. — Renee Montagne

I want to say that even - and Bernie said this many, many times - in several of the actual public debates, she said on her worst day, Hillary Clinton's a thousand times better than Donald Trump. And Donald Trump, in my view, is a threat to the nation. — Jonathan Tasini

I think that you can disagree with people and debate over their positions with issues without engaging in the politics of personal destruction. — Hillary Clinton

Freedom means the right of people to assemble, organize, and debate openly. — Hillary Clinton

People perceive her [Jill Stein ] as hurting [Hillary] Clinton. I think she's doing very well. I don't think the numbers will be good enough for them to be in the debate. — Donald Trump

I am not going to wait and have us plunge back into a contentious national debate that has very little chance of succeeding. Let's make the Affordable Care Act work for everybody. — Hillary Clinton

I'm sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and disagree with this administration, somehow you're not patriotic. We need to stand up and say we're Americans, and we have the right to debate and disagree with any administration. — Hillary Rodham Clinton

I can't believe that Hillary Clinton wants the world to think that whenever she gets into political trouble, she's going to have her husband come roaring about, breaking furniture, sucking up oxygen, spewing carbon dioxide. My impression is that she's strong enough to defend herself - she certainly showed that in the recent Democratic debate. But apparently she's not strong enough to control Mr. Bill ... and if that's the case, any sane voter would have to think twice before enabling this sort of circus act in the White House. — Joe Klein

It's time to end the era of mass incarceration. We need a true national debate about how to reduce our prison population. — Hillary Clinton