After Tight Iowa Poll, Sanders Underscores His Policy Differences With Hillary Clinton

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. (David Becker / AP)

A new poll showed Bernie Sanders trailing Hillary Clinton by only seven percentage points in Iowa, attracting 30 percent of Democratic voters after one-third of Clinton’s supporters transferred allegiance to him.

Appearing on CNN after the poll, Sanders took the opportunity to draw distinctions between Clinton’s policy positions and his own.

Asked how he would confront “the billionaire class” in ways she would not, Sanders said: “I believe that, when you have so few banks with so much power … you have got to break them up. That is not Hillary Clinton’s position.

“I believe that our trade policies … have been a disaster. I am helping to lead the effort against the Trans-Pacific Partnership. That is not Hillary Clinton’s position.”

Martin Pengelly at The Guardian reports:

Sanders also said that he would “defeat” the Keystone pipeline, expand social security and raise the minimum wage to $15, all things Clinton would not do.

Touching on foreign policy, which has not been a focus of his campaign, he said: “I voted against the war in Iraq. Hillary Clinton voted for it.”

In a subsequent appearance on ABC, Sanders was asked about his votes against military force in Iraq and in Syria, as well as the first Gulf War. In 2001, after 9/11, he voted in support of the invasion of Afghanistan.

“There are times when you have to use military force,” he said, “no question about it. I am prepared to do it, but that is the last resort, not the first.

“I think historically, in too many instances, the United States has gone to war often unilaterally when we should not have.”