Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont has been gaining traction in the Democratic presidential race against Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
To keep the steam, his campaign has been pushing for another Democratic debate ahead of April 19, the date of the New York primary.
In this photo taken May 20, 2015, Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., poses for a portrait before an interview with The Associated Press in Washington. For Democrats who had hoped to lure Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren into a presidential campaign, independent Sen. Bernie Sanders might be the next best thing. Sanders, who is opening his official presidential campaign Tuesday in Burlington, Vermont, aims to ignite a grassroots fire among left-leaning Democrats wary of Hillary Rodham Clinton. He is laying out an agenda in step with the party's progressive wing and compatible with Warren's platform _ reining in Wall Street banks, tackling college debt and creating a government-financed infrastructure jobs program. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Joel Benenson, Clinton’s chief strategist, said on CNN today, “This is a man who said he’d never run a negative ad ever. He’s now running them. They’re planning to run more. Let’s see the tone of the campaign he wants to run before we get to any other questions.”
“What’s the risk?” CNN’s Kate Bolduan asked Monday, pressing multiple times.
“There’s no risk. She’s done very well in the debates,” Benenson responded.
“Sen. Sanders doesn’t get to decide when we debate, particularly when he’s running a very negative campaign against us,” he continued.
“Let’s see if he goes back to the kind of tone he said he was going to set early on. If he does that, then we’ll talk about debates,” Benenson added.