Votes weeks from now. Im wolf blitz the ner washington. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is a cnn democratic debate special. Youre looking at st. Ansom college in New Hampshire where the democrats are just wrapping up an often heated debate. We heard Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin Omalley drive home their differences on critical issues, including the war against isis, gun control and Corporate Americas political power. This debate comes just weeks before the first president ial primary season votes with cast and it comes in the midst of a controversy pitting sanders and clinton camps against one another. Sanders telling clinton early that hes sorry, that his aides got unauthorized access to clintons voters files take advantage of a problem with the dncs computer system. Does secretary clinton deserve an apology tonight . Yes. I apologize. Secretary clinton, do you accept . Not only do i apologize to secretary clinton, and i hope we can Work Together on an independent investigation, i want to apologize to my supporters. This is not the type of campaign that we run and if i find anybody else involved in this, they will also be fired. Secretary clinton, hes apologized. How do you react . I very much appreciate that comment, bernie. It really is important that we go forward on this. All three Democratic Candidates save their toughest shots for the president ial hopefuls from the other party, especially the republican president ial frontrunner, donald trump. He is becoming isiss best recruiter. They are going to people, showing videos of donald trump insulting islam and muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists. We have a team of correspondents, analysts and contributors standing by live to dissect all the pivotal moments of this democratic debate and its impact on the campaign. Lets go around the tables. Well get reaction from all of ur political correspondents, our analysts, commentators. I want to begin with jeff zellny, you cover the democrats. Jeff, your major take aways from this president ial debate . I think the biggest take away is Hillary Clinton had her eye on the general election. Throughout the course of these two hours, she did not relent from attacking Bernie Sanders or Martin Omalley on these distinctions, but she has her eye on the long game here. The but i think we have to start out with Bernie Sanders apologizing for this extraordinary situation thats been going on for the last 36 hours or so to let his Campaign File suit against the Democratic National committee. He said he apologized, she said she accepts his apology and it is time to move on from that. I think she was trying to look ahead to the general election. Bernie sanders is saying, not so fast. He tried to question her judgment, her judgment specifically on the iraq war. He mentioned that at least two or three times, that she voted for the iraq war and, of course, he did not. Martin omalley, i think, was trying to simply stay in this conversation. He was having a bit of a hard time doing that. He is struggling both in iowa and New Hampshire here. But, wolf, there were some distinctions, some difference owes taxes, first and foremost. She plea of not guiltied that she would not raise taxes on the middle class. Bernie sanders says he cant make that promise at all. So that is one of the issues that is going to be front and center here for the next six weeks or so until the iowa caucuses. Malia, your major take away . I think it was almost a status quota base. Ing people came in in the same position, Martin Omalley leading in the polls. Bernie sanders stalled out in the polls at about 30 . That seems to be his ceiling and Hillary Clinton in a commanding place. I thought she was very strong in a way she wasnt strong before on terror and war. I think she wanted to come out as more hawkish. You saw some stark differences there in terms of the prosecution of the war on terror, on isis. She wants a no fly zone and you heard Martin Omalley there, trying to make the a distinction, trying to come forward and say hes the younger generation. I think he was trying to land punches, didnt land them very effectively. And Bernie Sanders, again, struggling on guns. Thats an issue that Hillary Clinton, as well as Martin Omalley think they can score points against sanders and i think they did, again, tonight president. David axelrod, youre a former political adviser, also our senior cnn political comment taters and youre now at the university of chicago politics. When you saw this feud between the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Bernie Sanders campaign, it had the potential for totally exploding. But Bernie Sanders came out right away and calmed things down. Yeah. He did the right thing and so did she by reaching this point of accommodation and moving on. I think the most striking thing about this was the distinction between it and the frackus that you moderated in las vegas a couple of days ago, a few days ago, because there really isnt that much disagreement between these candidates. Clearly, they were not Martin Omalley was a little aggressive with Hillary Clinton at points because hes trying to get into the game. But whats striking was a good natured kind of banter between all of this and the humor that was shown. The fact is, i dont think anything happened in this debate that basically changes the ordering of the candidates. Bernie sanders people, i think, will be thrilled with this debate. Hillary clintons people will be happy particularly on her performance and i think we move on from here. Dana bash, our chief political correspondent, in both iowa and nv nevada, even though in all the National Poll webs shes way ahead. Right. And New Hampshire is the state that kind of is the ball game, probably, for Bernie Sanders. Hes from a neighboring state. He had done better there when he rose in the polls initially. Not just a that, it kind of depends on what happens with iowa, but we all know on both sides, voters of New Hampshire like to tell iowa, no, no, not so fast. So if she does well in iowa, it might help Bernie Sanders for that reason. But i am looking at what Hillary Clinton said on two things towards the general election republicans are pouncing on her on. Number one, saying pointblank that the American National security position and pot posture is finally correct when it comes to isis. Jeb bush had a tweet out, a video out in a nano second about that. And other republicans are going to, as well. That is going to be definitely one of the narratives Going Forward from the gop side. And the other is her suggesting that donald trump is actually a recruiting tool for isis. Were not exactly sure where she got that, but that is going to be an instant, that question that were going to fact check. How can she prove that . Were going to be doing a lot of fact checking. Peter binert is one of our editors, a editor of the atlantic, the notion that isis is using Donald Trumps statements about using muslims from banning to the United States. Have you seen evidence that isis is doing that . No, i havent. The truth is, and i think. Is a hard thing for republicans and democrats to acknowledge, the thing isis used the most are the air strikes and drone attacks killing people in the middle east. That is the biggest recruitment tool for them as reprehensible as it is. Whats your big take away . As the conservative, obviously, i was listening through different ears. All i heard he primarily was varying defenses of those current status quo lead from behind strategy. Hillary talked a lot about coalitions. Coalitions seemed to be her answer for every ill. Whether it was guns or isis. She talked about russia probably respecting a no fly zone. Im not sure a lot of people trust her instincts when it comes to russia. Bernie sanders hed somehow magically make muslim nations who have been unwilling to help us somehow do this and when pressed on it, he couldnt really explain why. And i think Martin Omalley, in tone, in t he nor tried to distinguish himself, but didnt really on substance. So i think if you are a republican looking at a general election and you know that terrorism is top of mind to most voters, i think youre thinking that the republicans are more where the nation is, where voters are than these three Democratic Candidates. Like i said, isis has lost a substantial amount of territory since early this year. The strategy is actually work on the ground. It doesnt mean isis cant plot attacks in the west, theyre on the ground in iraq and syria. Isis is losing territory. The majority of americans, though, dont think that and thats reflected realities dont matter. Were only beginning. Theres a lot to assess. Up next, an eye popping moment. Hillary clinton vanishes and slips back on stage. Sorry. When heartburn hits fight back fast tums smoothies starts dissolving the instant it touches your tongue and neutralizes stomach acid at the source tum, tum, tum, tum smoothies only from tums withof my moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. Ordinary objects often seemed. Intimidating. Doing something simple. Meant enduring a lot of pain. If ra is changing your view of everyday things orencia may help. Orencia works differently by targeting a source of ra early in the inflammation process. For many, orencia provides longterm relief of ra symptoms. Its helped new ra patients and those not helped enough by other treatments. Do not take orencia with another biologic medicine for ra due to an increased risk of serious infection. 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Tonights democratic debate started with some fighting terrorism, but also included Economic Issues, taxes, student debt, health care among others. Were back with our political corespondent, commentators and our experts. You support Hillary Clinton, you worked with her super pac trying to get her elected. What was your reaction . Obviously, the candidate has no power over when the Network Turns the candidates on. It seems to me that she responded with some humor, some grace. Dirty politics. You were Hillary Clintons Campaign Manager way back in 2008, right . Yes. What was your reaction . To that moment . Yeah. I thought it was rude that they started without her. Shes the frontrunner for the party right now. She could have gone into to a panel, but to start the debate without her, i thought, was just a little not only odd, but rude. Do you want to weigh in . Its never been easy for me to have sympathy for Hillary Clinton. I certainly did in that moment. I thought it was disgraceful that they went on without her and forced this moment where she has to come on and it seemed humiliating and unfair. I thought the way she handled it was very, very good. Thats my point. She needed sympathize in that moment. The it was a win for her. Straight to the substance now, guys. An important issue in this debate. Here is a clip of what we just heard. Guns in and of themselves, in my opinion, will not make america safer. I think that if it is creating much deeper, closer relations and, yes, coalitions within our own country. The first line of defense against radicalization is in the muslimamerican community. People who we should be welcoming and working with. I worry greatly that the rhetoric coming from the republicans, particularly donald trump, is send ago message to muslims here in the United States and literally around the world that there is a clash of civilizations, that there is some kind of western plot or even with regard against islam which then i believe fans the flames of radicalization. This san important theme and among other things, all three of these president ial candidates using an opportunity to go after donald trump. No doubt. This was, of course, the first debate since the shooting in san bernardino. We talked about gun laws and a background check. Now it means so much more in the wake of this. It was one of those general election moments. There are a few small differences between these Democratic Candidates and Bernie Sanders, of course, has been more supportive of gun policy because hes from a hunting state, vermont. But the differences are minor compared with the differences of republicans. She took this moment, this opportunity to bring in donald trump. Once again, and saying that if he is not helping here, hes hurting us with the ban of muslims and other things here. But i think that i think that overall, if there are any independent voters out there who were watching the week before christmas, she may look compelling to them. She may look like someone who sounds more reasonable in the wake of all this. But, of course, this is all going to be litigated again in the general election. I suspect there are a lot of people watching in iowa and New Hampshire and south carolina, some of the other states, as well. Everyone stabbed by. Coming up, we have a reality check on a huge controversy between the sanders and clinton between the sanders and Clinton Campaigns that resulted in a apology on the debate stage tonight. Stay tuned. I wanna see, i wanna see. Longing. Serendipity. What are the. Chances. And good tidings to all. Hang onto your antlers. 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This was a huge issue going into the debate, but it was quickly resolved when Bernie Sanders publicly apologized to Hillary Clinton and to his own supporters. David axelrod, how unusual is an apology like that given the feud that had developed . Basically, these two campaigns were accusing each other of who knows what. Well, i think the apology was smart. The fact is, Bernie Sanders folks did do something wrong. It wasnt consistent with the nature of his campaign and he needed to do something defin it right at the top to state that and i think apologizing to his supporters, as well, was smart. But i also think Hillary Clinton was smart to handle it the way she did. I think her campaign got a little overheated yesterday in the exchanges and she has nothing to gain from an ongoing dispute with