Diplomacy were getting four back. Theyre getting seven. And British Parliament debates whether to keep donald trump out of the u. K. His policy to close borders is bonkers. Donald trump is free to be a fool but hes not free to be a dangerous fool in britain. When all in starts right now. Good evening from new york. Im chris hayes. With just two weeks to go until the iowa caucus, last night Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders faced off in the most anticipated and heated democratic debate of this election. With the racial politics of the Democratic Party serving as the backdrop. Cosponsored on the eve of Martin Luther king day by the Congressional Black Caucus institute in South Carolina, the first primary state with a sizable africanamerican population, and just one block away from the church where a white supremacist murdered nine black parishioners just months ago. In this context, with Hillary Clinton in a real race with sanders in the two early primary states, last nights fights were largely about how these candidates would protect and build on the legacy of the first black president. Both candidates shared the stage today. The ceremony in South Carolina marking the first Martin Luther king day without the Confederate Flag flying above that state house. But last night the interactions between the two were far more contentious, trading blows on everything from health care to wall street regulation. After a week of waging war with sanders on the details or, according to her, the lack thereof, around his Single Payer Health care plan, clinton sought to portray herself as the protector of the Historic Health care reform achieved under president obama. Heres what i believe. The Democratic Party in the United States worked since harry truman to get the Affordable Care act passed. We finally have a path to universal health care. Weve accomplished so much already. I do not want to see the republicans repeal it. And i dont want to see us start over again with a contentious debate. I want us to defend and build on the Affordable Care act and improve it. Clinton spent much of the night trying to latch herself to the president s legacy and the coalition of voters that elected him twice. Arguing that she is running to consolidate his victories and will continue to incrementally improve upon them. Sanders, while having nothing but kind words for the president , is offering up a vision of more dramatic change. The vision from fdr and harry truman was health care for all people as a right and a costeffective way. Were not going to tear up the Affordable Care act. I helped write it. But we are going to move on top of that to a medicare for all system. Andrea while sanders is calling for big changes, clinton appears to have recognized her path forward is to embrace the president and use him essentially as a kind of wedge between her and senator sanders. Last night she rather deftly turned the critique to her ties with the financial industry which are substantial into a defense of the president. Where we disagree is the comments that senator sanders has made that dont just affect me, i can take that, but hes criticized president obama for taking donations from wall street. And president obama has led our country out of the great recession. Senator sanders called him weak, disappointing. He even, in 2011, publicly sought someone to run in a primary against president obama. Now Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are polling within 20 points nationally among white voters. In the two predominantly white states early in the primaries, the senator from vermont where he is spending his time is neck and neck with clinton in a statistical tie with her in iowa and leading in new hampshire. Where the former secretary of state continues to hold a massive lead, as in over 40 points, over the senator from vermont, is with nonwhite voters. And you simply cannot lose nonwhite voters and win the democratic primary. Something both campaigns are clearly cognizant of. Just over a week ago the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus endorsed secretary clinton, not you. He said that choosing her over you was not a hard decision. In fact, our polling shows shes beating you more than 21 among minority voters. How can you be the nominee if you dont have that support . To answer your question, when the Africanamerican Community becomes familiar with my congressional record and with our agenda and with our views on the economy and criminal justice, just as the general population has become more supportive, so will the Africanamerican Community, so will the latino community. We have the momentum. Were on a path toward victory. Joining me now, perry bacon, nbc news senior political reporter, and ezra klein, msnbc policy analyst, editor in chief at vox. Ezra, let me start with you. I thought last night was fascinating because it ultimately was a kind of interleft debate about the legacy of the Obama Presidency. Ultimately what does the Obama Presidency amount to . Yeah. And its been fascinating to watch what i think a lot of people expected would happen here is Bernie Sanders would come into the race if he gained traction, which obviously he has. He would push clinton to the left. And he hasnt actually done that. Shes not swung very far left on any particular issues. What hes done is pushed her to be much more defensive of obama. Her approach to blunting sanders momentum is to run as a defender of obamas record. But one thing that i do think is worth saying is how this actually falls down on policy is a really different issue. Take obamacare, which was central to their argument last night. Hillary clinton does not in fact have a plan for going from obamacare to universal health care. Shes not put forward a path that would actually build in really serious ways on obamacare. So the argument she was making is not yet backed by her policy. And Bernie Sanders, by the way, does not actually have a single payer plan. He does not have a political way of getting there and nor does he have a policy that is anywhere near detailed enough to say in any respect what he would do with single payer. On the other hand, when you look at bank regulation, both of them are much more detailed. Hillary clinton has a very detailed plan to go significantly further than dodd frank currently does and sanders has a plan to break up the big banks. So i think the sort of lines theyre using where sanders is the more dramatic change candidate and clinton is running as the defender of obamas record, they actually obscure the policy differences, which in some cases go have both of them going much further than obama and in some cases have both of them making a much more explicit argument around obamas achievements. Perry, this sort of symbolic argument about obamas achievements to me ends up being youve got a situation thats never happened before in american politics, right . People running to succeed the first black president. In this case its the two people who are leading this pack are both white candidates. The Democratic Party, the Obama Coalition as a sort of demographic fact is this incredible sort of Multiracial Coalition this president was able to stitch together, and its fascinating to watch these two candidates figure out how to reconstitute that essentially and the big electoral question is can it be reconstituted in Barack Obamas absence . In this primary what youve seen is Bernie Sanders actually probably has three parts of that coalition. Hes doing better among young voters who obama did well with in 08. Hes doing better among independentminded democrats. And hes doing better among those who call themselves liberal. Those are three blocs obama won in 08 and hillary did not win in 08. Shes got the more conservative democrats. The key difference here is, black voters are really the swing voters in this primary because if clinton maintains that 70 , 80 you showed in that poll among black voters, shes going to win the primary. Its very hard for sanders to win states like South Carolina, states like mississippi, states like alabama if hes doing so poorly among africanamericans. So thats what she was doing last night, was if you assume the coalitions are going to stay the same, the one coalition she really needs that obama had is black voters, and thats why she was campaigning with eric holder over the weekend. Ezra, you wrote i thought a really perceptive piece about what kind of Hillary Clintons strengths are in terms of who she is when she has worked in government. You talked about people that worked with her. Ive heard the same people that worked with her, just this tremendous command and mastery, really like willing to get in the weeds, loving to get in the weeds, remarkably well prepared. And you talked about the challenge of presenting that side of herself in the confines of Something Like a debate. And i thought this bit from a focus group that Chris Kofinis ran last night was pretty interesting. Undecided voters leaning hillary who ended up meaning more affection for Bernie Sanders after the debate. Take a listen. Was there something in particular that kind of moved you, something that he said that or is it just he just seemed really educated on all the topics. He didnt seem like he was lacking at all. And he doesnt take digs at anybody. And that just really felt a little bit like hillary was trying to take digs. And she just seems to be, well, obama did all this great job and kind of riding on his coattail. Ezra, this struck me as part of the problem, that her high point in this campaign was an 11hour hearing in front of benghazi, right . Its hard to create those sorts of opportunities, right . To show that like i saying i have 11 hours worth of command of details is a tough thing to sell in any kind of format. I think, though, that and i appreciate the kind words. I think that there is something more to what Hillary Clinton is able to do behind closed doors and not in the publics view thats important here. Behind closed doors clinton is very good at working for the public and shes very good at working with folks she doesnt agree with, very good at building alliances that arent expected. And when you talk to people, theyre very honest. It isnt just that shes incredibly prepared. She is that. But its her ability to marry the tactical and the strategic, the ability to see the details of policy with what would be the way forward, with what is the opportunity for common ground. And that requires a sense of you know, for lack of a better term, real talk. An ability to kind of say look, heres where we really are, heres what i really think. And thats the thing you dont get the sense from her out in public. I think youre seeing it a little more actually in the debate than you were certainly the week before the debate. But clinton doesnt she is very afraid to tell voters things they dont want to hear. And something i think that sanders is able to do and that brings people over to him is he stakes out positions that because those positions actually have detractors, they also have people who really appreciate them. Right. Clinton seems so paralyzed by her knowledge of how many ways a straightforward position can get attacked that she seems very concerned when taking them. And then shell levy those same kinds of very small often technocratic and unfair attacks on sanders, which again, to that womans perspective you that just played, makes her look kind of tactical. They come off as digs. They dont come off as sort of an appealing way to campaign. Perry, youre nodding your head in agreement at that. I am. I think one of the strike things is sanders tends to campaign in terms of what i would call values versus hillarys often talking about policies. Like you know, single payer is not going to happen. And i think Bernie Sanders knows that. My guess is his supporters know it too. But hes talking in terms of these broad values, and i think thats appealing to people. Its a great move for him last night i think when Andrea Mitchell brought up the bill clinton sex scandals and sanders kind of dismissed the question, said the medias focused on this. I think the people do sort of resonate with certain things about the way sanders is a different kind of politician. You can imagine if hillary heard a vulnerability about somebody she would take it on. Sanders took this moment that could have helped him and said i dont want to run for president like that. Although to your point, hes quite a deft politician as the world is learning, he also got in there i think bill clintons behavior was deplorable, i dont want to talk about it, which is as political as anybody could do. Perry bacon, ezra klein, thank you for joining me. Thank you. Thank you. Still to come, donald trump focuses his attacks on ted cruz but will cruz fall as easily as trumps previous targets . Plus, four americans make their way home after their release from iranian prison. Ill talk with someone who knows firsthand how that feels. And later, as Bernie Sanders poll numbers continue to rise, do democrats actually believe hes electable . Those stories and more, ahead. Im here at my house, on thanksgiving day and i have a massive heart attack right in my driveway. The doctor put me on a bayer aspirin regimen. Be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. Go talk to your doctor. Youre not indestructible anymore. Beth, i hear you calling. S but i cant come home right now. Me and the boys are playing. All nig t text beth, what can i do. [siri ] message. Pick up milk. Oh, right. Milk. Introducing the newly redesigned passat. From volkswagen. You cant breathed. Through your nose. Suddenly, youre a mouthbreather. Well, just put on a breathe right strip which instantly opens your nose up to 38 more than Cold Medicine alone. Shut your mouth and say goodnight mouthbreathers. Breathe right in iowa which holds its caucuses just two weeks from today, donald trump and ted cruz are separated by just a single point in the polls. With both men desperate to win the state, their once cordial relationship has gotten extraordinarily vicious. Hes a nasty guy. Nobody likes him. Nobody in congress likes him. Nobody likes him anywhere once they get to know him. Hes a very hes got an edge thats not good. You cant make deals with people like that and its not a good thing. Its not a good thing for the country. Very nasty guy. Trump has spent the past few days raising questions about whether the canadianborn cruz is eligible for the presidency, painting cruz as a hypocrite beholden to wealthy interests, and hammering cruz for questioning new york values. At one point on an Early Morning twitter jag tweeting out a picture of 9 11 First Responders and the wreckage of the World Trade Center asking, is this the new york that ted cruz is talking about and demeaning . Trumps attacks are generating some blowback from conservatives. At a Tea Party Convention saturday in South Carolina trump was booed for bringing up cruz undisclosed campaign loans from Goldman Sachs and citibank. Two prominent rightwing talk radio personalities, marc levin and rush limbaugh, are suggesting trump should change course. Levin telling trump, either cut the crap or you will lose lots and lots of conservatives. Cruz has long tried to play nice with trump in an apparent attempt to eventually win over trumps voters. But the dam is largely broken. After trump defended his political evolution by citing Ronald Reagan this morning on fox news, cruz suggested the comparison was laughable. Ronald reagan did not spend the first 60 years of his life supporting democratic politicians, advocating for Big Government politics, supporting things like the t. A. R. P. Big bank bailout, supporting things like expanding obamacare to turn it into socialized medicine. Thats not what Ronald Reagan did. Slight fact check. Reagan was actually a democrat until he was 51 years old. Anyway, later in the day cruz spent an entire radio interview attacking trump, prompting this conclusion from the host. Youve basically youve said it without saying it. Are you essentially saying trump is a fraud and a hypocrite . Well, those are your words, jeff. I like donald trump. I respect him. I will point out where we have policy differences. Oh, sure you do, ted. Of course. Of course. Coming up, trump went to Liberty University today to talk to evangelicals and accidentally revealed he is not exactly a biblical scholar. Thats next. Get in the way . 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