New York Primary Becomes Brooklyn Brawl

Hey, I'm tawking to you! You tawking to me? Whaddya? Ya think? Fuggedabout it! 

As the Democratic primary stretched into its fourth month of intense campaigning, both the Sanders camp and the Clinton camp betrayed signs of mounting frustration, zinging each other over fossil fuel contributions, connections to the National Rifle Association, and, most heatedly, a date for a Brooklyn debate.  

Hillary Clinton made three stops in Brooklyn Sunday morning, at churches in East New York, Fort Greene, and Bedford-Stuyvesant, picking up the endorsement of Nicole Bell, fiancée of Sean Bell, who was slain by NYPD officers in 2006.

"Folks can do all the talking they want, but at the end of the day, show me what you have done and what you will do, show me what kinds of results you can get for people," Clinton said at Brown Memorial Baptist Church, jabbing at Sanders for "voting with the National Rifle Association" by opposing the Brady bill and opposing assigning liability to gun violence for guns makers and sellers. 

The Clinton campaign backed that up by releasing a video that lined up a Sanders comment on the liability bill with similar comments by former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, a much-reviled figure among Democrats.

Meantime, Sanders aides kept up the attacks on Clinton, suggesting that $308,000 of oil and coal industry-related contributions had resulted in pro-energy industry votes and actions while Clinton was Senator. A Sanders campaign series of statements on the issue followed the release of a video by a Greenpeace activist at an event at SUNY Purchase on Thursday, where Clinton wagged a finger at the protester after being asked about the contributions, saying "I am so sick of the Sanders campaign lying about me."

The Sanders campaign denied a connection with the activist and Sanders said Clinton owed him an apology, but his campaign jumped on the issue nevertheless. Several news organizations, including the New York Times, NPR, and the Washington Post disputed the substance of the Sanders energy claims, the Post giving them "three Pinocchios."

But the central fight Sunday night seemed to be about debate dates. Both candidates have agreed in principle to a debate, but can't find a mutually agreeable date. In repeated releases, the Sanders campaign accused Clinton of ducking debates by trying to schedule one on the night of the NCAA men's basketball finals.

"We are not going to compete with a major sporting event" said Sanders spokesman Karthik Ganapathy in a telephone interview, sounding exasperated. He added that an alternate night offered by Clinton, April 14, the Thursday before the primary, was unacceptable because "we pulled a permit for a major rally that night and they know it."

The Sanders campaign offered four different dates, but Clinton campaign press secretary Bryan Fallon brushed that off in a tweet: "We are at that point where if we agreed to a debate in Williamsburg, they'd say Bushwick. If we said Gowanus, they'd demand Park Slope."

Yeah, Brooklyn.