Democratic lovefest in Rock Hill

Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton did not have to answer any questions here about the main issue dogging her campaign during an MSNBC presidential forum Friday night.

Clinton and her two underdog challengers – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley – took turns in interviews with Rachel Maddow at Winthrop University.

While the liberal political anchor pushed candidates to answer some questions when their responses missed the mark, Maddow did not ask Clinton about the ongoing federal investigation into her use of a private email server while secretary of state.

Questions about Clinton’s leadership of the State Department when terrorists attacked the U.S. consulate in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012, top the Republican presidential campaign agenda.

And Sanders, himself, has said the federal probe should continue.

Republicans have accused Clinton of lying to the public about the cause of the Benghazi attacks.

Testifying in late October before a U.S. House committee led by U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-Spartanburg, Clinton was asked about an email that she sent her daughter Chelsea Clinton the night of the attacks, saying an Al-Qaeda-affiliated group was responsible for the assault.

That story contradicts the public narrative that Clinton and other State Department officials gave after the attacks, saying the assault was a protest of an “inflammatory” video posted online.

But the topic did not come up in Friday night’s forum and was not a concern to some of those who waited in a long line to see the event.

“This stuff is just ‘gotcha’ stuff on Hillary,” said Tom Chumley of Huntersville, N.C.

“You tell your family things you don’t tell the public,” said Steve Border of Charlotte. “I don’t think she’s hiding anything. I think she’s a strong woman who can very well take care of herself.”

During the Winthrop forum, Clinton did weigh in on a possible death penalty for Dylann Roof, who is charged with nine counts of murder in the racially motivated shooting at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church in June.

Saying some crimes are “heinous” enough to deserve the death penalty, Clinton said of the Roof case, “That’s the kind of case that would cause people to have a legitimate discussion about whether or not it’s appropriate.”

Asked about the incident at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, when a sheriff’s deputy forcibly removed a student from her desk, tossing her across the floor, Clinton said: “What happened in the school ... was just appalling to me. Adults should be trained to use nonviolent, non-confrontational measures in dealing with school discipline problems whatever they may be.”

Clinton has an enormous lead in February’s S.C. presidential primary, polling at 71 percent support among likely Democratic voters, according to a Winthrop Poll released Wednesday. Sanders trails with 15 percent and O’Malley with 2 percent.

O’Malley took time on one question to talk about South Carolina.

Asked whether Sanders’ campaign has been about “debating the pros and cons of socialism,” O’Malley pivoted and talked about issues that have rocked the Palmetto State this year and the need for bi-partisanship.

The former Maryland governor talked about lining up at the State House with the public to view the body of slain state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, one of nine African Americans slain at Emanuel.

O’Malley said of the visit, which he did not announce and which S.C. Democratic lawmakers cite as a sign of his character, “Nobody was asking themselves, ‘Are you a Democrat, or are you a Republican?’ When people got wiped out by floods in lower Richland, nobody went to help a neighbor and said, ‘Before I help you with your flooded-out house, you need to tell me: Are you a Democrat or a Republican?’

“Our country needs new leadership in order to move out of these divided times,” said the former mayor of Baltimore.

O’Malley also hit Sanders and Clinton, saying dissatisfaction with the economy means “it does not hold that a return to the old ideologies of the past or debating the pros and cons of socialism is going to solve our problems. Nor will declaring all Republicans as our enemies help us bring people together.”

Maddow pressed the candidates to explain why Democrats have struggled to win and hold onto elected offices in South Carolina and other Southern states – a topic of debate in the national Democratic Party, which saw its candidates lose by greater margins in the 2014 mid-term elections.

Sanders said the Democratic Party must be a 50-state party and “cannot give up” on Southern states.

Asked how he plans to win African-American votes when only 8 percent of S.C. black Democrats support him, based on Wednesday’s poll, Sanders said he has the “economic and social justice agenda now that, once we get the word out, will in fact resonate with the African-American community. We’re talking about raising the minimum wage to 15 bucks an hour. And what that means, over half of the black workers in this country earn less.

“We’re talking about taking on the governor of South Carolina, who is denying Medicaid to 200,000 people and passing a ... single-payer system. That’s important to African-Americans.

Sanders also hit Clinton on her support for campaign finance reform while a super PAC works to elect her.

“Now, I have many disagreements with Hillary Clinton. And one of them is that I don’t think it’s good enough just to talk the talk on campaign finance reform. You’ve got to walk the walk,” he said.

“I am the only Democratic candidate who does not have a super PAC. I am not asking millionaires and billionaires for large campaign contributions. We are doing it the old-fashioned way: 750,000 Americans, average contribution 30 bucks, have contributed to my campaign,” he said.

Before the forum, Lisa and Al Violanti of Fort Mill said Sanders needs to explain to voters what it means that he is a “democratic socialist,” something Sanders plans to do in a speech that has been pushed back until after the Democrats’ second debate, Nov. 14 in Des Moines, Iowa.

However, the couple did not take issue with Sanders’ plans to expand government programs at a time when debates over the federal debt and deficit dominate in Congress.

“It’s the right thing to do, so we have to find a way,” Lisa Violanti said.

Winthrop political science student Corrina Brown had a different take. Sanders’ ideas energize young voters – free college, for example. But Sanders leaves questions unanswered, Brown added.

“There’s always in the back of your mind, ‘How do you do that, exactly?’ “

This story was originally published November 6, 2015 at 11:22 PM with the headline "Democratic lovefest in Rock Hill."