Hillary Clinton attacks Bernie Sanders’ Democratic bona fides as primary race tightens ahead of Nevada caucuses

Fighting for a victory just days before Nevada’s caucuses, Hillary Clinton took one of her toughest shots at rival Bernie Sanders, questioning the long-time independent’s devotion to the Democratic Party he’s running to lead.

Clinton accused Sanders of attacking the two most recent Democratic presidents – President Barack Obama and her husband, former President Bill Clinton – both of whom remain popular political figures among Democratic voters.

“I just don’t know where all this comes from,” she said at a televised forum hosted by MSNBC on Thursday night. “Maybe it’s that Senator Sanders wasn’t really a Democrat until he decided to run for office.”

Clinton is hoping to use a win in Nevada on Saturday as a springboard into the primary race in South Carolina on February 27 and a slate of Southern primaries on Super Tuesday on March 1, where she’s favoured because of her strength among African-Americans. Minority voters play a far bigger role than in the recent contests in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Sanders has kept the race closer than expected, and a win in Nevada after his strong win in New Hampshire would indicate that the contest is far from over.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday afternoon, Sanders described some of President Bill Clinton’s biggest achievements, the North America Free Trade Agreement and welfare overhaul, as “disastrous”. He later said his critique was prompted by a question from a reporter and that a member of Congress can disagree with a president from his own party.

Both candidates vowed to make reforming the country’s immigration system a top priority of their administrations, should either win the White House. Clinton said she’d take up the issue in the first 100 days of her presidency.