Hillary Clinton: Under Bernie Sanders' Definition, 'Obama's Not Progressive'

"Vice President Biden is not progressive because he supported Keystone."
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Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took aim at Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) during Thursday's Democratic debate by questioning whether any Democrats could meet his definition of a progressive.

Asked to respond to Sanders' argument that she isn't progressive enough to be the Democratic nominee, Clinton said, "I've heard Senator Sanders' comments, and it's really caused me to wonder, who is left in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party?"

"Under his definition, President Obama's not progressive because he took donations from Wall Street, Vice President Biden is not progressive because he supported Keystone."

The late Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.), a legendary progressive, was perhaps Clinton’s trump card in the litany of Democratic politicians she named.

JEWEL SAMAD via Getty Images

Clinton said that Wellstone would not fit in Sanders’ definition of progressive, because the senator, who died in a tragic plane crash in 2002, voted for the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996, a law that prohibited the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages for any purpose.

She also pointed out, if "we're going to get into labels," then Sanders himself perhaps doesn't meet the definition. "I don't think it was particularly progressive to vote against the Brady bill five times," she said, referring to the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, a landmark gun control bill enacted in 1993 that Sanders repeatedly opposed.

Read the latest updates on the GOP debate below:

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