Maddow Accuses Clinton Of 'Casting Aspersions' On Bernie Sanders' Character

Clinton insisted she and Sanders "engage on substantive differences."

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow confronted Democratic presidential candidate Hilary Clinton on her program Thursday, asking about her campaign's recent attacks against Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who happens to be rising in the polls in early voting states Iowa and New Hampshire.

"Your campaign is essentially fighting with him now in a way that is casting aspersions on his character, calling him dishonest,” Maddow said to Clinton.

Earlier this week, Clinton attacked Sanders for a vote he made in 2005 on a bill backed by the NRA that would provide legal immunity to gun manufacturers if their weapons were used to commit a crime.

Chelsea Clinton also hammered the candidate on Tuesday over health care, saying he would "dismantle Obamacare, dismantle the [Children's Health Insurance Program], dismantle Medicare and dismantle private insurance."

Maddow called out Hillary Clinton on her campaign's recent attacks.

“The character of the campaign, the tone of the campaign, the way you are trying to persuade those undecided voters seems to have changed a little bit in the last week or so. Just this afternoon, your campaign, in my estimation, set its hair on fire a little bit,” Maddow told the candidate, pointing to a press phone call that happened earlier that day in which Clinton's campaign asserted that Sanders attacked her in his latest ad.

Watch the Bernie Sanders' advertisement "Two Visions," mentioned by Clinton's campaign, here:

The ad, as Maddow pointed out on her program, did not explicitly name Hillary Clinton.

When pushed by Maddow, Clinton reiterated that there are genuine policy differences between her and Sanders that need to be debated, but she insisted that the attacks will not be personal.

“On anything personal -- we don’t do that in our side of the debate,” Clinton added. “We engage on substantive differences.”

Watch "The Rachel Maddow" clip above.

Also on HuffPost:

Scenes From Democratic Debate No. 2

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