Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders worked a shoutout to the infamous billionaire brothers quite a few times in their New Hampshire debate. And why shouldn’t they? The Koch brothers are a recognizable name, and they capture the breadth of outside spending and special interests Democrats are up against. But the number of times they came up is a first, even for Democrats.
Sanders asked early in the debate, “Do you think there’s a reason why not one Republican has the guts to recognize that climate change is real, and that we need to transform our energy system? Do you think it has anything to do with the Koch brothers and ExxonMobil pouring huge amounts of money into the political system?”
Clinton brought them up as well to slam the idea of privatizing health care for veterans: “This is another part of the Koch brothers agenda. They’ve actually formed an organization to try to begin to convince Americans we should no longer have guaranteed health care, specialized care for our veterans.”
But Sanders deserves the most credit for managing not one but three Koch mentions in a single response. “Koch brothers among others, who have a group called Concerned Veterans of America, funded by the Koch brothers. The Koch brothers, by the way, want to destroy Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, every governmental program passed since the 1930s.”