Vocabulary From the Ninth Democratic Debate, April 14, 2016

The Ninth Democratic Debate took place on April 14th, 2016 in Brooklyn, NY. The two candidates were determined to get their points across in this debate, whether they were criticizing each other or talking about policy, and they often ignored the moderators' signals that their time was up. The debate featured loud crowd noise, an extended discussion about the situation in Israel, a segment on climate change and heated exchanges on gun control and the banking industry. Here are twenty vocabulary words from the ninth Democratic Debate.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. decimate
    kill in large numbers
    So what is not to say -- to say that right now in Gaza, right now in Gaza unemployment is somewhere around 40%... that area continues, it hasn't been built, decimated, houses decimated health care decimated, schools decimated. I believe the United States and the rest of the world have got to work together to help the Palestinian people. That does not make me anti-Israel. That paves the way, I think ...to an approach that works in the Middle East
    - Senator Bernie Sanders
    "Decimate " as it is used here means destroy or leave in ruins.
  2. disproportionate
    out of proper balance
    I don't think that anybody would suggest that Israel invites and welcomes missiles flying into their country. That is not the issue.
    And, you evaded the answer. You evaded the question. The question is not does Israel have a right to respond, nor does Israel have a right to go after terrorists and destroy terrorism. That's not the debate. Was their response disproportionate?
    - Sen. Sanders
    Senator Sanders had previously said that the israeli response to an attack had been "disproportionate." The moderator asked him about it and proceeded to ask Secretary Clinton for a response. Senator Sanders felt that Secretary Clinton had avoided the issue in her response.
  3. retrofit
    substitute new or modernized parts for older ones
    We can put probably millions of people to work retrofitting and weatherizing buildings all over this country.
    -Sen. Sanders
  4. fraudulent
    intended to deceive
    A few days ago Goldman Sachs formally reached a settlement with the United States government for $5 billion dollars. What Goldman Sachs acknowledged was, essentially, that they were selling fraudulent packages of subprime mortgage loans.
    - Sen. Sanders
  5. surrogate
    a person appointed to represent or act on behalf of others
    "Washington Post" headline says "Clinton Campaign says Sanders is Unqualified" and that's what the surrogates were saying.
    -Sen. Sanders
    Senator Sanders is here accusing people from Secretary Clinton's campaign or her supporters, not Clinton herself, of calling him unqualified to be President.
  6. accountable
    responsible for one's actions
    But, there's another element to this. I believe strongly that executives of any of these organizations should be financially penalized if there is a settlement. They should have to pay up through compensation or bonuses because we have to go after not just the big giant institution, we have got to go after the people who are making the decisions in the institution ... And hold them accountable as well.
    - Secretary Hillary Clinton
  7. equivocate
    be deliberately ambiguous or unclear
    I think we have got to be clear, not equivocate, $15 in minimum wage in 50 states in this country as soon as possible.
    - Sen. Sanders
  8. authoritarian
    characteristic of an absolute ruler or absolute rule
    I live 50 miles away from Canada, you know? It's not some kind of communist authoritarian country. They're doing OK. They got a health care system that guarantees health care to all people. We can do the same.
    - Sen. Sanders
  9. reiterate
    say, state, or perform again
    Let me just reiterate -- just reiterate so there is no confusion, decades ago, before it was popular, in a rural state with no gun control, Bernie Sanders said, let's ban assault weapons, not see them distributed in the United States of America.
    - Sen. Sanders
  10. implacable
    incapable of being appeased or pacified
    Well, I'm a little bewildered about how to respond when you have an agreement which gives you the framework to actually take the action that would have only come about because under the Obama administration in the face of implacable hostility from the Republicans in Congress, President Obama moved forward on gas mileage, he moved forward on the clean power plant. He has moved forward on so many of the fronts that he could given the executive actions that he was able to take.
    - Sec. Clinton
    "Implacable" means unable to be satisfied, relentless, unstoppable.
  11. abdication
    the act of giving up power
    Well, I believe that the law that Senator Sanders voted for that I voted against, giving this special protection to gun manufacturers and to dealers, is an absolute abdication of responsibility on the part of those who voted for it. This is a -- this is a unique gift given to only one industry in the world by the United States Congress, as Senator Murphy from Connecticut said, we have tougher standards holding toy gun manufacturers and sellers to account than we do for real guns.
    - Sec. Clinton
    Secretary Clinton is using "abdication" in the general sense of abandon in this quote, accusing legislators of not doing their jobs when they voted for this particular bill.
  12. untoward
    contrary to your interests or welfare
    I'm not saying that Senator Sanders did something untoward when he voted to deregulate swaps and derivatives... but the fact is he did.
    - Sec. Clinton
  13. implemented
    forced or compelled or put in force
    There is still something called Congress. Now, I happen to support Democrats and I want to get Democrats to take back the majority in the United States Senate... -- so a lot of -- a lot of what we're talking about can actually be implemented... when I am president.
    - Sec. Clinton
  14. demise
    the time when something ends
    Well, let me say I think we did a great deal to help the Libyan people after Qadafi's demise. And here's what we did.
    We helped them hold two successful elections, something that is not easy, which they did very well because they had a pent up desire to try to chart their own future after 42 years of dictatorship.
    I was very proud of that.
    - Sec. Clinton
    President Obama recently said that the role his administration played in the deteriorating situation in Libya is a major regret of his presidency. Here, Secretary Clinton, who was part of the Obama administration at that time, outlines some progress that was made in Libya.
  15. diligence
    persevering determination to perform a task
    And what we did was to try to provide support for our European and Arab allies and partners. The decision was the president's. Did I do the due diligence? Did I talk to everybody I could talk to? Did I visit every capital and then report back to the president? Yes, I did. That's what a secretary of state does.
    - Sec. Clinton
  16. concert
    contrive (a plan) by mutual agreement
    I negotiated the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in November of 2012. I did it in concert with... President Abbas of the Palestinian authority based in Ramallah, I did it with the then Muslim Brotherhood President, Morsi, based in Cairo, working closely with Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Israeli cabinet.
    - Sec. Clinton
  17. autonomy
    political independence
    It also does not mean that we should not continue to do everything we can to try to reach a two-state solution, which would give the Palestinians the rights... and the autonomy that they deserve.
    -Sec. Clinton
  18. obliterate
    do away with completely, without leaving a trace
    And having won seven out of the last eight caucuses and primaries... doing better against Donald Trump and the other Republicans in poll after poll than Secretary Clinton is, yeah, I believe that we're going to win this nomination, and I believe we're going to obliterate Donald Trump or whoever the Republican candidate is.
    -Sen. Sanders
  19. obstruction
    the physical condition of blocking or filling a passage
    And, yes, we did try without success because of the Libyans' obstruction to our efforts, but we did try and we will continue to try to help the Libyan people.
    - Sec. Clinton
    "Obstruction" is used here metaphorically. Secretary Clinton is saying that the Libyans blocked efforts by the United States to help them.
  20. forging
    shaping metal by heating and hammering
    And I think we ought to be putting our attention on forging a consensus to make the changes that will divert more people from the criminal justice system to start.
    - Sec. Clinton
    "Forging" is used here metaphorically to mean create or produce.
Created on Fri Apr 15 00:06:55 EDT 2016 (updated Fri Apr 15 07:40:50 EDT 2016)

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