Clinton, Sanders face off in West Virginia

Agencies
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks with young parents during a roundtable discussion at the Family Care Center in Lexington, Ky., on Tuesday. (AP)

CHARLESTON: The US states of Nebraska and West Virginia held primary votes on Tuesday, with Bernie Sanders battling to slow Hillary Clinton’s march to the Democratic nomination.
Sanders has taunted Clinton in recent days by saying she “can’t close the deal” with him, her only rival since Feb. 1. Clinton has said she will ignore Trump’s personal insults and instead criticize his policy pronouncements.
Clinton apologized in West Virginia last week after being confronted by angry voters for her remark in March that she would “put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business” with her plans to increase renewable energy sources.
She said her comment had been taken out of context and that she wanted to help retrain people who worked in the industry, one of the state’s biggest employers.
Sanders, a US senator from Vermont, has reminded his supporters at crowded rallies that most polls show him beating Trump by a larger margin than does Clinton.
Sanders, who has been embraced in particular by younger, more left-leaning Democratic voters, has vowed to take his campaign to the party’s nominating convention in Philadelphia at the end of July, and wants a say in shaping the party’s platform.