During a break at an MSNBC town hall taping, microphones caught Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton chatting with host Chris Matthews about Gov. Chris Christie's support for GOP frontrunner Donald Trump. "Did he have a debt?" Clinton asked. (The Washington Post) 
 
 CHARLOTTE — It isn't often that Hillary Clinton lets her guard down about what she really thinks about the Republican presidential race. 
 
 But during a commercial break while taping an MSNBC town hall on Monday, Clinton and host Chris Matthews chatted it up about the state of the race. 
 
 Clinton scolded the media for its constant coverage of the GOP front-runner Donald Trump, speculated about New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's political future and his motivations for endorsing Donald Trump. 
 
 "You guys can’t stop covering him," Clinton told Matthews. "He is a dangerous presence." 
 
 "It’s just like candy by the bushel." 
 
 Matthews followed up by acknowledging that his network has a "progressive audience, obviously." 
 
 "But nobody can tell what people want to watch," he said. 
 
 "People must think they want to watch him," Clinton replied. 
 
 "They laugh at him," said Matthews. 
 
 The subject quickly turned to Christie, and Clinton wondered: "Why did he support him?" 
 
 Matthews explained that Christie and others who support Trump "want a future" politically. 
 
 "Did he have a debt?" Clinton mused. 
 
 Matthews added that New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, a Democrat, "isn't going anywhere," which leaves Christie "nowhere" to go in New Jersey politics. 
 
 "I don’t think he would win right now," Clinton chimed in. 
 
 "I don’t think he can win as a Senate candidate either," Matthews agreed. 
 
 The two chatted and chuckled about "Tommy Smothers" and "Ed Sullivan" for a minute more. 
 
 The audio cut out just before Clinton could answer Matthews's final question: "Did you watch the end of Downton Abbey?" ||||| Hillary Clinton said Donald Trump is “inciting mob violence” that recalls lynch mobs Monday evening at an MSNBC townhall, where she also took tough questions on foreign policy and trade. 
 
 Clinton told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, who moderated the event in Springfield, Illinois, that she holds Trump responsible for the violence seen in recent days at his rallies, and believes his rhetoric is not only wrong and offensive, but also “dangerous.” “He’s been building this incitement,” she said. 
 
 RELATED: Sanders: Trump enticing his supporters to be violent 
 
 “When you are inciting mob violence, which is what Trump is doing,” Clinton said, “there’s a lot of memories that people have. They’re in the DNA. People remember mob violence that lead to lynching, people remember mob violence that lead to people being shot, being grabbed, being mistreated. And it’s something that has a deep, almost psychological resonance to people who have ever been in any position of feeling somewhat fearful, somewhat worried.” 
 
 Clinton also took tough questions from Matthews on her history of supporting military intervention abroad, including the Iraq War. 
 
 Close video Clinton: Trump is 'inciting mob violence' At an MSNBC town hall on Monday, Hillary Clinton decried the “disturbing amount” of political divisiveness in the United States, and called the unrest at a canceled Donald Trump rally on Friday a “natural outgrowth” of Trump’s rhetoric. share tweet email save Embed 
 
 The former senator and secretary of state said she believed Iraq had nuclear weapons in the lead up to the war, noting that the Clinton administration believed that Iraq obfuscated its plans from international weapons inspectors during her husband’s final years in office. 
 
 But Clinton said Bush misled the Congress in saying the vote for military authorization in Iraq would not be used to actually go to war. “I believed George W. Bush when he said we’re going to let the inspectors finish the job. ‘This vote will give me the leverage,’ he claimed, ‘to make sure that happens,’ ” she said. 
 
 On regime change in general, Clinton insisted she is not a hawk. “No, I’m a smart power advocate,” she said. And while she agreed that toppling dictators or foreign government is not advisable in “the vast majority of cases,” there are exceptions, like in Rwanda and the hypothetical of assassinating Hitler before he took power in Germany. “You cannot paint with a broad brush,” she said. 
 
 Matthews also pressed her on why she changed her position on the Trans Pacific Partnership, the massive trade deal with a dozen Asian countries she came out against last year. Sanders had opposed it from the beginning. MSNBC conducted a separate town hall with Sanders, moderated by Chuck Todd, which aired immediately before Clinton’s. RELATED: Hillary Clinton sounds off on trade, the economy Free trade is an emotional issue in states that have lost manufacturing jobs like Ohio and Illinois, both of which hold primaries Tuesday, but Clinton said that while she and Sanders agree on TPP specifically, they have different views on trade in general. 
 
 “I know you have to trade with the rest of the world,” she said. “He just is reflexively against anything that has any international implications.” 
 
 She spoke again about her limitations as a politician, acknowledging she is not as natural an orator as her husband or President Obama. “I’m not bringing people to fever pitches of incredible admiration,” she said. “But whenever I have a job, I do it well.” ||||| Bernie Sanders Bernie SandersMystery surrounds DNC race The Hill's 12:30 Report Sanders to deliver 'major speech' on Trump MORE on Monday said one of the reasons he decided to run for president as a Democrat instead of as an independent was to attract more media coverage. 
 
 “I just happen to believe that in this moment of history, given the crises that we face, it is too late for establishment politics and establishment economics," Sanders said at an MSNBC town hall. 
 
 “We concluded — and I think it was absolutely the right decision, that … in terms of media coverage — you have to run within the Democratic party,” Sanders said. 
 
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 The Vermont senator pointed to his congressional tenure, saying he's worked closely with his Democratic colleagues. 
 
 “I've been a member of the Democratic caucus for 25 years, in the House 16, in the Senate nine years. We've worked very closely, the Democrats,” Sanders said. 
 
 “Obviously, I've been one of the strongest opponents of right-wing Republicanism. So I felt comfortable doing it, and I think it was the right decision.” 
 
 Sanders also cited financial reasons for not running as an independent. 
 
 “If you're a billionaire, you can do that. I'm not a billionaire. So the structure of American politics today is such that I thought the right ethic was to run within the Democratic Party,” Sanders said.
– The day before vital Democratic primary votes, Bernie Sanders found himself defending his status as a recently added card-carrying member of the Democratic Party. At an MSNBC town hall in Ohio, Sanders, who has served as an independent in Congress for decades, explained that he decided to run for president as a Democrat to gain more media coverage. He said financial reasons were also behind his decision not to launch a presidential bid as an independent, the Hill reports. "If you're a billionaire, you can do that. I'm not a billionaire. So the structure of American politics today is such that I thought the right ethic was to run within the Democratic Party," said Sanders, who stressed that he has caucused with Democrats for 25 years and always opposed right-wing Republicans. At a town hall in Illinois, meanwhile, Hillary Clinton denounced Donald Trump for "inciting mob violence" and dealt with tough questions on trade deals and her vote in favor of invading Iraq. She said George W. Bush claimed that the vote for military authorization wouldn't really lead to war. "I believed George W. Bush when he said we're going to let the inspectors finish the job. 'This vote will give me the leverage,' he claimed, 'to make sure that happens,'" she said. The Washington Post reports that during a commercial break, microphones picked up her chat with host Chris Matthews about the race. She called Donald Trump "candy" that news networks can't stay away from and wondered about Chris Christie's support for the tycoon, asking "Did he have a debt?"