Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton face off at New Hampshire town hall

With the New Hampshire primary looming for U.S. presidential candidates, the Democratic contenders faced off Wednesday evening in a town hall event in Derry, N.H., broadcast live on CNN.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders was up first, facing pre-selected questions from the audience.

Sanders lost the Iowa caucus vote on Monday by a razor-thin margin to former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

He took a shot at Clinton earlier Wednesday when, asked by reporters if Clinton was a progressive, he said, "Some days, yes. Except when she announces that she is a proud moderate. Then I guess she is not a progressive."

Clinton pushed back against Sanders's comment, calling the statement a "low blow" before listing a series of accomplishments that she described as progressive — including her work on expanding access to children's health insurance, advocating for women and gay people and pushing for gun control measures.

She said she's been fighting "the progressive fight" for years, adding of the campaign, "I hope we keep it on the issues. Because if it's about our records, hey, I'm going to win by a landslide."

During the broadcast, the Vermont senator defended his remark to host Anderson Cooper, adding that Clinton was funded by Wall Street and that she voted to go to war with Iraq.

He said President Barack Obama had let progressives down by supporting the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, signed Wednesday in New Zealand by 12 countries including the U.S. and Canada.

Donald Trump targeted

But the 74-year-old Sanders saved his sharpest barbs for Republican candidate Donald Trump, calling him out for his "bigoted" remarks and his position on climate change.

"Trump is, as you know, a well-known scientist, brilliant scientist," Sander said. "And he has concluded, after years of studying the issue, that climate change is a hoax brought to us by the Chinese.

"That shocked me because I thought he would have thought it was a hoax brought to us by the Mexicans or the Muslims."

Clinton took the stage for the second hour.