Clinton and Sanders won't call Trump a racist, but they ripped him apart anyway

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has a lot of work to do before he wraps up his party's nomination, but he spent a lot of time front and center at his rival party's debate on Wednesday night. 

Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were both asked whether Trump is "a racist," but neither were willing to call him that. Even so, they weren't afraid to take a few other shots at him.

"His rhetoric, his demagoguery, his trafficking in prejudice and paranoia has no place in our political system. Especially from somebody running for president who couldn't decide whether or not to disavow the Ku Klux Klan and David Duke," Clinton said. "I think it's un-American."

Sanders sounded a similar note, saying voters wouldn't stand for a president who demeaned large swaths of the American people.

"I think that the American people are never going to elect a president who insults Mexicans, who insults Muslims, who insults women, who insults African-Americans," Sanders said.

Early in the election cycle, Trump referred to Mexican immigrants as "rapists," and he's threatened to bar Muslims from entering the country.

Clinton also laughed off Trump's plan to build a massive wall along America's southern border.

"First of all, as I understand him, he's talking about a very tall wall," Clinton said, starting to mock Trump's language. "Right? A beautiful tall wall. The most beautiful tall wall, better than the Great Wall of China."

Clinton chuckled, and the audience laughed along with her.

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