Candidates hone in on Warren at Oct. Democratic debate
Twelve of the Democratic presidential candidates line up on stage before the Oct. 15 primary debate, hosted by CNN and the New York Times in Ohio. (The Hill)
Twelve of the Democratic presidential candidates debated in Ohio on Oct. 15, but the tone was different than the past three debates.
The twelve candidates in attendance included, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, former Vice President Joe Biden, South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, California Sen. Harris, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Businessman Tom Steyer, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and entrepreneur Andrew Yang.
In the nearly three hour debate, there was a noticeable shift from the candidates compared to previous debates. In past debates, most candidates would throw questions and speculations at Biden, who was the former front-runner. The focus has now shifted to the new front-runner, Warren.
This is a tactic used by other lower ranking candidates to poke holes in the front-runner’s statements of policies in the hopes of changing the public’s perception of them.
Harris, questioned Warren on why she had not joined her in the fight to have President Donald Trump’s Twitter account deactivated.
Warren responded to Harris when she said, “I don’t just want to push Donald Trump off Twitter. I want to push him out of the White House.”
There has been a lot of questions surrounding Warren’s plan to pay for her “Medicare-for-All” healthcare plan. She has said that the middle class will not pay more in taxes, and instead big corporations and the wealthy will be taxed more heavily to compensate for her plans. Some of the other candidates still had questions on the legitimacy of this plan.
More moderate candidates like Buttigieg and Klobuchar both questioned Warren.
Buttigieg said to Warren,“Your signature, Senator, is to have a plan for everything. Except this.”
“At least Bernie is being honest.” Klobuchar said to Warren.
Klobuchar is referring to Sanders being the only other candidate who wants to repeal other insurance plans, in exchange for every American having access to “Medicare-for-All.” Sanders does admit that the middle class will have to pay for some of their healthcare, but he states that it will not be more than what they are already paying. Skeptics have questioned how Warren plans to pay for her “Medicare-for-All” plan.
This debate was the first to take place during the impeachment inquiry that House Democrats launched last month. Understandably, impeachment was a large talking point on Tuesday night, considering all the candidates that were present are in favor of an inquiry or total impeachment.
“I think that the House will find him guilty of -- worthy of impeachment because of the emoluments clause.” Sanders said during the debate.
The Emoluments clause is a provision of the Constitution, which states that federal officeholders, such as the president, cannot receive anything of value, like money or gifts from a foregin leader or ruler.
Yang said “ I support impeachment, but we shouldn't have any illusions that impeaching Donald Trump will, one, be successful or, two, erase the problems that got him elected in 2016.”
O’Rourke has been vocal on his desire to ban assault weapons, implement universal background checks and red flag laws, and initiate a gun buyback program after the mass shooting that occurred in O’Rourke’s hometown of El Paso, Tx in August.
This sparked an intense debate, specifically between O’Rourke and Buttigieg on what the solution to gun violence should be during the debate.
“I don't need lessons from you on courage, political or personal.” Buttigieg said.
There were some stand out moments in this debate, but one thing remained the same, the large number of candidates debating. At one time, there were over 20 Democratic candidates in the running and debates would be split into two nights. As the field shrinks and standards to be in the debate grow, it is still overwhelming to some.
“The number of candidates makes it difficult for anyone to really break through except the front-runners,” Democratic strategist Stephanie Cutter said to the Washington Post. “When lower-tier candidates do break through, it’s usually because of an attack, which doesn’t necessarily gain them more support.”
Gabbard, who has been tough on her stance on foregin policy and open with her role in the military missed her opportunity to stand out in the debate during the topic of foregin policy. And when she did participate, what was said was found to be incorrect.
“The slaughter of the Kurds being done by Turkey is yet another negative consequence of the regime change war we’ve been waging in Syria.” Gabbard said Tuesday night.
This is simply not true.
The United States is not waging war with Syria over regime change. Instead, American troops were in the country helping Kurdish troops fight the presence of ISIS, according to Vox.
Since the debate, President Donald Trump has pulled U.S. troops from the country.
The congresswoman from Hawaii also only spoke for a total of eight minutes during the lengthy debate. Tom Steyer, the only candidate to speak less than Gabbard during the debate, spoke for about seven minutes, according to the Washington Post.
A large focus from previous debates was Biden saying the wrong things or misspeaking and this debate was no different.
“I would not have withdrawn the troops and would not have withdrawn the additional thousand troops in Iraq, which are in retreat now being fired on by Assad's people." Biden said during the debate.
Trump ordered for troops to be withdrawn from Syria, not Iraq.
Biden appearing to misspeak is something that is not new to his campaign and could pose as a concern for voters. Biden’s age has also been a talking point because of his tendency to stumble over his words.
Age and health are factors voters take into consideration, and just weeks after a heart attack, Sanders seemed to be in good standings.
Despite his health scare while in Nevada, he said he is healthy and feeling great, during the debate.
After the debate, Sanders acquired high profile endorsements from fellow congresspeople such as Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez of New York. Both announced their endorsement for the candidate shortly after the debate, according to CNN. Michigan Rep. Rashida Talib is also expected to endorse the Vermont senator, according to CNN.
Despite the debate nearing three hours long, some issues were missing from the debate stage. Former Democratic candidate and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee raised awareness on Twitter that the discussion on climate change was missing from the list of topics at the debate.
Other topics that went missing during the debate included housing and immigration. Abortion is another less-discussed topic but Harris did bring up restrictive abortion laws some states have imposed, which was the first time abortion rights have been dicussed at a primary debate so far.
Moderators later asked a question on reproductive rights.
The president was one of many who watched the debate, even tweeting about it the next morning
“You would think there is NO WAY that any of the Democrat Candidates that we witnessed last night could possibly become President of the United States. Now you see why they have no choice but to push a totally illegal & absurd Impeachment of one of the most successful Presidents!” Trump tweeted.
The next Democratic primary debate is scheduled for Nov. 20 in Georgia. Out of the 19 candidates, only eight candidates have qualified to participate so far. From the 12 that were present at the October debate, Castro, Klobuchar, O’Rourke and Gabbard have yet to meet the Democratic National Committee’s requirements.
The DNC’s website says there must be a grass-roots donor threshold met and a polling threshold met.