Warren, Sanders spar with dark-horse Democratic candidates
DETROIT — Democrats showed sharp differences over single-payer health care, immigration and climate policy Tuesday as a group of lesser-known candidates tried to use the second presidential primary debate to attack progressive standard-bearers Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
The debate highlighted the fundamental changes advocated by Sanders, a Vermont independent, and Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, who argue that defeating President Donald Trump will require bold plans.
“I don’t understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running for president of the United States to talk about what we really can’t do and shouldn’t fight for,” Warren said after several candidates argued that she and Sanders would doom the party.
Several of their opponents argued that there was too much at stake to risk giving any advantage to Trump and that a more pragmatic approach would reach a wider swath.
“We are more worried about winning an argument than winning an election,” said Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., tried to split the difference.
“It is time to stop worrying about what the Republicans will say,” he said. “It’s true, if we embrace a far-left agenda, they’re going to say we’re a bunch of crazy socialists. If we embrace a conservative agenda, you know what they’re going to do? They’re going to say we’re a bunch of crazy socialists. So let’s just stand up for the right policy.”
Tuesday’s debate — in front of about 3,000 people at the ornate and historic Fox Theatre in Detroit’s redeveloped downtown — marked the second gathering of the 2020 Democratic field, which is so large that even dividing the top 20 candidates over two nights has meant shutting some out.
Though the election is more than a year away, the struggle for fundraising dollars and demonstrable voter support has made the debates crucial to candidates’ ability to sell themselves as legitimate contenders and, in many cases, to survive.
The two populist senators, Warren and Sanders, drew the most attention. Sanders, who describes himself as a democratic socialist, has been second place in many polls, behind the front-runner, former Vice President Joe Biden, through much of the campaign. But Warren has leaped ahead of Sanders in some polls and gained significant ground on Biden, becoming a serious threat to overtake the Vermont senator as the progressive favorite and challenge for the nomination.
Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris of California — who have been sparring since the first debate series in Miami in June — will lead the field of 10 candidates scheduled to take the stage Wednesday.
The Democratic divide over how to make health care more affordable was on full display from the first minutes of the debate, as centrist candidates took aim at “Medicare for All” plans championed by Sanders and Warren.
The clash reflected the deepening division in the field over health care, which was a flash point for candidate attacks of one another in the days leading up to the debate.
Moderates in the race see the health care debate as one of the clearest points of distinction between their approach and that of the progressives who appeal to the base, with the moderates arguing that Medicare for All would threaten Obamacare and leave Americans with even less coverage.
“This is an example of wish-list economics,” said Montana Gov. Steve Bullock. “It used to be that just Republican wanted to repeal and replace. Now Democrats do as well . ... It took us decades of false starts to get the Affordable Care Act. So let’s actually build on it.”
Sanders and Warren stridently argued for scrapping the current health care model and replacing it with a singlepayer system, which they said is the only option for freeing American health coverage from the shackles of corporate corruption.
“Stop using Republican talking points,” Warren charged. “We have to think of this in the big frame,” she said. “These insurance companies do not have a God-given right to make $23 billion in profits and suck it out of our health care system.”
The back and forth grew testy, as candidates arguing that those who chafe at Medicare for All lack backbone and vision clashed with the many on the stage sharing the outlook of Biden, arguing the crusade for government run-health care reflects a Democratic Party in danger of drifting far to the left of the American public.
The moderates are pushing for a so-called “public option,” that would allow Americans who don’t like their commercial health plan to buy into a government plan.
“I just don’t buy this,” said Klobuchar. “I have heard some candidates say it is not moral to not have that public option . ... Clearly this is the easiest way to move forward quickly. And I want to get things done.”
Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper concurred: “It comes down to that question of America being used to having choices, the right to make a decision,” he said. “Evolution. Not a revolution.”