San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Democratic rivals put heat on front-runner Biden
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Onstage before a throng of party faithful in a key early primary state, Joe Biden’s leading rivals for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination sought Saturday to undercut the former vice president’s argument that he’s the ideal Democrat to oust President Trump.
They tried to do it without mentioning the front-runner at all.
California Sen. Kamala Harris charged straight at Trump as she addressed hundreds of activists at the South Carolina Democratic Party Convention. “We need somebody on our stage when it comes for that general election, who knows how to recognize a rap sheet when they see it and prosecute the case,” Harris said, playing off her experience as a prosecutor as she shredded Trump on a litany of policy fronts.
Then, in a seeming reference to Biden, the senator added that South Carolina voters mustn’t “turn back the clock” but instead, “Let’s start the next chapter. Let’s turn the page.”
It was a reminder that Biden, who’s drawn fire in recent weeks for his flip-flop on taxpayer funding of abortion and his recollections of working with long-dead segregationist senators, won’t become the Democratic nominee without an intense fight, no matter his front-runner’s strategy.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren pitched her progressive policies as an agenda with wide reach. “People across this nation understand it is time for big, structural change in America. The time for small ideas is over,” Warren said, adding the approach can draw in Democrats and Republicans.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, meanwhile, pushed back at a centrist Democratic group, Third Way, and some of its members’ assertions that his democratic socialism is an “existential threat” to the party’s 2020 hopes.
Sanders countered that his left-flank agenda can win the White House. “We defeat Trump by running a campaign of energy and enthusiasm that substantially grows voter turnout,” he said.
Biden had the luxury of the last word Saturday, using his draw as the last of 20 candidates at the rostrum to deliver a rapid-fire litany of policy proposals, including a new pitch for an $8,000 tax credit for child care services.
The event was part of big political weekend in South Carolina that also included a Friday night party gala, the annual fish fry hosted by House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn and a Saturday forum hosted by Planned Parenthood.
For South Carolina Democrats, it was the culmination of several decades raising the state’s profile to compete with Iowa and New Hampshire, the two states that for decades have led off presidential voting. For Biden and his rivals, it was a last public tune-up ahead of this week’s inaugural 2020 debates in Miami.