Debate makes clear Warren is now Dem frontrunner.
If there was ever a doubt that Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is viewed as the Democratic frontrunner, it disappeared Tuesday night when she turned into the top target for the other 11 presidential hopefuls at the party’s nationally televised debate.
From health care to taxes to jobs to Twitter, it was a threehour pileon, with struggling candidates looking to move up in the polls at Warren’s expense. Former Vice President Joe Biden, who until recently was the leader in virtually every survey of Democratic primary voters, was largely ignored.
When Warren spoke out on her signature issue of income inequality, saying she and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders were the only ones on the debate stage in Westerville, Ohio, who didn’t think “it is more important to protect billionaires than it is to invest in an entire generation of Americans,” Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar took exception.
“I want to give a reality check here to Elizabeth, because no one on this stage wants to protect billionaires,” said Klobuchar, who is mired in the low single digits in the RealClearPolitics polling average. “We just have different approaches. Your idea is not the only idea.”
Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke chimed in about Warren’s call for a wealth tax on the richest Americans.
“Sometimes I think that Sen. Warren is more focused on being punitive and pitting some part of the country against the other instead of ... making sure this country comes together around those solutions,” said O’Rourke, who is also far back of the leaders.
As it was in the Democrats’ previous debates, the nastiest battle was over health care. And as was the case in those debates, Warren stubbornly refused to say whether she would have to raise taxes on middleclass Americans to pay for her Medicare for All plan, under which the government would cover all health care costs for everyone in the country.
Asked for a yes or no answer, Warren went back to her standard reply — that although costs would go up for the wealthy and big corporations, “I will not sign a bill into law that does not lower costs for middleclass families.”
But taxes can go up even if overall costs go down, as Sanders, who noted that he “wrote the damn bill” in the Senate to implement Medicare for All, made clear.
“I do think it’s appropriate to acknowledge that taxes will go up,” he said, even as he maintained that most people would save money in the long run because they would have no insurance premiums or copays.
South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg was also on the attack.
“Well, we heard it here tonight, a yes or no question that didn’t get a yes or no answer,” he told Warren. “Your signature, Senator, is to have a plan for everything. Except this.”
Even Biden took a swipe at Warren, saying she was being “vague” about how she would pay for her health plan. He also took a measure of credit for pushing Warren’s legislation creating a consumer protection agency through the Senate when he was vice president. Warren responded by ignoring him and saying that she wanted to thank former President Barack Obama for all he did to enact the bill.
California Sen. Kamala Harris got into the act, calling on Warren to join her in calling on Twitter to shut down President Trump’s account, which she said the president uses to threaten witnesses in the impeachment probe and obstruct justice.
“He and his account should be taken down,” she said.
But Warren was having none of it.
“I don’t just want to push Donald Trump off Twitter; I want to push him out of the office,” Warren said.
Harris came in with problems of her own. With her poll numbers fading, she needed a good showing to move her closer to the top tier of candidates, which includes Warren, Sanders and Biden.
When it came time to talk about how she would pay for the huge federal expansion in health care that she has proposed, Harris quickly pivoted to a new subject.
In all the Democratic debates, there has been “not nearly one word ... on women’s access to reproductive health care, which is under fullon attack in America today,” Harris said. “Republican legislatures in these various states who are out of touch with America are telling women what to do with their bodies.”
For the Democrats, that’s not a controversial subject. When the moderators came back to the abortion question later in the debate, the candidates all said they would do whatever it takes to ensure that the Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide stays in effect. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker even said he would create an Office of Reproductive Freedom in the White House.
Earlier in the day, Harris got a shoutout from Gov. Gavin Newsom, speaking to reporters at a San Francisco conference on technology and climate change.
“I’m expecting good things from her tonight,” he said of Harris, who was the city’s district attorney when Newsom was mayor. “I wouldn’t count her out. But how anyone can do something with 12 people on the stage.”
Keeping everyone involved was a definitely a problem. Warren dominated the debate, speaking for nearly 23 minutes. She was followed by Biden at 16 minutes and Klobuchar, Sanders and O’Rourke, all at 13 minutes.
For Sanders, who had a heart attack two weeks ago, the debate marked his return to the campaign, and he gave no sign he was taking it easy.
He had a quick answer when he was asked how he could convince voters that a 78yearold man with heart problems could handle the job as president.
“We are going to be mounting a vigorous campaign all over this country,” Sanders said. “That is how I think I can reassure the American people.”
For his part, Biden may have been happy not to be the focus of the debate. With Trump slamming him almost daily for what he claims was corrupt conduct by him and his son in Ukraine when he was vice president, no Democrat wanted to look like they were siding with the president.
At the bottom of the speakingtime list was Tom Steyer, making his first appearance ever in a political debate. His speaking time was just over seven minutes.
The billionaire San Francisco businessman did get one zinger in, however.
Since Trump is going to be running on the economy, it will take a businessman to counter him, said Steyer.
“We’re going to have to show American people we don’t just know how to tax and break up companies,” he said.