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is almost certain to feature fewer candidates, as the Democratic Party’s polling and fundraising requirements become more stringent.
Justin SullivanGetty Images■■■ ELECTION 2020 ■■■
Detroit Democratic debate
At first it looked like the
rematch was on.
Sen. Kamala Harris and
former Vice President Joe
Biden, standing at center
stage at the Democratic
presidential debate in De-
troit, were clearly ready to
reprise their prior debate
face-off, training their focus
on each other as the debate
began. But the others on-
stage weren’t ready to cede
the evening to the two top
candidates.
With qualification re-
quirements being much
tougher for the next round of
debates in Houston in Sep-
tember, it was likely the last
gasp for several lower-tier
candidates onstage.
Here are three main take-
aways from Wednesday’s de-
bate.Booker in the ring: It was
New Jersey Sen. Cory
Booker who landed the
most memorable scorchers
against the former vice
president.
The first blow came
during the immigration
debate, when Biden was
attacked for the high num-
ber of immigrant deporta-
tions during the Obama
administration. Biden
demurred on whether he, as
vice president, disagreed
with Obama’s actions.
“You invoke President
Obama more than anyone
in this campaign,” Booker
said. “You can’t do it when
it’s convenient and then
dodge it when it’s not.”
Later, Biden criticized
Booker for troubles at the
Newark Police Department
while Booker was mayor.
Booker responded that he
would be happy to compare
his record on criminal jus-
tice to Biden’s. He repeat-
edly hammered Biden for
his role in the sweeping 1994
anti-crime bill, which
Booker said has led to a
crisis of mass incarceration.
When Biden was unde-
terred on slamming Booker
on civil rights abuses by
Newark police, Booker had
a quip in return: “You’re
dipping into the Kool-Aid
and you don’t even know the
flavor.”Biden’s uneven night: In
the June debate, Biden
seemed half a step behind,
making people wonder
whether he still had the
vigor to withstand a tough
campaign. On Wednesday,
he half-jogged onto the
stage and showed much
more pep, particularly in
the first half of the debate.
Biden knew he was in for
a pile-on and he parried
critiques of his record with
more confidence than in the
Miami debate. When Sen.
Kirsten Gillibrand laced
into Biden for an old op-ed
questioning the value of
women working outside the
home, he was prepared with
a counterpunch, noting that
the New York senator em-
braced his work on women’s
rights in the past.
“I don’t know what’s
happened except now
you’re running for presi-
dent,” he said.
But the barrage of at-
tacks was not easily with-
stood, and Biden was at
times muddled in his re-
sponses.Harris on defense:Harris’
sterling June debate per-
formance vaulted her into
the top tier of the field.
With that leap, she
caught the attention of her
rivals. Her healthcare plan
was a major target Wednes-
day night. Biden, her main
foe, criticized Harris for not
doing anything as attorney
general to address racial
segregation in California
schools.
Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gab-
bard honed in on Harris’
criminal justice record, a
source of friction between
the California senator and
her party’s left flank.
Gabbard rattled off a
pointed list of Harris’ past
positions that would con-
flict with the Democratic
base.
Harris defended herself
forcefully, saying she was
proud of the work she had
done as a prosecutor and
dismissing Gabbard’s at-
tack as a “fancy opinion on a
stage.”3 things
to note
from
Night 2
By Melanie Masontry’s divisions.
For the second consecu-
tive debate, it was the leader
in the polls, former Vice
President Joe Biden, who
took most of the incoming
fire on those issues. As a 76-
year-old white man seeking
to lead a diverse party, and
as a politician with nearly
half a century of positions to
defend — many of which are
out of step with today’s
Democrats — Biden pro-
vides rivals with extensive
material for attacks.
Sen. Cory Booker of New
Jersey launched an early
salvo, going after Biden’s
record of anti-crime legisla-
tion in the 1980s and 1990s
that critics say contributed
to the mass incarceration of
minorities, especially black
men.
“Mr. Vice President has
said since the 1970s that ev-
ery single crime bill, major
and minor, has had his name
on it. The house was set on
fire and you claimed respon-
sibility. You can’t just now
come out with a plan to putout that fire” and expect
people to consider that
enough, Booker said to Bid-
en, who stood next to him.
Sen. Kamala Harris of
California, who stood on
Biden’s other side, reprised
the attack she launched in
June’s debate on Biden’s
willingness to work with seg-
regationist senators early in
his career.
“Had those segregation-
ists had their way, I would
not be a member of the
United States Senate. Cory
Booker would not be a mem-
ber of the United States Sen-
ate. And Barack Obama
would have not been in the
position to nominate him to
the title he now holds,” she
said, gesturing toward Bid-
en.
Biden shot back in both
cases, accusing Booker of
failing to curb allegedly dis-
criminatory stop-and-frisk
policies by his city’s police
force when he was mayor of
Newark, N.J., and charging
Harris with failing to act
against school segregation
in California as that state’sattorney general.
Those exchanges point-
ed up racial grievances that
have the potential to divide
Democrats. A few minutes
later, New York Mayor Bill de
Blasio reopened an issue
that has alienated some Lat-
inos from the party: the high
number of deportations
during Obama’s first term.
De Blasio demanded to
know whether Biden had
counseled Obama to pursue
different policies — a ques-
tion Biden wouldn’t answer.
The June debate itself
does not appear to have
eroded Biden’s support in
any significant, long-term
way, polls indicate, although
his lead has shrunk since he
first declared himself a can-
didate this spring.
For Democrats, the
larger problem could be one
of collateral damage. Diver-
sity provides a source of
strength for Democrats
when they can hold together
a multiracial coalition.
Obama did that in his
two campaigns for presi-
dent, in which he largelydownplayed racial issues. In
2012, when he won reelec-
tion, he generated record
turnout among African
Americans while winning
large numbers of white,
working-class voters in key
states of the northern Mid-
west and the Industrial Belt.
Two-thirds of eligible
black voters turned out that
year. It was the first time in
U.S. history that African
Americans turned out at a
higher rate than whites.
By contrast, in 2016, when
Hillary Clinton lost to Presi-
dent Trump, she suffered
erosion from both parts of
that coalition: She lost sig-
nificant numbers of work-
ing-class whites who had
voted for Obama. At the
same time, black voter turn-
out dropped for the first
time in 20 years, with about
765,000 fewer African Ameri-
cans voting than had done
so four years earlier.
Clinton likely would have
won both Michigan and Wis-
consin had black turnout
stayed at 2012 levels, al-
though those two statesalone would not have given
her enough more electoral
votes to send her to the
White House.
Many things went wrong
for Democrats in that de-
feat, but one important fac-
tor was that the Trump cam-
paign capitalized on doubts
in the minds of many black
voters, particularly younger
ones, about Clinton’s record
in the 1990s, when she sup-
ported many of the same
anti-crime policies that Bid-
en had championed.
Many of those issues also
surfaced during the some-
times bitter 2016 primary
race between Clinton and
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
Trump has made clear
that he intends to continue
to crank up racial tensions.
Democrats, to gain maxi-
mum advantage from their
multiracial coalition, will
likely want to emulate
Obama and try to calm
them. As Wednesday’s de-
bate showed, the inevitable
tensions of the primary cam-
paign are not making that
task any easier.Racial diversity and divisions
[Analysis,from A1]ACTIVITY CONTINUESin the spin room after Wednesday evening’s Democratic presidential debate at the Fox Theatre in Detroit.Justin SullivanGetty Images