A6 EZ M2 THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAY, JULY 31 , 2019
try.”
Warren said the United States
should pledge not to use a nu-
clear weapon preemptively, a po-
sition that the Obama adminis-
tration debated but never com-
mitted to.
“The United States is not going
to use nuclear weapons preemp-
tively, and we need to say so to
the entire world,” she said. “... We don’t expand trust around
the world by saying, ‘You know,
we might be the first to use a
nuclear weapon.’ That puts the
entire world at risk.”
Bullock pushed back, saying
doing so would reduce U.S. nego-
tiating power.
Trump, who responded to the
first Democratic debate by tweet-
ing “BORING!” and later handi-
capped the candidates’ perform-
ances, loomed large over the de-
bate stage in Detroit.
The president’s latest string of
attacks against minority law-
makers — including a racist go-
back-to-your-country taunt this
month targeting four congress-
women — came in for heavy
criticism from the Democratic
candidates.
“We live in a country now
where the president is advancing
environmental racism, economic
racism, criminal justice racism,
health-care racism,” Warren said.
Trump’s latest attack, refer-
ring to a prominent black con-
gressman’s Baltimore district as
a “disgusting, rat and rodent in-
fested mess” and saying “no hu-
man being would want to live
there,” has set off fresh discus-
sion among Democrats about
how to respond to the president’s
racially divisive politicking.
Trump’s verbal broadsides tar-
geting Rep. Elijah E. Cummings
(D-Md.) have been roundly con-
demned by Democrats, a number
of whom have grown more com-
fortable calling the president a
racist.
In his closing statement, Sand-
ers described Trump as “a racist
and a sexist and a homophobe.”
There were few light moments
during the debate, which was
heavier on policy discussion than
personal stories. Williamson
took the other Democrats on-
stage to task for their high-mind-
edness in discussing issues, say-
ing, “I want a politics that goes
much deeper... that speaks to
the heart.”
She also criticized candidates
who had taken money from cor-
porate donors and then prom-
ised to side with voters against
special interests.
“To think that they now have
the moral authority to say, ‘We’re
going to take them on,’ I don’t
think the Democratic Party
should be surprised that so many
Americans believe yada, yada,
yada,” she said.
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
lián Castro on the same issue
during the first Democratic de-
bate in June — stood by his
opinion that unauthorized bor-
der crossings should remain a
criminal offense. He said that as
president, he would work to
waive citizenship fees and free
“dreamers” from the fear of de-
portation. After that, however, “I
expect that people who come
here follow our laws,” O’Rourke
said.
The Trump campaign has
seized on proposals by Demo-
crats to decriminalize border
crossings and offer health cover-
age to those in the United States
without legal documents. The
president and his allies have ac-
cused Democrats of supporting
“open borders” and prioritizing
undocumented immigrants over
U.S. citizens.
Some Democrats believe that
Trump’s argument has resonance
in much of America.
When Warren said Democrats
needed to be bold rather than
allowing Trump to set the terms
of the immigration discussion,
Bullock offered a quick retort.
“You are playing into Donald
Trump’s hands,” he said. “... A
sane immigration system needs a
sane leader, and we can do that
without decriminalizing and
providing health care for every-
one.”
Foreign policy has often felt
like an afterthought in the Dem-
ocratic primary race, and when it
came up toward the latter part of
the debate, the candidates illus-
trated several stark differences
over deployment of U.S. troops
and the threat of using nuclear
weapons.
Buttigieg, who served in Af-
ghanistan, said he would with-
draw troops from the country
within his first year in office.
O’Rourke pledged to withdraw
service members from several
countries — including Afghani-
stan, Iraq, Somalia and Yemen —
within his first term.
Hickenlooper disagreed, say-
ing such a withdrawal from Af-
ghanistan would trigger “a hu-
manitarian disaster that will
startle and frighten every man,
woman and child in this coun-stars. Some of the loudest voices
in the primary race have been
from candidates who want to
abolish private health insurance,
decriminalize unauthorized bor-
der crossings and raise taxes, a
formula that has raised alarms
among moderates.
The debate in the party — on
full display Tuesday night — con-
tinues the turmoil over what went
wrong for Democrats in 2016, and
whether the prescription now is
to appeal to liberals who didn’t
turn out or attempt to win back
moderates and independents
who voted for President Trump.
Klobuchar, Hickenlooper and
Delaney have been among the
most vocal in trying to push back
against the party’s leftward tilt.
But the moderates opened them-
selves to charges of timidity as
they amplified their warnings
against bold changes backed by
Sanders and Warren.
“I don’t understand why any-
body goes to all the trouble of
running for president of the
United States just to talk about
what we really can’t do and
shouldn’t fight for,” Warren said,
in a biting reference to Delaney.
“I’ve heard some people here
tonight — I almost wonder why
you’re Democrats,” Williamson
said. “You seem to think there’s
something wrong about using
the instruments of government
to help people.”
After a sharp debate over
health care, the moderates and
liberals engaged in a heated dis-
cussion on immigration — in-
cluding whether to decriminal-
ize unauthorized border cross-
ings and provide taxpayer-fund-
ed health care for undocumented
immigrants.
Buttigieg, Warren and Sanders
said they supported decriminal-
izing most unauthorized border
crossings, arguing that would re-
move the “tool” Trump was using
to separate migrant families.
“We’ve got a crisis on our
hands,” Buttigieg said, adding
that it wasn’t limited to immigra-
tion. “It’s a crisis of cruelty and
incompetence... It is a stain on
the United States of America.”
O’Rourke — who sparred with
former San Antonio mayor Ju-compiled by ProPublica.
Warren has also embraced
Sanders’s Medicare-for-all plan,
insulating her from a potential
attack from him on one of his
signature issues.
But the two candidates appear
to be in a head-to-head contest for
the party’s liberal voters, some of
whom have migrated to Warren
in recent months as she has un-
veiled comprehensive plans on a
host of issues. Earlier Tuesday,
Warren announced a slate of en-
dorsements, including from Rep.
Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who
was the first member of Congress
to support Sanders against Hil-
lary Clinton in 2016.
The debate marked a crucial
moment for former Texas con-
gressman Beto O’Rourke, whose
campaign has sputtered to the
low single digits in polls after
launching with a burst of enthusi-
asm. He has struggled to capture
the viral energy of his unsuccess-
ful U.S. Senate race last year in
Texas and has seen much of his
support drift toward South Bend,
Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who
has made a similar argument for a
generational shift.
After a widely panned perform-
ance in the June debate, O’Rourke
has attempted to retool his ap-
proach by focusing less on talking
points and speaking with more
raw passion.
Klobuchar has done little to
hide her disdain for candidates
such as O’Rourke and Buttigieg,
whom she views as having little
experience to justify their cam-
paigns.
Tuesday marked a debut for
Bullock, who did not qualify for
the first debate. He came out
swinging, warning Democrats
against “wish-list economics” and
calling on the party to prioritize
U.S. citizens over undocumented
immigrants.
Speaking about struggling
Americans, Bullock said: “They
can’t wait for a revolution. Their
problems are in the here and
now.”
Several of the more moderate
candidates have had trouble dis-
tinguishing themselves in a
crowded field that includes a for-
mer vice president and liberalhis support of the Green New
Deal. “You might as well FedEx
the election to Donald Trump.”
After Sanders noted that he
was leading in many polls, Rep.
Tim Ryan (Ohio) chided him by
referring to the 2016 Democratic
nominee. “Hillary Clinton was
winning in the polls, too,” he said.
“We do have to win back some
of those places we lost and get
those Trump voters back if we’re
ever going to win,” Bullock said.
“What I don’t like about this
argument right now,” Klobuchar
said, “... is that we are more
worried about winning an argu-
ment than winning an election.”
Some of the biggest applause
during the night came in re-
sponse to impassioned state-
ments by self-help author Mari-
anne Williamson, the only person
on the stage who has never held
elected office.
“The racism, the bigotry and
the entire conversation that we’re
having here tonight — if you think
any of this wonkiness is going to
deal with this dark psychic force
of the collectivized hatred that
this president is bringing up in
this country, then I’m afraid that
the Democrats are going to see
some very dark days,” Williamson
said. “We need to say it like it is...
And if the Democrats don’t start
saying it, then why would those
people feel that they’re there for
us, and if those people don’t feel it,
they won’t vote for us. And Don-
ald Trump will win.”
Warren and Sanders, the two
liberal stalwarts in the race, ap-
peared on the debate stage to-
gether for the first time Tuesday.
They largely voiced support for
each other’s policies and declined
to draw distinctions with one an-
other.
The two have long been ideo-
logically aligned. When Warren
was a Harvard professor arguing
for consumer protections, she
would appear as a guest on the
Vermont senator’s radio show,
and they met with each other
privately before either one an-
nounced they were running.
They have voted with each oth-
er more than 94 percent of the
time since Warren became a sena-
tor in 2013, according to recordsthroughout the night.
“I share their progressive val-
ues, but I’m a little more pragmat-
ic,” former Colorado governor
John Hickenlooper said, referring
to the two liberal senators.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.)
described her own policies as
“grounded in reality.” Montana
Gov. Steve Bullock warned
against “wish-list economics” and
said struggling teachers and
farmers “can’t wait for a revolu-
tion,” an implicit reference to
Sanders.
Warren and Sanders were em-
phatic in defending their propos-
als — and each other — joining
forces to brand their moderate
detractors as too timid for the
moment.
“We’re not going to solve the
urgent problems that we face
with small ideas and spineless-
ness,” she said. “We’re going to
solve them by being the Demo-
cratic Party of big, structural
change.”
Responding to charges that his
proposals were unworkable,
Sanders said, “I get a little bit
tired of Democrats afraid of big
ideas.”
Tuesday’s debate kicked off the
second round of 12 scheduled
Democratic debates, and its
sometimes contentious tone un-
derscored the pivotal moment for
the historic field of candidates.
Ten more candidates, includ-
ing former vice president Joe
Biden, are scheduled to appear on
the stage Wednesday, on the sec-
ond night of this round of debates
hosted by CNN. Yet Biden, whose
lead in the polls has been one of
the most enduring aspects of the
Democratic primary contest, was
not mentioned by name Tuesday
night. Instead, other moderates
were used as stand-ins for some of
the ideas he espouses.
Of the 10 candidates on the
stage, half are at risk of not meet-
ing the polling and donor thresh-
olds to qualify for the next round
of debates in September. The
prospect of being left out of future
debates heightened the pressure
on them to stand out and make
what was potentially a last plea
for their relevancy in the crowded
field.
While the candidates engaged
in tense but mostly academic ver-
bal tussles over issues such as
immigration, student loans, cli-
mate change and racial dispari-
ties, the subtextual issue of elect-
ability quickly rose to the surface.
The battle lines were drawn in
the first half-hour of the debate,
as an impassioned and prolonged
exchange broke out over whether
to abolish private health insur-
ance in favor of a single-payer
system favored by Sanders and
Warren. When Sanders was asked
how he would respond to Dela-
ney, who described Medicare-for-
all as bad policy, the senator of-
fered a blunt retort: “You’re
wrong!”
“Why do we got to be the party
of taking something away from
people?” Delaney asked him in
return. “We don’t have to do that.
We can give everyone health care
and allow people to have choice.”
Warren quickly jumped in, say-
ing candidates who favor Medi-
care-for-all are not trying to take
anything away from the Ameri-
can people.
“That’s what the Republicans
are trying to do,” she said. “And we
should stop using Republican
talking points in order to talk
with each other about how to best
provide that health care.”
“That is a disaster at the ballot
box,” Hickenlooper said of Sand-
ers’s health-care proposals and
DEBATE FROM A
campaign 2020
10 candidates argue over direction of the Democratic Party
ANTHONY LANZILOTE/BLOOMBERG NEWS
From left, Democratic presidential candidates Marianne Williamson, Tim Ryan, Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders,
Elizabeth Warren, Beto O’Rourke, John Hickenlooper, John Delaney and Steve Bullock on the debate stage in Detroit.BY CLEVE R. WOOTSON JR.At Tuesday’s debate of Demo-
cratic presidential contenders,
the fringe candidates breathed
oxygen into their campaigns.
Self-help author Marianne Wil-
liamson took it to Sen. Elizabeth
Warren (Mass.) and Sen. Bernie
Sanders (I-Vt.), urging them to be
less wonky and connect better
with the American people.
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock
accused his competitors of being
out of touch with reality.
Former Maryland congress-
man John Delaney, polling near
the bottom of the pack, repeated-
ly assailed more liberal candi-
dates, making the case for moder-
ation within the party.
As candidates, they have strug-
gled to meet polling and fundrais-
ing thresholds set by the Demo-
cratic National Committee. But
on Tuesday night, the hopefuls
demanded attention, lobbed ac-
cusations, tossed off memorable
one-liners and loftily expounded
on the virtues of America.
In large part, they followed the
example of Sen. Kamala D. Harris
(Calif.) who assailed former vice
president Joe Biden’s stance on
busing in the first debate and saw
a bump in polling and fundrais-
ing in the days that followed.
From the opening statement,
many of the lower-profile candi-
dates made it clear that they
would seek to draw contrasts
between Warren and Sanders —
the liberal edge of the field — and
themselves.
Former Colorado governor
John Hickenlooper, for example,
assailed candidates who support
the Green New Deal, which he
said would be “a disaster at the
ballot box.”
“Might as well FedEx the elec-
tion to Donald Trump,” he said.
At one point, Bullock, who won
his governor’s race in 2016 even as
Trump handily won the state of
Montana, tangled with formerTexas congressman Beto
O’Rourke over competing health-
care plans.
Later, during a debate about
decriminalizing illegal immigra-
tion, Bullock used the moment to
make a broader argument. He
said such wrangling was where
Democrats go wrong in trying to
lure blue-collar voters who are
deciding whether to cast another
ballot for Trump.
“Look, I think this is the part of
the discussion that shows how
often these debates are detached
from people’s lives,” Bullock said.
“We’ve got 100,000 people show-
ing up at the border right now. If
we decriminalize entry, if we give
health care to everyone, we’ll
have multiples of that.”
“Don’t take my word, that was
President Obama’s Homeland Se-
curity secretary that said that,” he
added. “The biggest problem
right now that we have with
immigration, it’s Donald Trump.
He’s using immigration to notonly rip apart families, but rip
apart this country.”
Delaney also forcefully tried to
highlight distinctions between
himself and the more liberal can-
didates onstage. During a lengthy
debate on health care, Delaney
pointed out that he was the only
person onstage who had worked
in the insurance industry and
took on Sanders’s Medicare-for-
all plan, saying it would negative-
ly affect existing insurance plans.
“Why do we got to be the party
of taking something away from
people?” he said. “We don’t have
to do that.”
He framed the debate as a
battle between liberal and more
moderate candidates onstage
that wouldn’t fly with voters in
the general election.
“Folks, we have a choice. We
can go down the road that Sena-
tor Sanders and Senator Warren
want to take us, which is with bad
policies like Medicare-for-all, free
everything and impossible prom-ises that will turn off independent
voters and get Trump reelected,”
he said.
“That’s what happened with
McGovern. That’s what happened
with Mondale. That’s what hap-
pened with Dukakis. Or we can
nominate someone with new
ideas to create universal health
care for every American with
choice, someone who wants to
unify our country and grow the
economy and create jobs every-
where.”
Later, he said Democrats need-
ed to prove they could offer voters
workable plans, “not fairy tale
economics.”
Hickenlooper, the former gov-
ernor of Colorado who was also
the mayor of Denver, made a
similar argument, saying it was
imperative that Democrats ex-
plain how they will pay for their
proposals. He took on Medicare-
for-all, saying, “You can’t just
spring a plan on the world and
expect it to succeed.”And Williamson struck an
emotional chord as she outlined
how much she thought the gov-
ernment should pay to descen-
dants of slaves as reparations.
“And I believe that $200 billion
to $500 billion is politically feasi-
ble today, because so many Amer-
icans realize there is an injustice
that continues to form a toxicity
underneath the surface, an emo-
tional turbulence that only repa-
rations will heal.”
Rep. Tim Ryan (Ohio), who has
staked his candidacy on an ap-
peal to Midwestern voters, also
cautioned that candidates should
stay away from policies that were
too extreme.
“I hope tonight at some level I
captured your imagination, your
imagination about what this
country could be like if we united,
if we put together real policy that
weren’t left or right, but new and
better. That’s how we win the
future. It’s new and better.”
[email protected]From the opening statements, fringe contenders mount a move to the fore
THE WASHINGTON POSTMinutes spoken
During the first night of the debate
0 8 16 min.HickenlooperWilliamsonRyanDelaneyKlobucharBullockO’RourkeButtigiegSandersWarren 17.
17.
14.10.
10.
10.
10.
9.
8.
8.