THURSDAY, AUGUST 1 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 A
campaign 2020
Kamala Harris
Harris’s challenges to Biden’s record in
the first debate momentarily altered the
trajectory of her campaign, sparking a
bump in polling and casting her as a more
agile foil to the man leading the polls. On
Monday, she released her version of Medi-
care-for-all, a plan Biden’s team attacked
almost immediately, providing yet an-
other source of tension between the bud-
ding rivals.
On Wednesday, Harris defended that
plan against attacks from Biden and oth-
ers, while also defending her prosecutori-
al record against attacks from Tulsi Gab-
bard and others.
“I think you can judge people by when
they are under fire, and it’s not about some
fancy opinion on a stage but when they’re
in the position to actually make a decision,
what do they do,” Harris said, without
addressing the specific circumstances ref-
erenced by her challengers. “When I was
in the position of having to decide wheth-
er or not to seek a death penalty on cases I
prosecuted, I made a very difficult deci-
sion that was not popular to not seek the
death penalty. History shows that, and I
am proud of those decisions.”Andrew Yang
Yang, a former tech entrepreneur, has
run what he has described as the “nerdiest
presidential campaign in history.” He has
amassed a small following called the
“Yang Gang.” In both the Miami and
Detroit debates, Yang was the candidate to
speak the least onstage. On Wednesday
night, he was applauded when he de-
ployed his catchphrase: “We need to do
the opposite of much of what we’re doing
right now, and the opposite of Donald
Trump is an Asian man who likes math.”
On his proposals for a universal basic
income, he insisted it would be the “most
effective way for us to address racial
inequality in a genuine way.”Tulsi Gabbard
Gabbard has carved out a unique niche
in the Democratic field, garnering support
from far-right groups and far-left groups
who praise her staunch criticism of Amer-
ican military involvement abroad. A mem-
ber of Congress from Hawaii and a vet-
eran, Gabbard recently took swings at
Harris, who she said lacked the tempera-
ment to serve as president. On Wednes-
day, Gabbard tried to hit Harris when she
touted former health and human services
secretary Kathleen Sebelius as an endors-
er of the Harris health-care plan, suggest-
ing that Sebelius’s affiliation made the
plan subject to private interests.
Gabbard also hit Harris on her record as
a prosecutor. “Senator Harris says she’s
proud of her record as a prosecutor and
that she’ll be a prosecutor president. But
I’m deeply concerned about this record,”
Gabbard said. “... bottom line is, Senator
Harris, when you were in a position to
make a difference and an impact in these
people’s lives, you did not.”Jay Inslee
Inslee, the governor of Washington and
an environmentalist, has struggled to rise
from the bottom of the pack in national
polls and is yet to qualify for the third
debate. His bid to secure the nomination
is built largely around the single issue of
tackling climate change, which he has
described as “the most urgent challenge of
our time.” On Wednesday, he stayed on
message. “We cannot work this out. The
time is up. Our house is on fire. We have to
stop using coal in 10 years, and we need a
president to do it or it won’t get done,” he
said. “Get off coal. Save this country and
the planet.”
“I am running for president because the
people in this room and the Democrats
watching tonight are the last best hope for
humanity on this planet,” he said.Bill de Blasio
De Blasio, the New York mayor, has low
favorability numbers on his home turf and
has struggled to gain traction in the race.
In recent weeks, he has faced criticism in
the tabloids for his lackluster bid as New
York has struggled with a series of black-
outs.
At one point, protesters from the audi-
ence demanded that a New York City
police officer involved in the chokehold
death of Eric Garner be fired. De Blasio
was later forced to defend his response in
the case, and he blamed the U.S. Justice
Department.
As the only candidate onstage who
wants fully phased-in Medicare-for-all, de
Blasio said: “There’s this mythology that
somehow all of these folks are in love with
their insurance in America.” In his open-
ing statement, he said: “We will tax the
hell out of the wealthy to make this a fairer
country.”
— Chelsea Janes and Laura HughesJoe Biden
The former vice president was not
ready for Kamala D. Harris’s attacks in
the first debate, when he stumbled to
provide the kind of response that would
inspire confidence in his ability to handle
similar attacks from President Trump in
a general election. In the weeks since,
Biden has defended his record on civil
rights against attacks from Harris and
Cory Booker, and he subsequently vowed
to be less polite this time — though he
began the evening by telling Harris to “go
easy on me, kid” when they met at center
stage.
No one went easy on Biden, who was
forced to defend himself over and over
again.
“The fact is that we’re talking about
things that occurred a long, long time
ago. And now, all of a sudden... Every-
body is talking about how terrible I am on
these issues,” Biden said. “Barack Obama
knew exactly who I was. He had 10
lawyers do a background check on every-
thing about me on civil rights and civil
liberties, and he chose me, and he said it
was the best decision he made.”
Cory Booker
Booker, the first African American to
represent New Jersey in the Senate, has
struggled to break out of the middle of
the pack in a crowded field of Democrats.
The former mayor of Newark has tussled
with Biden in recent weeks over his
record on issues of race. On Wednesday,
they clashed during a debate on criminal
justice reform. “We have a system right
now that’s broken. And if you want to
compare records — and, frankly, I’m
shocked that you do — I am happy to do
that. Because all the problems that he is
talking about [are problems] that he
created,” Booker said, and later added:
“There’s a saying in my community,
you’re dipping into the Kool-Aid and you
don’t even know the flavor.”
Julián Castro
Castro, the former mayor of San Anto-
nio and secretary of the Department of
Housing and Urban Development under
President Barack Obama, has been keen
to emphasize his executive experience.
The only Latino candidate in the race, he
clashed with Biden on Wednesday night
as he defended his policy of decriminaliz-
ing illegal border crossings. “It looks like
one of us has learned the lessons of the
past and one of us hasn’t,” Castro said.
“... What we need are politicians who
actually have some guts on this issue.”
Kirsten Gillibrand
The New York senator has yet to find
traction in a massive field, despite run-
ning on a feminist platform and casting
herself as the candidate most willing to
stand up for women. She is in danger of
not meeting the polling and donor fund-
raising benchmarks required to debate in
September, and could therefore use a
spark in front of a national audience.
Wednesday, she tried to create it by
challenging Biden on an op-ed in which
he wrote about women working outside
the home as a threat to families.
She also cast herself as an ally in the
fight against racial injustice.
“I don’t believe that it’s the responsi-
bility of Cory and Kamala to be the only
voice that takes on these issues of institu-
tional racism, systemic racism in our
country. I think as a white woman of
privilege, who is a U.S. senator, running
for president of the United States, it is
also my responsibility to lift up those
voices that aren’t being listened to,”
Gillibrand said. “And I can talk to those
white women in the suburbs that voted
for Trump and explain to them what
white privilege actually is, that when
their son is walking down a street with a
bag of M&Ms in his pocket, wearing a
hoodie, his whiteness is what protects
him from not being shot.”
Michael Bennet
The Colorado senator needs a splash to
qualify for the debates in September, as
his arguments against moving the Demo-
cratic Party left have not inspired sup-
port in the polls. Bennet is running as a
common-sense moderate who is willing
to get vocal with members of his own
party. On Wednesday, he urged his fellow
candidates to identify priorities and tell
the truth — including when multiple
candidates attacked Biden on his record.
“This is the fourth debate that we have
had and the second time that we have
been debating what people did 50 years
ago with busing when our schools are as
segregated today as they were 50 years
ago,” Bennet said. “We need a conversa-
tion about what’s happening now.”
PAUL SANCYA/ASSOCIATED PRESS PAUL SANCYA/ASSOCIATED PRESSPAUL SANCYA/ASSOCIATED PRESS PAUL SANCYA/ASSOCIATED PRESSPAUL SANCYA/ASSOCIATED PRESS JIM WATSON/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGESJIM WATSON/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES PAUL SANCYA/ASSOCIATED PRESSJIM WATSON/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES LUCAS JACKSON/REUTERSLEFT, FROM TOP: Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Julián Castro, Kirsten Gillibrand, Michael Bennet
RIGHT, FROM TOP: Kamala Harris, Andrew Yang, Tulsi Gabbard, Jay Inslee, Bill de BlasioThe candidates’ moments
On second night of debate, back-and-forth over Biden’s record, racial injustice and Medicare-for-all