Winners and losers from the Democratic debates in Detroit

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The Hill

Democrats came to Detroit for their second round of presidential primary debates on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Who emerged as the winners and losers as the dust settled in the Motor City?

WINNERS

Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)

The two leading left-wing candidates had a good night on Tuesday — and were helped along when the second night’s debate degenerated into a messy fight with more clear losers than winners.

On Tuesday, Sanders was the strongest candidate across the two hours, his performance including a memorable rebuttal when Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) cast aspersions on his "Medicare for All" plan.

“I wrote the damn bill,” Sanders exploded. 

 

Warren had the most striking single moment, telling former Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.), “I don't understand why anybody 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.”

But it wasn’t just snappy one-liners that helped the two progressives.

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Tulsi Gabbard Winner of Breitbart News, Drudge Polls for 2nd Democrat Debate

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2020 Democrat Candidates Rip Former President Barack Obama’s Record

Democrats challenged former Vice President Joe Biden during CNN’s Democrat presidential debate on Wednesday, but in the process, they criticized former President Obama.

Democrats like New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio criticized Democrats for continuing to support the concept of private insurance.

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Debate: Tulsi Gabbard knocks Kamala Harris from her pedestal

If there was anything that made the sludge of lies, hypocrisies, and panders of the fourth Democratic debate worth watching, it was that one little moment when Rep. Tulsi Gabbard effectively slapped Sen. Kamala Harris upside the head over her checkered record as a prosecutor. That was an ambush. And Harris responded like a deer in the headlights.

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DEMS DOUBLE DOWN IN DETROIT Targeting Trump, turning back the clock.

After the first debate on Tuesday, CNN took some heat for including no questions about the famous Mueller report. This time the CNN crew brought it up, but only near the end of the proceedings.

Sen. Kamala Harris of California cited “ten clear cases” of obstruction of justice on the part of President Trump. “No one is above the law,” she said, but the candidate failed to outline the ten clear cases. In his recent testimony, Mueller cited zero cases of obstruction.

Sen. Cory Booker said the president is “authoritarian,” so “start impeachment proceedings immediately.” Julian Castro told the crowd the Mueller reports indicates that Trump “deserves impeachment,” without any citation from that report or the recent Mueller testimony. The Texas Democrat also supports the “prosecution” of the president.

Likewise, New York mayor bill Di Blasio said the president “has committed crimes worthy of impeachment,” without naming any of the crimes. On the prospect of impeachment hindering the Democrats’ prospects to defeat Trump, several candidates, including Castro, said they had to “walk and chew gum at the same time.”

Former HUD boss Castro also delivered one of the bigger whoppers of the night when he acknowledged recent job growth and said it was all “due to Barack Obama.” As with the Mueller report, he didn’t explain how, or deliver any figures.

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Protesters repeatedly interrupt Dem primary debate, shout down Biden, Booker, de Blasio

Dem debate brawl: Biden faces withering attacks from Booker, hits Harris ‘double talk’

Harris mocks Gabbard attack on her AG record, calls herself 'top tier' while rival at 'zero or 1 percent

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2020 Dems Attack Biden for Deportations Under Obama: ‘You Can’t Have it Both Ways’

Democratic presidential candidates had stern words for frontrunner Joe Biden during Wednesday night’s primary debate, calling on the former vice president to explain the deportations of undocumented immigrants that occurred under President Obama.

“If you cross the border illegally, you should be able to be sent back. It’s a crime,” Biden said, disagreeing with several other candidates who said the matter should be a civil rather than a criminal issue.

President Obama, who was nicknamed the “deporter-in-chief” in 2012 by immigration rights advocates, deported or removed over 5 million undocumented immigrants, fewer than the Clinton and Bush administrations did but more than the Trump administration has.

Julian Castro, who also served in the Obama administration as Housing and Urban Development Secretary, shot back at Biden that, “open borders is a right-wing talking point, and frankly I’m disappointed that some folks, including some folks on the stage, have taken the bait.”

“It looks like one of us has learned the lessons of the past and one of us hasn’t,” Castro told Biden. “We need someone who actually has guts on this issue.”

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Dems Round 2: Harris Wilts, Biden Survives, Gabbard's Pantsuit Wins

Wut? Grandpa Joe Bungles Closing Statement: 'Go to Joe 30330'

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THE DEMOCRATIC DEBATE, NIGHT TWO, WHERE MEDIOCRITY IS GOOD ENOUGH

n a general sense, the theme of tonight’s Democratic presidential debate was the same as last night’s — skewer the the frontrunner. Last night, the frontrunners were Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. They came under attack from four no-hopers: John Delaney, John Hickenlooper, Tim Ryan, and Steve Bullock.

Tonight, the frontrunner was Joe Biden. He came under attack, at one point or another, from Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Julian Castro, Jay Inslee, and Bill de Blasio.

There were two important differences between the debates, though. First, Biden was attacked from the left, whereas Warren and Sanders were attacked from what passes these days among Democrats as the center. Second, Biden wasn’t just attacked by no-hopers. Harris is in the top tier, and Booker, though lagging in the polls, may not be entirely without hope. 

The second difference is key. Delaney, Hickenlooper, etc. had nothing to lose by going after Warren and Sanders. But Harris stood to lose if she came out second best in her exchanges with Biden, and maybe if she fought him to only a draw. 

Moreover, because Harris is a strong contender, she was a potential target of some of the minnows. Indeed, the strongest attack against her came not from Biden, but from Tulsi Gabbard.

But let’s get back to Biden. How did he do? Much better than last time, that’s for sure. He was more prepared, more forceful, more articulate, and less sleepy. 

Biden did have a few senior moments, the most bizarre of which came at the very end of his closing statement when he urged people to “go to Joe 30330.” I think he wanted people to text him at that number. He also warned against eight more years of Trump, as though this were 2017.

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Biden the punching bag as debate rivals attack him on immigration, race, and crime

DETROIT — Joe Biden fended off political attacks on multiple fronts during the second night of Democratic 2020 presidential primary debates in Detroit, hitting the former vice president and longtime senator over his record on immigration, race, and crime. 

 

New Jersey Sen.Cory Booker and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio led the charge against Biden, the front-runner in the 26-person Democratic field, according to most polls. They were joined at times by California Sen. Kamala Harris and various other candidates, the tag-team effort resulting in Biden playing defense most of the night. That followed a lackluster performance during the June debates in Miami, when Biden fell prey to an assault by Harris over his 1970s-era opposition to school busing and boasts of working with segregationist senators. 

The 10 contenders on stage for the second night of the Motor City series brought a frenetic energy to the event, which rippled through the audience. Protesters twice interrupted proceedings, with shouts about immigrant deportations and criminal justice.

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‘No Republican Talking Points!’ Is The New Democrat Talking Point

It was 10:46 p.m. when Joe Biden finished his closing statement Wednesday night. At 10:50 p.m. the former Vice President was at the edge of the stage with his arm around the Rev. Al Sharpton, the professional demagogue who with his hoaxes and hatemongering has stirred up more racial discord in America than anyone.

And Biden is the “centrist” candidate.

Government dependency, the cause of so much misery, is the air that politicians of the left breathe. Ever-increasing government control is their perennial objective, promising it will solve big problems (often of government making). But it never does.

Democrats talk about “endless wars,” but the problems of poverty and crime President Trump showcased in his explosive tweets about Baltimore must never be solved, so that the left’s war against them never ends.

Despite strides against racism and against lack of economic opportunities for the underclass that were unimaginable in the 1960s, the Democrats running for president in 2020 are more intent on expanding government and worming it into Americans’ lives than some of the most power-hungry tyrants of the past, doing so purportedly to combat the phantom of “systemic racism.”

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"Don't you love farce?
My fault, I fear
I thought that you'd want what I want
Sorry, my dear!
But where are the clowns
Send in the clowns
Don't bother, they're here"

Stephen Sondheim

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