If you need proof that a woman can beat Donald Trump, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar said during the debate, “Nancy Pelosi does it every single day.”
In the most watchable of the five Democratic debates so far, candidates who have been running toward the back of the pack put in the best performances.
Cory Booker, who claimed he threw away his closing statement when he saw civil rights hero John Lewis in the audience, gave an inspired and (possibly) extemporaneous speech about the power of the civil rights movement and the need for transformative change. Calling the next presidential election “a moral moment,” Booker declared that it’s not just about beating Donald Trump. “That’s the floor. We need to go to the ceiling. We need to go to the mountaintop.”
The New Jersey Senator swung for the fences—and his opponents—throughout the debate. He took on Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren over her proposed wealth tax, saying that while he agrees with her ideas, it is not enough to talk about taxing the rich—Americans, including working-class voters, want to hear a plan that will allow them to build wealth themselves.
While targeting Warren and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ ambitious redistributive proposals has become a near-obsession for establishment Dems, Booker put a personal twist on his attack, connecting it to low-income black voters who want to build economic independence through entrepreneurship. And he put his finger on a strong current in American culture that Democrats cannot afford to ignore.
Booker also went after former Vice President Joe Biden, saying he “might have been high” when he said he wouldn’t legalize marijuana, to laughs from the audience. “Marijuana in our country is already legal for privileged people,” Booker added, describing how the war on drugs has led to mass incarceration of young black men that eclipses slavery.
Booker put his finger on a strong current in American culture that Democrats cannot afford to ignore.
Booker went on to explain why an out-of-it candidate like Biden might help re-elect Trump: “We lost in Wisconsin . . . because of massive diminution of the African American vote.”
Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, who, like Booker, has been an also-ran in the polls, had a particularly strong night. If you need proof that a woman can beat Donald Trump, Klobuchar said, “Nancy Pelosi does it every single day.” That line got warm reception, as did Klobuchar’s statements on family leave and abortion rights, and her dig at billionaire Tom Steyer: “I am someone who doesn’t come from money,” followed by her appeal to get big money out of politics.
Moderator Rachel Maddow asked Klobuchar, who has proposed a three-month paid family leave, to defend her plan in contrast to California Senator Kamala Harris, who has proposed six months of paid leave. Instead of arguing, the two candidates explained in simple, clear terms why women, who work and care for their children and elderly relatives, picking up the slack for free, cannot sustain the current system, and why we must, as a society, find a better way.
That moment alone showed why it is so important to have women candidates on stage.
Harris’s best moment came when she was invited to elaborate on an earlier attack on South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg for his insensitivity on race. She demurred, but segued into what she said was the more general point.
“For too long, candidates have taken for granted constituencies who’ve been the backbone of the Democratic Party,” she said. Describing drive-by campaign stops at black churches, she reeled off dire statistics on black maternal mortality and unequal pay for black women, concluding by saying, that the question for candidates has to be, “Where you been and what are you gonna do?”
Buttigieg, who has been rising in the polls, did not have his best night. At one point he looked visibly pissed off as Warren stole his thunder with a long, anecdotal answer to a question about military service, describing her brothers’ wartime service and the importance of shared sacrifice.
Booker also had his petty moments, stumbling off the mountaintop to announce that he, like Buttigieg, was a Rhodes Scholar.
Steyer thanked fellow rich guy Andrew Yang for defending him from the attacks on rich guys lobbed at him by the other candidates on the stage. Steyer also took the opportunity to declare that he is the only candidate who considers climate change the most important crisis facing America, who supports term limits, and who has been engaged in a critical voter-turnout operation.
Yang got a laugh when asked what he would say, if elected, in his first call with Russia President Vladimir Putin: “I’m sorry I beat your guy.”
The topic of voter suppression got significant air time, which was a breath of fresh air, especially since the debate took place in Atlanta, Georgia, where, as more than one candidate noted, Stacey Abrams would have been governor had the Republicans not succeeded in suppressing a large number of African American votes.
Warren and Sanders got time to expand on the benefits of Medicare for All. Warren also gave a powerful account of visiting a detention center on the Texas border and seeing children kept in cages.
Sanders made a strong statement on Saudi Arabia, which he said should be treated as a pariah state. On Israel, he said, “We must treat the Palestinian people with the dignity and respect they deserve”—a Democratic debate first.
Tulsi Gabbard decried U.S. military interventions abroad and alienated her opponents with her open criticism of Democratic foreign policy, which she described as being of a piece with the Trump Administration.
Throughout the three-hour debate, everyone said it was important to bring the American people together, although they did not agree on how to do it. For Biden, this meant a return to the sunny optimism of the Obama years. For Sanders, it meant acknowledging the terrible straits most Americans are in. For Harris, it meant understanding and being able to talk to diverse constituencies. For Klobuchar, it was about fiscal prudence and toughness.
Everyone said it was important to bring the American people together, although they did not agree on how to do it.
Joe Biden got through, though his hesitations and occasional lapses made it stressful to watch him. At one point he seemed to forget Steyer’s name. When he got a #MeToo question, it was impossible not to cringe. But apart from his odd comment that he “came from the black community” and was chosen as President Obama’s running mate because of black support, which triggered a double-team take-down from Booker and Harris, he did alright.
In her closing statement, Warren said that all of the issues the candidates addressed in the debate, from climate change to expanding access to health care, had the support of the American people, but are still unresolved because of corruption in Washington.
Biden jumped in to say he assumed “We’re not talking about Barack Obama and his spotless administration.”
“I’m so tired of everybody walking around like, ‘Woe is me,’ ” Biden said, with sudden vigor, in his closing statement. “Get up! Let’s take back this country and lead the world again! . . . Get up!” he cried, like Rip Van Winkle awakening to find himself in an America he didn’t recognize.
And with that, the Democrats left the stage and walked back out into a country where Donald Trump is still President.