Politics

Democrats Debate: Moderates Focus on Warren’s Plans, Ignore Buttigieg

Sen. Elizabeth Warren rolled out her two-step approach to achieving Medicare for All for the first time in Wednesday night’s debate, while the more moderate candidates continued to argue that her plans are too expensive.

The fifth Democratic primary debate — hosted by the Washington Post and MSNBC — comes at a pivotal moment in the campaign, as four candidates are in strong contention for the lead. Mayor Pete Buttigieg in particular appears to be surging, with recent polls giving him a clear lead in Iowa and New Hampshire.

But if anything, the debate was less heated than the four earlier contests. Buttigieg was mostly ignored, and the attacks on Warren were milder than those in the fourth debate.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar offered the most pointed criticism of Warren’s proposals, though without saying her name, arguing it was not smart to kick 150 million people off private insurance or offer free college to rich kids.

“I’d love to staple free diplomas under people’s chairs,” Klobuchar said. “I’m not going to go for things that sound good on a bumper sticker and throw in a free car.”

Sen. Cory Booker also critiqued Warren’s proposal for a two-percent wealth tax on those with more than $50 million in assets. He acknowledged that the government needs to raise revenue, but argued that a wealth tax would be too “cumbersome.” He also argued that Democrats should be less focused on taxing wealth and more focused on creating it.

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign had telegraphed beforehand that he would go after Warren. But he did little more than restate his argument that Medicare for All would cost $30 trillion and that a majority of Democrats don’t support it. He did not repeat criticisms of Warren that he has offered in other venues, such as that she is “elitist.”

Late in the debate, the moderators sought to stoke a fight between Buttigieg and Kamala Harris, but the conflict fizzed. Harris had previously criticized the Buttigieg campaign for using a stock photo of a Kenyan woman in a website touting his plan for racial justice. But when asked to repeat her criticism on the debate stage, Harris said that Buttigieg had already apologized, and instead took the opportunity to argue that the Democratic Party has too often taken black women voters for granted. Buttigieg, who has struggled with black voters, readily agreed with her.

“I welcome the challenge of connecting with black voters in America who don’t yet know me,” Buttigieg said.

In a discussion of foreign policy, Sen. Kamala Harris sparred with Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who had said she wanted to reclaim the Democratic Party from the “military industrial complex and other greedy corporate interests.”

Harris said that Gabbard had “spent four years full-time on Fox News criticizing President Obama,” and called her out for “buddying up to Steve Bannon.” Giving a chance to fire back, Gabbard said that Harris would continue the foreign policy status quo and pursue the “Bush-Clinton-Trump” policy of regime change wars.

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