There was one — and perhaps only one — thing thatthe seven candidates for the Democratic presidential nominationcould all agree on during Tuesday night’s primary debate in South Carolina:Donald Trumpmust be defeated in November.
But who is best to defeat him and how and what the country should look like if he were out of office — on those key questions, the seven sharply diverged.
At times their disagreements, otherwise familiar to Democratic voters after many debates this election, played out in factitious fashion.
The moderators did not always keep a tight rein on the proceedings, with confusion about who was supposed to speak next and griping about laxly enforced time limits on answers.
At the center of the stage was Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is the front-runner for the Democratic nomination after wins in New Hampshire and Nevada and a very narrow second-place loss in Iowa.
He was a major target of his rivals, which he seemed to enjoy as an opportunity to argue for his major reforms, such as universal health care and free public college.
But candidates like Pete Buttigieg, a former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and former Vice President Joe Biden pushed back with their own speaking time. They challenged the viability of a democratic socialist, raising the specter of an easy Trump win against Sanders in the general election, with Democrats suffering in down-ballot races leading to Republican control of Congress.
Sanders, in turn, pointed to his strength against Trump in polls so far.
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In an aside that reflected his social media team’s trolling tendencies, he joked about his debate prowess versus the other candidates on Tuesday, saying, “I did such a good job of beating them last week.”
Addressing Bloomberg, Warren pressed him on his history of backing Republican candidates (he has switched parties in his own career) and again raised the issue of confidentiality agreements that women have had to sign if they complained about issues with him or his eponymous business company. She went viral with such an attack last week and Bloomberg announced after that he would release certain women from their agreements.
In an early dust-up on Tuesday night, she repeated an allegation that Bloomberg had once told a pregnant woman to “kill it,” which he stridently denied on stage.
Throughout the night, the seven candidates — Biden, Buttigieg, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Sanders, billionaire investor Tom Steyer and Warren — sounded off on issues including national security, health care, Israel, North Korea, Russian interference in American politics and the threat of the coronavirus.
In a comment early in the night, reflecting the underlying existential tension in the party as it prepares to try and defeat Trump, Klobuchar said plainly: “If we spend the next four months tearing our party apart, we’re going to watch Donald Trump spend the next four years tearing our country apart.”
The Race So Far
The South Carolina primary will be held this Saturday, as the race for the Democratic nomination quickly progresses onto “Super Tuesday” next week with Sanders seeking to solidify his lead and Biden looking for a comeback.
On March 3, Democrats will be vying for more than 1,300 of the 1,991 delegates needed to win the nomination in 16 contests across the country. Traditionally, that benchmark is a point where candidates with lacking support and losses in early primaries suspend their campaigns.
Sanders leads his rivals in national polling with about 29 percent, according toRealClearPolitics average.
Biden, who is pushing for a win in South Carolina thanks to his largely black electorate, is polling at around 17 percent behind Sanders, while Bloomberg, Warren and Buttigieg follow behind, respectively. Klobuchar is polling after them with about 5 percent.
source: people.com
