Democratic debate: Candidates tackle many issues

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National News

June 27, 2019 - 10:47 AM

From left, former housing secretary Julian Castro, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) react during the first night of the Democratic presidential debate on Wednesday in Miami. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images/TNS)

MIAMI — Ten Democratic White House hopefuls found broad consensus Wednesday night on a range of issues — guns, immigration, climate change — reserving the full measure of their contempt and their harshest put-downs for President Donald Trump.

There were a handful of clashes among contestants, who shared a stage at a fine arts center in downtown Miami for the first of two consecutive debate nights.

But their differences were largely on the margins or matters of degree — how far left should the party move, and how quickly — as the mostly friendly rivals used the question-and-answer format to paint small portraits of their candidacies.

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker spoke of living in a violence-plagued low-income neighborhood of Newark. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren alluded to the scores of policy-filled town halls she has held. Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard mentioned her military service, and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro related his upbringing by a single mom.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee boasted of his executive standing, contrasting it with the many congressional lawmakers on stage, saying he had done more than any other to protect a woman’s legal right to abortion — which drew a tart rejoinder from Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

“There’s three women up here who have fought pretty hard for a woman’s right to choose,” she dryly noted, drawing cheers and applause from the studio audience.

Twenty of the roughly two dozen Democratic presidential candidates qualified for the debate stage under the rules set by the Democratic National Committee, based on poll standing and fundraising performances.

The field was split into two sets of 10. The lineup for the second debate on Thursday night, determined by lot, includes most of the top-tier candidates, including the Democratic front-runner, former Vice President Joe Biden, and the candidate running second in most polls, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The two went largely unmentioned Wednesday night, despite their enviable positions.

Not so the president, who was a repeated target. (He weighed in via Twitter, declaring the encounter “BORING.”)

Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan accused Trump of breaking the promise he made to his Rust Belt constituents to reverse decades of economic decline. Gabbard vowed to be a president “who’ll put your interests ahead of the rich and powerful,” saying, “that’s not what we have now.”

Klobuchar delivered one of the harshest rebukes of the commander in chief, mocking his penchant for executive action via Twitter. “I don’t think we should conduct foreign policy in our bathrobe at 5 in the morning,” she scoffed.

While the candidates were unanimous in their disdain for Trump, they differed on whether he should be impeached.

Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke said Congress must pursue that step, warning that if not, Democrats would “allow him to get away with this with complete impunity.”

But former Maryland Rep. John Delaney sided with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has resisted the call for impeachment. He said most Americans he has spoken with do not care about Trump as much as they worry about health care or fixing the nation’s infrastructure.

Some of the most passionate moments of the two-hour session came during a discussion of immigration. The candidates were united once more in directing their anger and disgust at Trump and his hardline policies. “When people come to this country, they do not leave their human rights at the border,” Booker said.

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