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Night two on the debate stage was the Purple group. This group includes former vice president Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vermont), Sen. Kamala Harris (California), South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Michael Bennet (Colorado), Marianne Williamson, Rep. Eric Swalwell (California), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (New York), Andrew Yang, and former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper.
For night two, we saw Lester Holt, Savannah Guthrie, Jose Diaz-Balart, Rachel Maddow, and Chuck Todd return to moderate the debate. While night one was the picture of civility, night two will be remembered for candidates attempting to shout over each other while scarcely answering their question so they could answer the previous question.
While Beto was easy picking on night one, Biden was the target of multiple candidate’s ire on night two. As the incumbent from the previous Democratic administration, he launched his campaign with the most name recognition and was the first projected to beat President Trump. In addition, he’s fumbled quite a few issues with race and policy in the last few weeks, making him a prime target for other candidates.
On night one of the debate, there were very clear front runners. On night two, that conclusion is much harder to reach. My initial gut reaction is Harris and Buttigieg had the strongest showing with Marianne Williamson sputtering out early on in the night.
My quick opinions on each candidate:
Former VP Joe Biden showed the American people he did in fact work with President Obama, and during the course of his career, he put into place many solutions that worked for the American people. During the two hours, Kamala Harris confronted Biden for his support of former Senator James Easton’s policies and his stance on busing students a few decades ago. Sen. Swalwell also insisted he pass the torch to the younger generation because they’re the ones who will fix the current policies. While he wasn’t the strongest candidate, he did put up a fight. Will it be enough to get the nomination? Probably not.
As we’ve seen in the past, Senator Bernie Sanders advocated for a revolution. He wants to take down the greed and corruption in big corporations. But what else is he advocating for? For one, he admitted his plan to cover Medicare for all will include higher taxes on the middle class, effectively saying what you pay in taxes will offset the cost of the medication. He wants to address the root cause of southern immigration, and he believes that fixing the economy will effectively solve most, if not all, problems that we face in society today.
There was an incredibly strong showing from Kamala Harris. This wasn’t unexpected, as she has the chops to go toe-to-toe with any candidate, including President Trump. When the candidates started shouting over each other, she insisted they calm down because “America does not want to witness a food fight. They want to know how we’re going to put food on their table.” I almost counted Kamala out, but after this showing, I believe that she will be a strong contender for the Office of President.
Mayor Buttigieg also had a strong showing. Thankfully, he was the only candidate that attempted to speak Spanish, and he laid out a plan for immigration reform, gun reform, and free college for low, and middle income students. When pressed about the shooting of Eric Logan, he admitted that all of the training his officers had failed to stop the shooting, and he looked rather distressed when Representative Swalwell insisted he should fire the chief for this incident.
Senator Bennett didn’t speak much, but he did have quite a bit to say about health care and immigration.
Marianne Williamson had some of the most bizarre answers of the entire night. When asked what is the first thing she would do in office, Marianne said she was going to call the President of New Zealand to informer her that America is going to be the best place for a child to grow up. She also equated all of the plans being proposed to “superficial fixes,” and she made sure to end her speech by saying she was going to “harness love” to beat President Trump. I believe tonight she’s ruled herself out as a serious contender for the Office of President.
Representative Swalwell was fiery in this date. He was the first to call out VP Biden, insisting he pass the torch on to the next generation because they have the ideas and fire to fix climate change and other policies that are plaguing the U.S.
Senator Gillibrand was incredibly aggressive during the debate. At nearly every question and comment she tried to interject her thoughts. While this strategy might be off-putting, I believe it worked in her favor. For those of us that didn’t know who she is, it gave us more of an opportunity to evaluator her. If you’re curious what her stance is on race, she essentially stated that solving economic problems will reduce division in the U.S. She will be an interesting contender to watch, but I know she won’t have my final vote.
Andrew Yang is a one topic candidate. He wants to provide a $1000 per month Freedom Dividend for every U.S. citizen via a tax of tech companies. While I was initially excited about this opportunity, I don’t think Yang has thought through any other policies that would ultimately be at the forefront of this Presidential campaign season.
Former Governor Hickenlooper set out to be the antithesis of Bernie Sanders. He advocated for progressive policies without socialism. For him, it’s a language issue because he’s concerned that Republicans will call out the party for being socialist thereby effectively handing the Presidency back to President Trump. A shining moment for Hickenlooper was when he equated the immigration policies and detention facilities along the southern border to child kidnapping.
