MIAMI _ Ten Democratic White House hopefuls found broad consensus Wednesday night on a range of issues _ guns, immigration, relations with Iran _ 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 were matters of degree, as the mostly friendly rivals used the question-and-answer format to paint broader 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 spoke of her military service, and former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro of being raised by a struggling 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 performance.
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.
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. 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 warned that Democrats in Congress must pursue impeachment, 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 left's call for impeachment and 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 came during a discussion of immigration. The candidates were again united 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.
But a spat erupted between the two Texans _ Castro and O'Rourke _ who have each outlined extensive immigration reform plans. (O'Rourke, who used to represent El Paso, broke into Spanish several times during the debate, prompting Booker and Castro to display their own bilingual skills.)
Castro has called for repealing the law that makes it a crime to enter the United States without permission, saying the Trump administration has used it to separate children from their parents at the border, targeting the adults for prosecution.
He faulted O'Rourke for not including that repeal in his own plan. "I think it's a mistake," he said, challenging his fellow Texan to endorse the repeal.
When O'Rourke stressed the importance of prosecuting human traffickers and drug smugglers, Castro berated him for not recognizing that there are other criminal laws that enable them to be prosecuted. "I think you should do your homework on this issue," Castro told O'Rourke.
Other sharp divisions emerged over health care when the candidates were asked who among them would abolish private health care in favor of a universal government-run system. Only Warren and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio raised their hands.
"I'm with Bernie (Sanders) on Medicare for All," Warren said, in a nod to the candidate she is competing with for the favor of liberal Democrats. "I understand there are a lot of politicians who say 'Oh, it's just not possible, we just can't do it'... What they're telling you (is) that they just won't fight for it."
O'Rourke was asked about his previous support for a measure that would replace private insurance, which he no longer supports during his presidential run. He cited union members' concerns about losing quality private health care plans.
"Wait, wait, wait," de Blasio cut in. "Private insurance is not working for tens of millions of Americans when you talk about co-pays, the deductibles, the premiums, the out-of-pocket expenses ... How can you defend a system that's not working?"
Delaney attacked the idea of abolishing private insurance. "I think we should be the party that keeps what's working and fixes what's broken," he said. "Doesn't that make sense?"
De Blasio, befitting his New York pedigree, was perhaps the most aggressive and unreservedly liberal contestant throughout the evening.
He mocked O'Rourke, without naming him, for refusing to support a 70% tax rate on the wealthiest Americans. He asserted that Democrats are supposed to support those kind of soak-the-rich policies.
He called remedies to economic inequality a "battle for the heart and soul" of the party and suggested Democrats should also back free public college education and a breakup of corporations that don't serve democracy.
Because of the sprawling size of the field, not every candidate was given a chance to respond to every question.
There was broad agreement in support of tougher gun controls, expanding access to health care and negotiating with Iran to contain its nuclear ambitions. "He made us less safe than we were," Klobuchar said of Trump's decision to pull out of the deal negotiated by President Barack Obama.
Climate change _ an issue largely ignored in the 2016 campaign _ drew one of the longest discussions.
Inslee, who has made the fight against global warming the centerpiece of his candidacy, reiterated his proposals to heavily invest in environmentally friendly technologies as a way to combine economic stimulus with slashing carbon emissions.
"The biggest decision for the American public is, who's going to make this the first priority?" Inslee said.
O'Rourke talked up his $5 trillion proposal to slash carbon emissions. Castro said he would issue an executive order for the U.S. to rejoin the Paris Climate accords. Delaney proposed a carbon tax.
But Ryan voiced his skepticism, saying that Democrats have lost the working-class voters "from forgotten communities" in the industrial Midwest by leaning too heavily toward environmentalism at the expense of economic growth. Without their support, he said, "none of this is going to get done."
After two hours of mild scrapping, the candidates closed on a largely upbeat note, emphasizing their biographies and optimism in the promise of America.
"My name is Julian Castro and I am running for president of the United States," he said in Spanish, before switching to English: "The very fact that I can say that tonight shows the progress we have made in this country."
Warren recounted how a $50-per-semester commuter college gave her the chance to fulfill her dream of being a teacher _ "a little slice of government that created some opportunity for a girl and it opened my life."
Klobuchar made the most explicit appeal based on electability. "I have won in the reddest of districts _ ones that Donald Trump won by over 20 points," she said. "I can win in states like Wisconsin and Iowa and in Michigan."
The debate, carried nationally on NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo, opened a series of 12 planned between now and springtime 2020.
