DETROIT _ Democrats showed sharp differences over single-payer health care, immigration and climate policy Tuesday as a group of lesser-known candidates tried to use the second presidential primary debate to attack progressive standard-bearers Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
The debate highlighted the fundamental changes advocated by Sanders, a Vermont independent, and Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, who argue that defeating President Donald Trump will require bold plans.
"I don't understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running for president of the United States to talk about what we really can't do and shouldn't fight for," Warren said after several candidates argued that she and Sanders would doom the party.
Several of their opponents argued that there was too much at stake to risk giving any advantage to Trump and that a more pragmatic approach would reach a wider swath.
"We are more worried about winning an argument than winning an election," said Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., tried to split the difference.
"It is time to stop worrying about what the Republicans will say," he said. "It's true, if we embrace a far-left agenda, they're going to say we're a bunch of crazy socialists. If we embrace a conservative agenda, you know what they're going to do? They're going to say we're a bunch of crazy socialists. So let's just stand up for the right policy."
Tuesday's debate _ in front of about 3,000 people at the ornate and historic Fox Theatre in Detroit's redeveloped downtown _ marked the second gathering of the 2020 Democratic field, which is so large that even dividing the top 20 candidates over two nights has meant shutting some out. Though the election is more than a year away, the struggle for fundraising dollars and demonstrable voter support has made the debates crucial to candidates' ability to sell themselves as legitimate contenders and, in many cases, to survive.
The two populist senators, Warren and Sanders, drew the most attention. Sanders, who describes himself as a democratic socialist, has been second place in many polls, behind the front-runner, former Vice President Joe Biden, through much of the campaign. But Warren has leaped ahead of Sanders in some polls and gained significant ground on Biden, becoming a serious threat to overtake the Vermont senator as the progressive favorite and challenge for the nomination.
Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris of California _ who have been sparring since the first debate series in Miami in June _ will lead the field of 10 candidates scheduled to take the stage Wednesday.
The Democratic divide over how to make health care more affordable was on full display from the first minutes of the debate, as centrist candidates took aim at "Medicare for All" plans championed by Sanders and Warren.
The clash reflected the deepening division in the field over health care, which was a flash point for candidate attacks of one another in the days leading up to the debate.
Moderates in the race see the health care debate as one of the clearest points of distinction between their approach and that of the progressives who appeal to the base, with the moderates arguing that Medicare for All would threaten Obamacare and leave Americans with even less coverage.
"This is an example of wish-list economics," said Montana Gov. Steve Bullock. "It used to be that just Republican wanted to repeal and replace. Now Democrats do as well. ... It took us decades of false starts to get the Affordable Care Act. So let's actually build on it."
Sanders and Warren stridently argued for scrapping the current health care model and replacing it with a single-payer system, which they said is the only option for freeing American health coverage from the shackles of corporate corruption.
"Stop using Republican talking points," Warren charged. "We have to think of this in the big frame," she said. "These insurance companies do not have a God-given right to make $23 billion in profits and suck it out of our health care system."
The back and forth grew testy, as candidates arguing that those who chafe at Medicare for All lack backbone and vision clashed with the many on the stage sharing the outlook of Biden, arguing the crusade for government run-health care reflects a Democratic Party in danger of drifting far to the left of the American public.
The moderates are pushing for a so-called "public option," that would allow Americans who don't like their commercial health plan to buy into a government plan.
"I just don't buy this," said Klobuchar. "I have heard some candidates say it is not moral to not have that public option. ... Clearly this is the easiest way to move forward quickly. And I want to get things done."
Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper concurred: "It comes down to that question of America being used to having choices, the right to make a decision," he said. "Evolution. Not a revolution."
Warren pushed back, saying every effort to use the current model to create universal health care has left the middle class burned.
"We have tried this experiment with the insurance companies, and what they have done is sucked billions of dollars out of our health care system," she said.
After CNN moderator Jake Tapper asked candidates to reveal whether they supported raising taxes to pay for a Medicare for All system, Sanders accused him of parroting the GOP. Sanders and Warren insisted the only Americans who would ultimately pay more under the system they envision are the wealthy and corporations, as everyone else's costs would be offset by vanishing health care bills.
Former Maryland Rep. John Delaney and Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan joined the flank on stage warning against Medicare for All. "We don't have to be the party of subtraction," Delaney said.
The candidates split along similar lines over whether to decriminalize border crossings by migrants who lack permission to enter the United States.
Warren argued that the law that makes some border crossings a crime, rather than a civil violation, has enabled Trump to have migrant children separated from their parents.
Sanders joined Warren, and denied his proposed surge in federal spending on health care and higher education would encourage illegal immigration.
"I happen to believe that when I talk about health care as a human right, that applies to all people in this country," he said.
A few others _ Hickenlooper, Ryan and former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke _ rejected the idea of decriminalizing border crossings.
"I expect that people who come here follow our laws," said O'Rourke, adding that the U.S. should reserve the right to prosecute immigrants who enter the country illegally.
The clash over how far the party should go to embrace boldly progressive policies emerged again when discussion turned to climate change.
The moderates aggressively took aim at the push for a Green New Deal, which many of the candidates have endorsed. The plan, drafted by progressives, has included calls for universal health care and guaranteed jobs, which the more centrist candidates warned threatened to get in the way of climate action.
"That is a disaster at the ballot box," Hickenlooper said, referring to the combination of the Green New Deal and health plans that would abolish private insurance. "You might as well FedEx the election to Donald Trump."
"It ties its progress to other things that are completely unrelated to climate," said Delaney, who supports putting a price on carbon.
Warren again accused the more moderate candidates on the stage of embracing Republican attacks, misleading voters by latching onto peripheral elements of the Green New Deal and using it to attack what is an ambitious call to action on climate.
She laid out her plan that builds on the Green New Deal by investing trillions of dollars in research and uses it to reorient the American economy toward green manufacturing.
"No one wants to top that," Warren said. "What they want to do instead is find a Republican talking point of a made up piece of another part and say 'Oh, we don't agree with that.'"
Bullock warned the tone of the party's push on climate is alienating voters like those from his state, who have worked in coal and other fossil fuel industries much of their lives.
"There are folks who have spent their whole lives powering our country," he said. "And far too often Democrats talk is if they are part of the problem."
Sanders, who routinely rails against fossil fuel companies, took issue.
"We are not anti-worker," said Sanders, who emphasized that his plan includes a transition for coal workers and others in the industry to jobs in a more green-oriented economy.
"I get a little bit tired of Democrats afraid of big ideas," Sanders said. Republicans are not afraid of big ideas. They can give a trillion dollars in tax breaks to billionaires and profitable corporations. So please don't tell me we cannot take on the fossil fuel industry. It is not going to happen unless we do that."
