The top 12 Democratic presidential candidates on Tuesday are talking impeachment, health care, jobs, Syria, wealth disparities, opioids and gun control from an Ohio stage for their fourth debate.
The big picture: Eyes have been on Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders for various reasons: Biden, coming to his son Hunter Biden's defense regarding Ukraine; Warren, carrying a target on her back as the lead candidate and Sanders on his energy level as he recovers from his heart attack.
- Warren has become the frontrunner since September's debate in Houston and is taking the heat from many of the candidates on stage.
- Still, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) rejected the sparring, saying "tearing each other down because we have a different plan to me is unacceptable. I have seen this script before."
Opioids
Like many states across the country, the opioid crisis has hit Ohio hard. The candidates’ consensus has been to attack the pharmaceutical companies and hold them responsible with possible jail time when tried.
What they’re saying:
- Harris: "I do think of this as a matter of justice and accountability because they are nothing more than some high-level dope dealers."
- Yang: "We have to recognize this is a disease of capitalism run amuck. There was a point when there were more opioid prescriptions in the state of Ohio than human beings in the state of Ohio."
Age in the Oval Office
Former President Jimmy Carter commented he would have never been able to take on the presidency at age of 80. Warren is 70, Sanders is 78 and Biden is 76 years old.
What they're saying:
- Sanders: “We are going to be mounting a vigorous campaign all over this country. That is how I think I can reassure the American people.”
- Biden: “I know what the job is. I've been engaged. Look, one of the reasons I'm running is because of my age and my experience."
- Warren: "I will outwork, out-organize and outlast anyone, and that includes Donald Trump, Mike Pence, or whoever the Republicans get stuck with."
Gun control
Proposals range from mandatory buybacks for assault weapons to registering assault weapons and acting on legislation in the Senate.
What they're saying:
- O’Rourke: "If someone does not turn in an AR-15 or AK-47, one of these weapons of war or brings it out in public to brandish and intimidate, then that weapon will be taken from them. But the expectation is that Americans will follow the law."
- Buttigieg: "Congressman [O’Rourke] you just made it clear you are don't know how this is actually going to take weapons off the streets. If you can develop the plan further, I think we can have a debate about it. But we can't wait."
- Booker: "It's frustrating when 77% of Americans agree on licensing. ... We're going need people to stand up and follow where people already are."
- Klobuchar: “There are three bills right now on Mitch McConnell's desk, ... That's what we should be focusing on. And I don't want to screw this up.”
- Warren: "The problem here that we need to focus on is, first, how widespread gun violence is."
- Harris: "Congress has had years to act and failed because they do not have the courage. When I'm elected, I'll give them 100 days to pull their act together, put a bill on my desk for signature and if they don't, I will take executive action."
- Biden: "The way to deal with those guns and those AR-15s and assault weapons ... You must register that weapon. When you register it, the likelihood of it being used diminishes exponentially."
Syria/Turkey
President Trump announced he was withdrawing U.S. special forces from the Syria-Turkey border. The Turkish president began attacking America’s Kurdish allies in response. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Iraq veteran, still pushed for troops to be removed and Buttigieg disagreed.
What they’re saying:
- Gabbard: "What you're saying, Mayor Pete is you would continue to have U.S. troops in Syria for an indefinite period of time to continue this regime change war that has caused so many refugees to flee Syria."
- Buttigieg: “The slaughter going on in Syria is not a consequence of American presence, it a consequence of a withdrawal and a betrayal by this president of American allies and American values. .. You can put an end to endless war without embracing Donald Trump's policy, as you're doing.
- Harris: "What has happened in Syria is yet again Donald Trump selling folks out. And in this case he sold out the Kurds, who, yes, fought with us and thousands died in our fight against ISIS."
Wealth tax
Candidates targeted Warren for her wealth tax, though many said they are open to a wealth tax to address income inequality.
What they’re saying:
- Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke: "Sometimes Sen. Warren is more about being punitive and pitting some part of the country against each other ... She has yet to describe her tax plan and whether or not that person I met would see a tax increase."
- Klobuchar: "I want to give a reality check to Elizabeth. No one on this stage wants to protect billionaires. Not even the billionaire wants to protect billionaires. We have different approaches. Your idea is not the only idea."
- Warren: "I'm really shocked at the notion that anyone thinks I'm punitive. Look, I don't have a beef with billionaires. ... Billionaires "pitch in 2 cents so every other kid in America has a chance to make it."
- Yang: "We should look at what Germany, France, Denmark and Sweden still have, which is a value-added tax. If we give the American people a tiny slice of every Google sale, we can put it into our hands because we know best how to use it."
Why you’ll hear about this again: Economists and tax analysts say Warren wealth tax will raise $2.6 trillion over 10 years.
Economy
Candidates criticized trade deals, corporate greed and offered ways to resolve the General Motors strike.
What they're saying:
- Andrew Yang: Rejects Sanders' federal jobs program, pushed for universal income and his "freedom dividend" of $1,000 a month for each American.
- Sanders: "We cannot afford a billionaire class whose greed and corruption has been at war with the working families of this country."
- Billionaire Tom Steyer: "There have been 40 years where corporations have bought this government, and those 40 years have meant a 40-year attack on the rights of working people."
Health care
Mayor Pete Buttigieg and others took shots at Warren's Medicare for All proposal, after she was once again asked how she is going to fund a public option health care plan without raising taxes on the middle class.
The exchange:
- Warren: "I will not sign a bill into law that does not lower costs for middle-class families."
- Buttigieg: “Your signature, senator, is to have a plan for everything except this."
- Warren: ”Let's be clear, whenever someone hears the term 'Medicare for all who want it,' understand what that really means. It's Medicare for all who can afford it."
- Buttigieg: “I don’t understand why you believe the only way to get affordable coverage for everybody is to obliterate private plans.”
Sens. Amy Klobuchar, Harris and Booker tried to turn the health care conversation to women’s health and opioids rather than the public versus private option.
Impeachment
All candidates support an impeachment inquiry on President Trump for asking Ukraine's president to investigate one of the Democratic presidential frontrunners, Joe Biden.
What they’re saying:
- Warren has continuously backed impeachment after the Mueller report was released. "Sometimes there are issues that are bigger than politics. And I think that's the case with this impeachment inquiry," she said.
- Sanders: "Mitch McConnell has got to do the right thing and allow a free and fair trial in the Senate."
- Biden: "I said from the beginning that if, in fact, Trump continued to stonewall, ... [Congress] would have no choice -- no choice -- but to begin an impeachment proceeding."
- Sen. Kamala Harris: "I don't really think this impeachment process is going to take very long, because as a former prosecutor, I know a confession when I see it."
- Cory Booker: "This has got to be about patriotism and not partisanship."
Go deeper:
- Bernie Sanders explains difference between him and Elizabeth Warren
- Elizabeth Warren is still Trumpworld’s dream candidate
- Medicare for All: Where the Democratic candidates stand
- All 2020 Democrats want to impeach Trump
- What you need to know about the 2020 presidential candidates, in under 500 words
