The top 12 Democratic presidential candidates on Tuesday are talking impeachment, health care, jobs and wealth disparities 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.
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. "There are issues are bigger than politics," she said.
- Sanders: "Mitch McConnell has got to do the right thing and allow a free and fair trial in the Senate."
- Biden: "Congress has no choice but to move" on impeachment.
- Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.): "The reality of it is the impeachment process won't take very long. As a former prosecutor, I know a confession when I see."
- Cory Booker (D-N.J.): "This has got to be about patriotism, not partisanship. We have to conduct this process that is honorable."
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.
Economy
Candidates criticized trade deals, corporate greed and offered ways to resolve the General Motors strike.
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."
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
