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13 big takeaways from the second night of the 2020 Democratic presidential debates in Detroit

Aug 1, 2019, 08:50 IST

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Democratic presidential hopefuls US Senator from California Kamala Harris (L) and US Representative for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district Tulsi Gabbard (R) listen to US entrepreneur Andrew Yang (C) delivering his closing statement during the second round of the second Democratic primary debate of the 2020 presidential campaign season hosted by CNN at the Fox Theatre in Detroit, Michigan on July 31, 2019. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP) (Photo credit should read JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)JIM WATSON / Getty Images
  • The second night of the second round of 2020 Democratic presidential debates continued in Detroit, Michigan on Wednesday, July 31.
  • Both nights of the debate were hosted by CNN, and moderated by Jake Tapper, Dana Bash, and Don Lemon.
  • Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii were the surprise breakout stars of the second debate, taking former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris of California to task over their records on everything from immigration to criminal justice.
  • Here are 13 of the biggest takeaways from the second night of debates. 
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

On July 30 and 31, 20 Democratic presidential candidates gathered in Detroit, Michigan to participate in the second round of Democratic primary debates hosted by CNN. 

During the first night of debates, issues including healthcare and taxation took center stage as progressive Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren faced off against a number of centrist Democrats who disagreed with their plan to implement a single-payer Medicare for All system. 

On Wednesday night, former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, former HUD Secretary Julián Castro, entrepreneur Andrew Yang, Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio debated each other. 

Read more: 2020 Democrats excoriated Joe Biden for his record on immigration and for repeatedly invoking Obama's name on the campaign trail

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Booker and Gabbard were the surprise breakout stars of the second debate, taking the frontrunners Biden and Harris to task over their records on everything from immigration to criminal justice.

While Harris put herself in a strong position in the first debate in attacking Biden over his record on race, she found herself on the defensive in Wednesday night's debate, stumbling a bit in defending her healthcare plans and finding herself knocked back on her heels by an attack on her criminal justice record from Gabbard. 

Here are 13 of the biggest takeaways from night two of the second round of Democratic primary debates: 

Biden came to the debate prepared to be again targeted by Harris.

Biden jokingly said, "go easy on me, kid" to Harris as the two shook hands before the second debate started, a reference to Harris' attacks on Biden over his record on race during the first debate in June.

In the first set of Democratic debates in Miami on June 27, Harris took a deliberate shot at Biden over his long and controversial record on racial issues. She said Biden touting his work with pro-segregation senators was "personal and hurtful" to her.

"I do not believe you are a racist, and I agree with you when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground, but it's personal and it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country."

While Biden didn't hit back at Harris in the moment, he said at a fundraiser shortly before the debate that "he wasn't going to be as polite this time around."

BIDEN to HARRIS as #DemDebate kicks off: “Go easy on me, kid.” pic.twitter.com/HADG6e5sfi

— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) August 1, 2019

Healthcare took center stage throughout the entire debate, as Biden and Harris both sparred over her Medicare for All plan.

In the week prior to the second round of Democratic primary debates, Harris rolled out her own healthcare plan. She sought to strike a middle ground between a Medicare for All system, without a role for private insurance, and more moderate plans to introduce a public option and build on the ACA, which Biden has advocated for.

Harris' plan would implement a government-run healthcare system over 10 years that would include a role for private insurance companies to compete within it, similar to the current Medicare Advantage program.

Biden argued in the debate that Harris' 10-year timeline was too drawn out and depended on her successor implementing it, adding, "Secondly, it will require middle-class taxes to go up, not down. Thirdly, it will eliminate employer-based insurance. And fourthly, what will happen in the meantime?"

In response, Harris defended her plan by arguing, "First of all, the cost of doing nothing is far too expensive. Second, we are now paying $3 trillion a year for health care in America. Over the next ten years it will probably be $6 trillion. We must act. My plan is immediately allowing people to sign up and get into coverage."

Michael Bennet distinguished himself as a centrist voice on issues from healthcare to immigration.

While other progressives like Gillibrand, Gabbard, and De Blasio took Harris' side in arguing for Medicare for All, Bennet — the other centrist on stage besides Biden — pushed back and argued that introducing a public option is a faster way to get to universal coverage

"I believe we should finish the job we started with the Affordable Care Act with a public option that gives everybody in this audience a chance to pick for their family if they want private or public insurance," Bennet said, arguing that Medicare for All "would make illegal employer-based health insurance in this country and massively raise taxes on the middle class to the tune of $30 trillion as Joe Biden said."'

In response, De Blasio accused Bennet of "fearmongering" with his warning about tax increases.

Bennet was also the only candidate on stage to oppose decriminalizing unauthorized border crossings.

Race, racism, and Trump were discussed at length.

The second debate night featured a historic number of candidates of color. Booker discussed the issue of race in his opening statement, denouncing President Donald Trump's racist and racially-charged attacks on Democrats of color in recent weeks.

In his opening statement, Booker said, "Donald Trump from Charleston, to Baltimore, to the border is using the tired old language of demagogues, of fear mongers and racists to divide our country against itself. We know who Donald Trump is, but in this election, the question is who are we as a people?"

Later in the debate, Inslee became the first presidential candidate to directly call Trump "a white nationalist."

And Castro also denounced Trump's comments and laid out a number of steps he would take to improve cities like Baltimore, including expanding access to education and enacting policies to desegregate school districts and neighborhoods.

Castro and Booker teamed up to criticize Biden over the Obama administration's immigration policies.

Under the Obama administration, in which Biden served as vice president and Castro as Housing and Urban Development Secretary, the federal government oversaw 800,000 deportations.

After moderator Don Lemon asked Biden if high levels of deportations would continue under his administration, Biden took the opportunity to attack Castro, saying, "I found that the secretary, we sat together in many meetings, I never heard him talk about any of this when he was the secretary."

Castro swiftly hit back at Biden, saying, " It looks like one of us has learned from the lessons of the past and one of us hasn't" to loud applause.

When Biden defended Obama's attempts at immigration reform and said that any immigrant with a PhD should be let in, Booker accused him of "playing into what the Republicans want, to pit some immigrants against other immigrants ... this should be a country that honors everyone."

Biden invoked President Barack Obama — a popular figure among Democrats — at every turn, but Booker called him out about it.

"First of all, you can't have it both ways. You invoke President Obama more than anybody in this campaign. You can't do it when it's convenient and dodge it when it's not," Booker said when Biden tried to deflect a question about his role in the Obama administration's harsh immigration policies.

Andrew Yang bounced back and earned lots of applause after a disappointing first debate performance in Miami.

In the first debate in June, Yang only spoke for 2 minutes and 38 seconds, finding himself overshadowed by higher-polling candidates. But he turned things around in Wednesday's debate, giving sharp and unique responses to economic policy questions.

"I'm building a coalition of disaffected Trump voters, independents and libertarians and democratic and Progressive. I'm best to suited to beat Trump. How to win in Michigan and Ohio and Pennsylvania," Yang said in making a case for his electability against Trump.

Yang earned himself huge applause in arguing for a new way to measure economic prosperity.

"The problem is that so many people feel like the economy has left them behind... The way we win the election is we redefine economic progress to include the things that matter for people in Michigan and all of us. Like our health, well-being, mental health, clean air and clean water ... if we change the measurements for the economy to our own well being we'll win this election."

Booker took Biden to task over his criminal justice record, saying, "you're dipping into the Kool-Aid and you don't even know the flavor."

"This is a crisis in our country because we have treated issues of race and poverty and addiction by locking people up and not lifting them up. Since the 1970s, every crime bill, major and minor, has had his name on it," Booker said in criticizing Biden over his record.

"We have a system right now that's broken. And if you want to compare records and I'm shocked that you do, I am happy to do that. Because all the problems that he is talking about that he created, I actually led the bill that got passed into law that reverses the damages," Biden said.

Biden tried to hit back at Booker over discriminatory policing practices in the city of Newark, where Booker served as mayor from 2006 and 2013, but Booker was prepared.

"There's a saying in my community that you're dipping into the Kool-Aid and you don't even know the flavor. You need to come to the city and see the reforms we put in place," Booker said.

Castro took the fight directly to Biden over immigration. He also criticized de Blasio for not firing the New York City police officer who choke put Eric Garner in a chokehold causing his death in 2014.

"This is a great example, the other day, the Department of Justice not going after the officer that used a chokehold that was prohibited by NYPD. He did that 11 different times. Eric Garner said he couldn't breathe. He knew what he was doing and yet he has not been brought to justice. That police officer should be off the street," Castro said.

Earlier, the debate had been disrupted by protesters chanting at de Blasio to fire the officer, Daniel Pantaleo, who the federal Department of Justice declined to prosecute.

Gabbard had a breakout moment when she slammed Harris over her own controversial record on criminal justice.

While Harris is branding herself as a progressive prosecutor, she's faced scrutiny over her record as San Francisco's district attorney and California's attorney general, which Gabbard brought to light on the debate stage.

"I'm concerned about this record of Senator Harris. She put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana," Gabbard said at the debate.

Gabbard continued: "She blocked evidence that would have freed an innocent man from death row. She kept people in prison beyond their sentences to use them as cheap labor for the state of California, and she fought to keep cash bail system in place that impacts poor people in the worst kind of way."

Gabbard's attack knocked Harris back on her heels, who tried to defend herself by citing her efforts to reduce incarceration rates and claiming she opposed the death penalty, despite having defended it in court in 2014.

Harris, the star of the first debates, struggled mightily in the second.

In the first Democratic primary debate in June, Harris stood out and saw her poll numbers rise for her targeted attack on Biden's record on race.

But in the July debate, Harris found herself on the defensive both in the debate over her healthcare plan, and on her record on criminal justice issues, which left her vulnerable to attacks from Gabbard but meant she couldn't feasibly go after Biden on the same issue given her own history.

Between stumbling over her words in sparring with Biden over healthcare and Gabbard's direct hit over her highly controversial record on criminal justice, Harris struggled in the second debate.

The backbencher candidates punched up to get noticed.

Lower-polling candidates including De Blasio, Gabbard, Gillibrand, and Inslee — who are not guaranteed spots in the fall debates — took shots at the higher polling candidates in an effort to boost their profiles.

De Blasio attacked Biden over healthcare and criminal justice, Gabbard skewered Harris on her criminal justice record, Inslee slammed Biden's 2002 vote in favor of the war in Iraq, and Gillibrand took Biden to task on his previous writings on women in the workplace, leaning into her reputation as a warrior for women's rights.

Biden had a rough night, but finished strong when Harris and Gillibrand teamed up to attack him over his record on women's issues.

Gillibrand took Biden to task over an op-ed he previously wrote in which he expressed that women working outside the home "would quote create the deterioration of family," a sentiment Biden said he "never believed."

Biden vigorously defended his record on women's rights, saying the op-ed was written in the context of opposing a tax credit policy, and citing his own experience being a single father and being married to Jill Biden, an educator.

"I wrote the Violence Against Women Act. I was deeply involved in the equal pay amendment. I came up with the It's On US proposal, to see that women are treated decently on college campuses. You came to Syracuse with me and said it was wonderful," Biden said to Gillibrand.

Immediately afterward, Harris attacked Biden over his long-time support for the Hyde Amendment, which prevents federal programs like Medicare and Title X from covering abortion care except in rare cases, accusing him of being opportunistic in only recently opposing the amendment.

"I wrote the legislation making sure that every single woman would have the opportunity to have healthcare paid for by the federal government, everyone. That could no longer stand. I support a woman's right to choose."

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