Frontrunner Joe Biden faced repeated
criticism on multiple fronts Thursday from his Democratic rivals for the
2020 presidential nomination, including calls to leave the battle to
oust Donald Trump to a younger generation.
In a sometimes scrappy showdown of the Democratic heavyweights, Senator
Kamala Harris landed several blows on Biden in the second of two
nationally televised debates, putting the former vice president on the
defensive as he argued that he is best-positioned to take on the
Republican president.
Biden blasted Trump for his "horrible" policies that have exacerbated
income inequality, while his chief rival for the nomination, Senator
Bernie Sanders, took it directly to the "phony" president, calling him
"a pathological liar and a racist."
But 76-year-old Biden also found himself on the receiving end of a pointed attack from a lower-tier candidate half his age.
Congressman Eric Swalwell, 38, called on him to "pass the torch" to a
new generation better equipped to tackle climate change, expand health
care coverage and reduce gun violence.
"I'm still holding on to that torch," Biden snapped back.
Several rivals were clearly seeking to wrench it from his grip,
including Harris, the only black woman in the race, who made a stirring
call for Biden to recognize his recent "hurtful" comments about being
civil with avowedly segregationist US senators.
Biden, with the room dead quiet, insisted he does not "praise racists,"
and denied he opposed initiatives in the 1970s to bus children from
predominantly black communities to better schools in more prosperous
neighborhoods.
"There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class
to integrate her public schools and she was bussed to school every day,"
Harris said, in one of the evening's most potent moments.
"That little girl was me."
- 'We are hurting' -
Another candidate in the upper tier, Pete Buttigieg, has also been on
the back foot on racial issues following the fatal shooting of a black
man by a white police officer in South Bend, Indiana, where he is mayor.
"When I look into his mother's eyes, I have to face the fact that
nothing that I say will bring him back," Buttigieg said, adding that
such tragedies are happening in communities across America.
"It's a mess. We are hurting."
With so many potential challengers to Trump, the party needed to split
the top 20 candidates into debates over two nights in Miami, Florida.
Thursday's session featured four of the race's top five candidates in
national polling, including Biden's main challenger Sanders, the
77-year-old US democratic socialist senator whose high-spending policies
have pushed the party leftward in recent years.
Harris, 54, may have vaulted herself into serious contention with her composed performance and steely showdown with Biden.
But after the debate she stressed it wasn't personal.
"I otherwise have a great deal of respect for Joe Biden," she said. "I do not believe he is a racist."
Biden received no quarter from the old guard either.
When he was questioned about his support for the Iraq war and insisted
that he took responsibility for getting 150,000 combat troops out of the
country, Sanders pounced.
"Joe voted for that war, and I helped lead the opposition to that war, which was a total disaster."
Biden, seeking a recovery in his closing remarks, called for restoration
of "the "soul" of the country after Trump "ripped it out."
"We have got to unite the United States of America," he added.
- 'State-sponsored crimes' -
All candidates savaged Trump for his immigration policy, including
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand who said the president had "torn apart our
moral fabric" by separating migrant children from their parents at the
border.
Author Marianne Williamson, a surprise presidential candidate, branded the policies "state-sponsored crimes."
When all contenders signalled support for undocumented immigrants'
access to health care, Trump, who has made stopping illegal immigration a
centerpiece of his presidency, weighed in from the G20 summit in Japan.
In a tweet he accused Democrats of supporting "giving millions of
illegal aliens unlimited healthcare. How about taking care of American
Citizens first!?"
Debate also addressed whether the party should embrace a shift towards
more liberal policies and government involvement in the economy.
On Wednesday third-placed Elizabeth Warren called out disparities in
wealth and income and pledged to work to improve the lives of struggling
families.
Sanders covered the same ground Thursday, but he also acknowledged that,
in a shift to his Medicare for All platform, Americans would have to
pay more taxes.
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