The first Democratic presidential debate of the 2020 campaign faced 10 candidates who discussed their differences on issues such as immigration, health care, gun violence and what type of party the faction needs.
Powerful moments were also seen with candidates such as former housing secretary Julián Castro, US Senator Cory Booker, and, surprisingly, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who could strengthen their candidacies.
However, although the debate touched on a number of issues – without giving the candidates enough response time – no one was directly asked why he would be the best candidate to defeat President Trump next year.
Still, in his closing argument, Castro said: “On January 20, 2021, we will say goodbye to Donald Trump.”
On the first night of two debates at The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts , 10 of the 20 candidates who qualified for the event faced the next 10 scheduled for Thursday.
Florida excels in gun control debate
Florida issues were hardly discussed, but Castro, a former US representative. UU .; former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar recognized students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland for creating a movement to change firearm laws in the state and country. Klobuchar said they “literally started a change or national” in public opinion on the issue.
However, Klobuchar and the US representative. USA John Delaney said that any changes to firearm laws should persuade rural residents and voters who are hunting.
US Senator Elizabeth Warren, the only candidate to have risen to double-digit levels in the polls, said the most difficult question she has ever received was in a public forum, when a boy and a girl said, “When are you president, How will you keep us safe? ”Warren recounted.
On the issue of weapons, the Democratic Party’s regular calls for universal background checks and assault weapons bans were heard.
Warren also called for investigations of gun violence to be stepped up, processes the federal government was recently able to fund, following an amendment led by US Rep. Stephanie. Murphy, a Democrat from Winter Park.
“Gun violence is a national emergency, and we have to treat it as such,” Warren said.
Meanwhile, Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, promoted the gun recovery program in her state and said that Connecticut demanded a license to buy firearms after the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012, which she claims caused so much gun violence from fire as suicides decrease.
In this regard, Castro said that if he had to choose between “common sense”, the “arms reform” law and obstructionism in the Senate, he would focus on the Senate to eliminate that process known as “filibuster” in English.
Only one candidate mentioned Puerto Rico
Florida was also central to the debate on climate change, and the candidates were asked how they would save Miami from rising sea levels.
Washington Governor Jay Inslee, whose campaign focused exclusively on the issue, called it “a crisis, an emergency.”
“We are the first generation to feel the sting of climate change, and we are the last generation to do anything about it,” Inslee said, adding that it should be the top priority and the “organizing principle” of the US. USA
O’Rourke touted his plan to get more renewable energy and switch from gas to electric cars, while Delaney said he could receive bipartisan support from Florida Republicans to “set the carbon price” or put a cost on emissions. of greenhouse gases or carbon emissions, despite such plans being extremely unpopular in France and elsewhere.
But Castro used his response to make the only mention of Puerto Rico in the debate, saying that his first trip as a candidate was to San Juan, a capital devastated by the hurricane.
“People should know that if I am elected president, everyone will count,” Castro said, adding that in his first act, a president would be to reintegrate the United States into the Paris Climate Accords.
A “harrowing image” of immigration
It was the issue of immigration that led to some of the hottest arguments in the debate, as Castro demanded to know why O’Rourke would not commit to repealing the section of the US law. USA that makes illegal immigration a criminal and not a civil matter.
Castro said Trump’s decision to implement a zero tolerance policy and a “measurement” policy that limited and restricted asylum seekers led to situations like camps where children had been removed from their families, as well as the tragic deaths of a father and daughter who drowned in the Rio Grande after they were unable to seek asylum.
“That image is heartbreaking,” said Castro. “It should also bother us all.”
Castro repeatedly pressured his compatriot O’Rourke to agree to repeal the law that penalizes undocumented immigrants, but O’Rourke said he wanted to make sure that laws existed to allow the United States to attack drug and human traffickers.
Relive the issue of the health system
The biggest policy differences were with respect to health care, where Warren and De Blasio called for the abolition of private insurance as part of a Medicare for All plan, and Delaney and Klobuchar strongly disagree.
Klobuchar said her call for a public option as an alternative to private insurance remained a “bold approach,” adding that she was “simply concerned with taking half of the United States out of health insurance in four years, which is exactly what what this bill [ Medicare for Alll ] says. “
Warren replied that medical bills were among the leading causes of bankruptcy not only for people without health insurance but also for people with health insurance.
“[Opponents will say], ‘Oh, it just isn’t possible, you just can’t do it,'” he said of the Medicare for All proposal . “What they are really telling you is that they simply will not fight for it. Medical care is a basic human right and I will fight for basic human rights. ”
What is the Democratic Party?
The strongest arguments about what the party should represent came from opposite ends of the spectrum, though they said almost the same thing.
United States Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio said the candidates “have to change the Democratic Party’s perception” of being seen as “coastal and elitist.”
“If we want to beat Mitch McConnell [GOP Senate Majority Leader], this had better be a working class party,” Ryan said.
De Blasio, meanwhile, argued: “What you are already hearing is a battle for the heart and soul of the party. This is supposed to be a party of working people. … This Democratic party has to be bold and progressive. There’s a lot of money in this world. In this case, it’s in the wrong hands. ”