With the first presidential primary contests less than three months away but impeachment dominating the news, 10 Democratic candidates produced a subdued debate Wednesday night that featured few direct contrasts or new information, and little that seemed likely to change the shape of the race.
Standing on stage in Atlanta, the top four candidates largely avoided clashes, opting to stick to the themes and plans that have put each of them in their current positions.
The relatively mild contest was in keeping with a period when the presidential campaign has been pushed to the background by the explosive developments in the impeachment inquiry, which consumed the political world with new testimony from European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland in the hours before the event. It perhaps foreshadowed the weeks to come, when the impeachment fight is likely to get even more contentious.
Former Vice President Joe Biden talked about unifying the country and argued that he can win in places other Democrats can’t. Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders reminded viewers again that he “wrote the damn bill” for Medicare for All. And Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren pressed her wealth tax — along with, briefly, her recently modified position on how she would expand Medicare to all Americans.
Meanwhile, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, of South Bend., Ind., cast himself as the Trump opposite who could nevertheless win over Trump voters. Despite his recent rise in polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, his rivals did not come after him.
Even when the moderators seemingly teed up California Sen. Kamala Harris to criticize Buttigieg over his record on race relations in his city, one of his main vulnerabilities, the senator quickly pivoted away and spoke to broader themes rather than taking a chance to hit one of the race’s top candidates.
Indeed, much of the night was spent on the many areas on which Democrats agree, including sharply criticizing President Donald Trump’s conduct in office and his foreign policy.
Some of the six other Democrats on stage, several in danger of missing the party’s next debate in December, tried some new wrinkles, but few that seemed likely to produce a drastic political shift.
The debate, held at Tyler Perry Studios, featured candidates who met the Democratic National Committee’s fund-raising and polling criteria, and questions from a panel of female journalists from NBC, MSNBC, and the Washington Post.
It came less than three months before Democrats hold their first nominating contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, and as party insiders increasingly worry that their top contenders all carry significant flaws.
While Biden has shown the most strength against Trump in public polls, particularly in swing states, he lags his top rivals in fund-raising, and some Democrats worry about his at-times shaky public performances. Warren and Sanders, meanwhile, have waged energetic campaigns, but continue to face questions about whether their liberal politics can win moderate states vital to the Electoral College.
Buttigieg has emerged as another option, but is 37 and would be making a huge leap from mayor of a small city to the White House.
Warren’s Medicare move draws little attention
One of the more significant shifts in recent weeks has come from Warren, who, after months of saying she backed Medicare for All and arguing that Democrats need to boldly fight for big ideas, took a step back by saying she would wait three years to begin instituting that plan.
Instead, she has said she would take smaller initial steps that would make the benefits clear, in many ways echoing the more moderate candidates she had criticized for lacking gumption.
But if they, or Sanders, wanted to challenge her on it, none did in the early going. After several debates that featured sharp clashes and amid signs that Trump remains strong in swing states — it was almost as if the group had agreed to ease off hitting one another, at least for a night.
