Twelve Democratic candidates took to the stage on Tuesday night for the largest presidential primary debate in modern US history, and the first since the launch of an impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate leading rival Joe Biden
The fourth debate in the race to find a Democratic challenger to Trump in the November 2020 election sees Biden and the Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren square up for the first time sinceWarren surged into a virtual tiewith the former vice-president in many Democratic opinion polls.
And Tuesday night marks the return of the Vermont senatorBernie Sanders, 78, the oldest candidate in the field, who suffered a heart attack two weeks ago and has been recuperating at home since having stents inserted to open a blocked artery.
Tonight’s battle for the Democratic presidential nomination converges on Ohio, with a dozen candidates meeting on stage at Otterbein University in Westerville, an affluent suburb north-east of the state capital, Columbus – making for a crowded debate.
The 10 candidates who took part in last month’s third debate in Texas all qualified for Tuesday’s event, along with theHawaii representative Tulsi GabbardandTom Steyer, a billionaire activist who is making his first debate appearance.
Also participating in the Ohio debate are the US senators Cory Booker, Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar, former housing secretary Julián Castro, South Bend, Indiana mayorPete Buttigieg, tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang and former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke.
Trump won Ohio by 8.5 percentage points in 2016, the widest margin of any “swing” state. The margin of victory in traditional battleground states is typically much closer, as it was in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, the three midwestern states that delivered Trump the White House.
The packed stage and tangle of competing story lines could create a contentious atmosphere, and the Democratic-led congressional impeachment inquiry will probably be a frequent theme.
The impeachment inquiry focuses on Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate his unsubstantiated allegation that Biden improperly tried to aid his sonHunter’s business interests in Ukraine. Trump has repeatedly tried to turn the focus on Biden with vociferous attacks on his integrity. There is no evidence that Biden or his son were involved in illegal activity.
Hunter Bidenbroke his silenceon Tuesday in his first interview since the formal impeachment inquiry into Trump was announced in late September. In the ABC interview, which aired hours before the debate, he admitted to “poor judgment” in taking a paid position in a Ukrainian gas company – but denied doing anything wrong.
Every Democratic candidate has voiced support for the impeachment inquiry. The debate will be Biden’s first chance to fire back at Trump before a national audience.
It also will give Biden’s rivals a chance to offer their support – or not. They will be closely watched to see how they talk about the issue and whether any of them use it as an opportunity to attack Biden.
Meanwhile, Biden has seen his once solid lead in opinion polls in the Democratic race diminished by Warren, a leader of the party’s progressive movement, who has steadily risen over the past two months.
The two candidates have mostly refrained from directly attacking each other. But Warren’s gains could make her more of a target this time, especially for other contenders who are running out of time to make an impression.
“Warren tends to recede with so many people on the stage and that has been working for her,” said Alan Schroeder, a professor emeritus and debate expert at Northeastern University in Boston. “But the other candidates will have an incentive to try to halt her rise this time.”
Sanders will be seeking to assuage concerns about his health and convince audiences that he is mentally and physically fit to be president, one of the most demanding jobs in the world.
His health problems highlighted his age and that of the other top White House contenders – Biden is 76 and Warren is 70, while Trump is 73 – in a race featuring a debate about a generational change in leadership.
Younger Democratic candidates, including Buttigieg, 37, and Yang , 44, have argued it is time for new leadership in a Democratic party driven by the diverse grassroots energy of younger activists.
Buttigieg, who has struggled to break into the top tier of Democratic candidates nationally, began running a new digital ad on Tuesday in Iowa contrasting his healthcare plan with that of more progressive rivals.
Warren and Sanders are pushing Medicare for All proposals, which critics say will all but eliminate private insurance in favor of federal health insurance coverage for all Americans based on the existing government-run Medicare program for people aged 65 and older. Buttigieg proposes offering instead a low-cost public insurance option, which he calls “Medicare for All who want it”.
The Democratic National Committee again will increase the fundraising and polling criteria to qualify for next month’s debate in Georgia. So far, only eight of the 12 candidates participating in Ohio would qualify, according to a CNN analysis. Nineteen contenders remain in the Democratic race overall.
Reuters contributed to this report
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings