The following is an excerpt from Blaze Media's daily Capitol Hill Brief email newsletter:
The first of the second round of Democratic 2020 debates was last night. If you had better things to do than watch it, here’s what you missed (or avoided).
- Pete Buttigieg tried to shame Christians into a higher minimum wage by quoting the Bible.
- Elizabeth Warren promised to decriminalize border crossings again, but wouldn’t give a straight answer on raising taxes for socialist health care.
- Warren also basically questioned why more moderate Democrats are even running.
- Tim Ryan warned that Democrats would “lose 48 states” if they run on ending private health insurance.
- Ryan and Bernie Sanders also got heated on climate change solutions.
- Speaking of climate change, Robert O’Rourke said “we don’t have more than 10 years” to fix it; he also gave a lecture in favor of reparations.
- Marianne Williamson scolded the other Democrats for taking corporate cash; she also mentioned said President Trump was behind a “dark psychic force” that is ruining cities.
So who was the big winner? It’s always hard to say with such a wide field. However, Marianne Williamson’s performance took her from being an outright punchline after the last debate to the most internet-searched candidate in almost every state last night and got some conservative pundits behind her. Bernie Sanders, however, got a memorable lick or two in on health care. Sanders and Warren talked the most.
You know what they didn’t talk about onstage? Abortion, the Mueller report/hearings, Russian collusion, impeachment, Iran hostilities, or Big Tech. Also, regardless of the performances last night, it’s worth taking a look at some recent polling numbers that show just how out of touch the far-left tone of the primary field is with American voters, especially in swing states.
