Two news organizations, three moderators, twelve candidates, and scores—nay, hundreds—of folks watching at home. That’s right, friends, it the fourth round of Democratic presidential primary debates. Did you spend your time watching the team formerly known as the Expos play baseball instead? Not to worry: the best tweets of last night’s debate are here.
Don’t You Guys All Hate Trump?
With an even dozen candidates shoehorned into the stage, CNN and the New York Times did us all a solid by skipping the opening statements. Instead, they turned directly to the possibility of impeachment. The answers were predictable:
Why exactly *is* the president of the opposing party so awful?
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) October 16, 2019
I know they have to ask impeachment questions, but every candidate is going to have essentially the same answer. “I think it’s swell and long overdue.”
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) October 16, 2019
Starting with a question every candidate has the same exact position on makes for really compelling television.
— David Marcus (@BlueBoxDave) October 16, 2019
Some of the candidates used the opportunity to cram in an opening statement anyway, including debate newcomer Tom Steyer, a man best know for being everything his party hates: white, male, old, and filthy rich.
Tom Steyer dresses like a he’s throwing your company’s Christmas Party
— Matt Gorman (@mattsgorman) October 16, 2019
Rich Guy has to wait a long, awkward moment for the applause to start after his heavy-handed applause line.
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) October 16, 2019
Tom Steyer adopts the strategy of just staring the audience down until a couple people clap
— Andrew Egger (@EggerDC) October 16, 2019
The Main Event
Moderator Anderson Cooper then posed a surprisingly tough question to Joe Biden about his son’s $50,000-a-month no-work job in Ukraine.
Anderson Cooper is going after Biden like the refs went after the Lions last night. #DemDebate
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) October 16, 2019
Biden sounds … weirdly unprepared for the world’s most obvious question.
— Lizzie O’Leary (@lizzieohreally) October 16, 2019
The debate then moved, as all Democratic debates must, to 40 minutes of arguing about whether to nationalize all of health care or just some of it. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s recent rise in the polls made her the center of attention—and the main target. She, once more, refused to answer the question about whether her health plan would raise taxes.
Once again, Warren refuses to answer the question of whether she’ll raise taxes to pay for Medicare for All.
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) October 16, 2019
You know @ewarren is equivocating when she uses the old @BarackObama trope of “Let me be clear…” #DemDebate
— Chris Jacobs (@chrisjacobsHC) October 16, 2019
Ms Warren, would you increase tax on middle class?
Warren: I have taken 70000 selfies!
— Mr Maitra (@MrMaitra) October 16, 2019
(Also, they’re not selfies, they’re photographs taken by someone else.)
Pete Buttigieg took the Massachusetts senator to task on her consistent evasion.
Pete Buttigieg to Warren on M4A: “Your signature Senator is to have a plan for everything, except this”
— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) October 16, 2019
McKinsey consultant getting irritated with a client who keeps insisting the math adds up when it doesn’t.
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) October 16, 2019
Warren literally cannot bring herself to admit that Medicare for All will raise taxes on the middle class. She cannot give a simple yes or no, because the answer is yes and she is afraid to say it.
— Alexandra DeSanctis (@xan_desanctis) October 16, 2019
Senator: Yes or no?
Warren: Child cancer#DemDebates
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) October 16, 2019
Elizabeth Warren when asked about middle class taxes. #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/yS3S0VvG9u
— Inez Stepman (@InezFeltscher) October 16, 2019
elizabeth warren trying to avoid saying the word “taxes” pic.twitter.com/8MQgiBxmUD
— Logan Hall (@loganclarkhall) October 16, 2019
“Will you raise taxes on the middle class?”@ewarren : pic.twitter.com/KklaEpWL80
— Josh (@JoshsBurnerAcct) October 16, 2019
Sen. Bernie Sanders took the opportunity to reclaim his idea from Warren and to explain openly how he’d pay for it: by taxing us all to death.
Hey, give Bernie Sanders some intellectual honesty credit for at least owning up to this.
— Josh Hammer (@josh_hammer) October 16, 2019
Sen. Amy Klobuchar joined in the melee.
Klobuchar really threw the entire binder– er, book at her.
— Halloween Name Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) October 16, 2019
Klobucher is on fire for moderation.
— Damon Linker (@DamonLinker) October 16, 2019
And Biden joined in with some math.
Biden notes that Medicare for All will cost more than the entire current federal government.
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) October 16, 2019
Kamala Harris’s health-care plan is the Schrodinger’s Cat of Medicare—until anyone nails her down on it, private insurance is both illegal and legal. Desperate to avoid the issue, she opted instead to praise abortion on demand—always an applause line with this crowd.
Ah, pivot to abortion, or “I need an applause line.”
— Jim Swift (@JimSwiftDC) October 16, 2019
Get a Job! Or Don’t!
Jobs used to be the centerpiece of the Democrats’ campaigns. In 2019, though, the debate has changed. Now, they want to know: should we make the government invent jobs for everyone, or just throw free money at you?
UBI fanatics vs. federal jobs mandate obsessives is the fight I was born to ignore.
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) October 16, 2019
Yang sticking it to Sanders is amusing – technocratic left vs new deal left. 😆 pic.twitter.com/Z6wD926xVz
— David M. Swindle (@DaveSwindle) October 16, 2019
Warren suggested that neither was the answer, but that bad trade deals were stealing all of our jobs. She has a plan! (But doesn’t say what it is)
elizabeth warren came up with the plan that stan was supposed to make in that paul simon song but got too lazy to follow through with
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) October 16, 2019
I want to hear more from Andrew Yang. Really would love to hear him respond to the $15 per hour comment by Booker. #DemocraticDebate
— Nancy French (@NancyAFrench) October 16, 2019
From there, we moved on to taxes and to Bernie’s eternal foe: the billionaires.
Sanders used to demonize “millionaires and billionaires.” Now he mostly focuses on billionaires. I wonder what changed?
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) October 16, 2019
(He became a millionaire. That’s what changed.)
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) October 16, 2019
Bernie: billionaires are immoral
sane people: how are you going to pay for your plans?
Bernie: billionaires#DemocraticDebate #DemDebates
— Kylee Zempel (@kyleezempel) October 16, 2019
Biden made a fair point about different classes of income being taxed at different rates, but obscured it with an old-timey reference to bond coupons.
“CLIPPING COUPONS IN THE STOCK MARKET” – Joe Biden
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) October 16, 2019
Warren again proposed her unconstitutional, unworkable wealth tax.
Warren is now explaining that if we kill the goose, we can access all the gold inside and none of us will ever go hungry again.
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) October 16, 2019
Old woman worth $30 million is telling me why rich people are bad
— Adam Trahan (@AdamTrahan) October 16, 2019
Nobody liked the way she presented her answers as the only acceptable plans for anyone who cares about people. That’s only to be used against Republicans! No fair turning on your own party!
Klobuchar: “I just want to give a reality check to Senator Warren.”
Amy came to play today and Warren does not have any good answers for it outside of just talking around the attacks. #DemDebate
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) October 16, 2019
Andrew Yang destroys Elizabeth Warren on wealth tax… it didn’t work in Germany, France, Denmark, and Sweden, why would it work here? #DemDebate
— Liz Wheeler (@Liz_Wheeler) October 16, 2019
Andrew Yang bravely comes out in favor of a value-added tax, the most hated tax across the political spectrum.
— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) October 16, 2019
Beto doesn’t like the wealth tax as much as the church tax.
— Tim Carney (@TPCarney) October 16, 2019
Peace in the Middle East
They next discussed foreign affairs. Biden, who has a long career of being wrong about such things, condemned Trump’s abandonment of the Kurds, but couldn’t remember which country we were abandoning them in.
Tonight Biden has confused Assad and Erdogan, repealing the capital gains tax and raising it, and Iraq and Afghanistan. Next president?
— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) October 16, 2019
“Vice President Biden, what would you do about Syria?”
“We can’t just withdraw troops from Iraq, we–”
“Sir we’re talking about Syr–”
“THE SURGE IS WORKING “— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) October 16, 2019
Tulsi Gabbard was finally asked a question, and did her thing
Tulsi going full Tulsi.
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) October 16, 2019
After hitting back at CNN and The New York Times for their slanted coverage of her, Gabbard called for an end to U.S. troops in the Middle East and challenged the others to join her.
Tulsi Gabbard is neatly exposing the contradiction between the desire of Democratic candidates to reassure their base they hate (and will end) Middle Eastern wars, and their desire to hammer Trump on pulling back in Syria.
— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) October 16, 2019
“Endless Wars” is much catchier way to say “yeah we have a brigade or two out of a 1.2 million man Armed Forces helping local militaries and militias do the heavy lifting trying to keep some really bad people from coming to power.”
— John Noonan (@noonanjo) October 16, 2019
The moderators next asked if Turkey should be expelled from NATO, which is not a thing.
“Should Turkey remain in NATO” is a pretty dumbass question considering the only way they leave NATO is of their own volition. This is CNN.
— Ben Domenech (@bdomenech) October 16, 2019
This crowd wants Biden to go on the offense. He landed a glancing blow on Gabbard and they lept at it.
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) October 16, 2019
Harris said something, then blamed Trump for everything bad in the world.
Kamala is just flailing. #DemDebate
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) October 16, 2019
Cory Booker piped up to say that the candidates should all be friends.
thanks for coming out and contributing nothing once again, cory https://t.co/bTb9gUdZS6
— loctastic (@loctastic) October 16, 2019
But most of them didn’t have any real plan to speak of.
this isn’t a debate, it’s a therapy session
— GregGutfeld (@greggutfeld) October 16, 2019
Steyer said something about Putin.
Tom Steyer, who has said confidentiality agreements limit what he can say about his own investments, pledges that as president, he would reveal Vladimir Putin’s financial corruption.
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) October 16, 2019
Did Steyer just say frenemies?
— trick-or-treater (@neontaster) October 16, 2019
Beto said something in Spanglish
Did…Beto just throw in “además”?
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) October 16, 2019
Yang…look, the guy doesn’t do foreign policy, OK? Here’s a thousand dollars.
Yikes, from @AndrewYang: “We get it. We’ve tampered with other elections, you’ve tampered with our elections.” @amyklobuchar criticizes the “false equivalency” with Russia. #DemDebate
— S.E. Cupp (@secupp) October 16, 2019
Lightning Round
Time dragged on. When had we begun? When would it end? Would we always be here? Had we always been here? As we entered the third hour, reality itself was distorted.
The moderators asked Bobby O’Rourke about his gun confiscation proposal.
“Congressman, in the last debate, you said, ‘hell yes, we’re going to take your weapons.’ Could you please say ‘hell’ again?”
beto: absolutely
— pumpkin spice liz bruenig (@ebruenig) October 16, 2019
Cooper to Beto: how exactly are you going to confiscate all those rifles without door-to-door searches?
Beto: I will just say so.
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) October 16, 2019
I don’t know who is winning this debate but Beto has now revealed himself as the least serious person on stage about the central issue of his campaign, which is very on brand for Gen X.
— Ben Domenech (@bdomenech) October 16, 2019
Buttigieg objected to O’Rourke’s glibness
Live coverage of #MayorPete and #Beto debating… #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/8gkBVqI3aj
— Chris Stigall (@ChrisStigall) October 16, 2019
Harris promised, as is her custom, to rule by decree.
“I have looked at more autopsy photos than I care to tell you. I’m done. We need action.“ Kamala. Sundays at 9 on TNT. pic.twitter.com/JUBhx7NWXk
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) October 16, 2019
They moved on to the opioid crisis. Does Harris want to jail drug company executives? This was the softball to end all softballs.
Most predictable exchange of tonight:
Q: “Senator Harris, are you in favor of sending ____ to jail?”
HARRIS: “I am— Tim Carney (@TPCarney) October 16, 2019
Kamala can hardly stand the excitement when asked if she wants to jail someone.
— Jessica Fletcher (@heckyessica) October 16, 2019
You’ll never guess who Bernie blamed the problem on:
Bernie blames the opioid epidemic on billionaires. Did not see that coming. #DemDebate
— jon gabriel (@exjon) October 16, 2019
There was a brief consideration about whether any of the three septuagenarian front runners had the stamina to lead the executive branch.
Biden makes the case that we need a mature and seasoned 78 year old in the White House, as opposed to the young fledgling 72 year old currently in the White House
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) October 16, 2019
Part of the appeal of Sanders is that he’s the same as ever. That also makes him seem less old, because he was always old.
— Lucy Steigerwald (@LucyStag) October 16, 2019
interestingly enough, this debate is also 70 years old
— Ariel Edwards-Levy (@aedwardslevy) October 16, 2019
TULSI WANTS TO TALK ABOUT FITNESS
— Kyle (@OnlyTheEarth) October 16, 2019
INBOX:
Tulsi: “I’d like to ask what Elizabeth Warrens foreign policy experien—“
CNN Control Room: “oh god no cut to commercial!”— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) October 16, 2019
That was it for the hard questions. There was talk of court-packing and more talk of abortion, but time was running out. Some of the older folks were past their bedtimes.
If they wanted to put Biden out of his misery, they’d just ask him to name everyone on the stage
— F. Bill McMorris (@FBillMcMorris) October 16, 2019
Donald Trump’s twitter account came up in this debate & China did not.
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) October 16, 2019
The asked everyone about Ellen DeGeneres and whether they could have friends who were different than they were. Three of them had the same Republican friend. Harris talked about her parents, for some reason.
Come on none of these people have friends.
— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) October 16, 2019
Anderson Cooper: Name a friend you disagree with politically
Steyer: Money— F. Bill McMorris (@FBillMcMorris) October 16, 2019
At last, the debate was ended. We were exhausted, yet unfulfilled.
still no one addressing the questions that really matter to americans https://t.co/vAUnrPph2h
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) October 16, 2019