Last night, Democrats gathered in Georgia—a state they pretend to have won in 2018—to listen to their presidential candidates debate for the fifth time. So, everyone who watched impeachment hearings all day: are you ready for 2 hours of minor but emphatic disagreement? Don’t worry if you begged off, we’ve got the best tweets of the night to tell the story.
Impeach Him? I Barely Know Him?
The field was slightly smaller this time as we said good bye to Robert O’Rourke and Julian Castro, leaving just (!) ten contenders on the stage. Facing them were four MSNBC moderators—all of them female, in an attempt to distract from their parent network’s MeToo problems.
We began with a question sure to spark conversation: impeachment. Long story short: they’re all for it.
Oh great, an impeachment question to begin from Maddow. An issue the entire candidates agree on
— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) November 21, 2019
Elizabeth Warren tried to make it more interesting by criticizing an old bipartisan habit.
Warren smartly uses the Sondland testimony to make a larger argument about government corruption, and selling off ambassadorships. I suspect that Warren’s core general election message would be about corruption, and she’s good at making that case.
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) November 21, 2019
Tom Steyer tried not to look disappointed, as did others.
I was just about to send like 44 bitcoins to @ewarren’s campaign but now that I know she won’t reward me with the honor of becoming a DELEGATE TO MADAGASCAR…no ma’am, deal’s off.
— Berny Belvedere (@bernybelvedere) November 21, 2019
The rest struggled to say something interesting about a topic that everyone in the room thought the same thing about.
Bernie just reminded us Congress can walk and chew “bubble gum” at the same time. He then complained about the kids and their ripped dungarees. #DemDebate
— Chris Stigall (@ChrisStigall) November 21, 2019
Buttigieg: Impeachment is not a part of the campaign but the president’s conduct is. Whatever that means.
— Ramesh Ponnuru (@RameshPonnuru) November 21, 2019
Pete Buttigeig waxed poetic.
Buttigieg says each Dem is “running to be the president for that day the sun comes up and the Trump presidency is behind us, which will be a tender moment in the life of this country.”
This debate has only been underway for 10 minutes.
— Caleb Howe (@CalebHowe) November 21, 2019
The mayor of Pawnee has thoughts. #DemDebate
— jon gabriel (@exjon) November 21, 2019
mayor pete speaks with the exact cadence and inflection of christian bale as patrick bateman
— christmas cheer liz bruenig (@ebruenig) November 21, 2019
Kamala Harris fell back on her old material.
Kamala is already talking about people going to jail. It’s her favorite thing in the world.
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) November 21, 2019
Kamala doesn’t care what crime she just knows there’s a crime
— Nicholas Clairmont (@NickClairmont1) November 21, 2019
Joe Biden got a mite bewildered.
1) Joe Biden loves lists.
2) Joe Biden often forgets what the third item is.
3) …#DemDebate— Ian G Haworth (@ighaworth) November 21, 2019
The Taxman
Next, Warren brought out her favorite unconstitutional idea: the federal wealth tax. She got a little confused about the numbers, but the point was clear: you got it, she wants it.
Warren is now taking a 2 cent tax on $50 ***billion*** when she means $50 ***million***. I believe she has made this mistake before.
— JERRY DUNLEAVY (@JerryDunleavy) November 21, 2019
Elizabeth Warren: UNICORNS, UNICORNS, UNICORNS!!!!!!
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) November 21, 2019
Cory Booker questioned the concept.
Booker says that everyone on the stage agrees that the federal government needs more revenue, but he opposes a wealth tax. He supports increased estate taxation and taxing capital gains as ordinary income.
— Scott Greenberg (@ScottElliotG) November 21, 2019
Cory Booker wants a piece of the “moderate lane,” too
— Rich Lowry (@RichLowry) November 21, 2019
Booker responds that he doesn’t believe in wealth tax but wants to give more people the opportunity to build wealth.
— Katy Tur (@KatyTurNBC) November 21, 2019
(He’s right.)
Wealth taxes raise little revenue https://t.co/JSMZVXaCeK
— Scott Hodge (@scottahodge) November 21, 2019
Fixing That Awful Obamacare
The debate then shifted, as all Democratic debates must, to the subject of health care. Obamacare? Old and busted. The new hotness is FULL SOCIALISM.
Warren is going to eliminate private health insurance, then provide free everything else and it’s all going to be paid by magic beans.
— Rory Cooper (@rorycooper) November 21, 2019
Geeze Bernie…Post Obamacare America sounds like a medical hellscape.
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) November 21, 2019
I kind of find it endearing how Bernie Sanders says Barack Obama’s name as “Bowrock Obomber”
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) November 21, 2019
They moved on mercifully quickly to a new topic: how much Tulsi Gabbard doesn’t like Hillary Clinton.
Asking Tulsi about her comments on Clinton pic.twitter.com/C7YxzzV8pm
— Jessica Fletcher (@heckyessica) November 21, 2019
Hillary Clinton is the “personificaction of the rot” in the Democratic Party. That’s true.
— Tim Carney (@TPCarney) November 21, 2019
Oooh, “Bush-Obama-Trump foreign policy doctrine” AND using the dictator word while talking about foreign leaders. Good smack-down. #DemDebate
— Lucy Steigerwald (@LucyStag) November 21, 2019
Harris jumped in, not so much to defend Clinton, but for revenge over the time Tulsi killed her campaign back in August.
Kamala Harris hits Tulsi Gabbard saying: “we have someone on this stage that is attempting to be the democratic nominee for president of the United States, who during the Obama Administration spent four years full time on Fox News criticizing President Obama.”
— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) November 21, 2019
Gabbard would have none of it.
What Sen. Harris is doing is continuing to traffic in lies. — @TulsiGabbard is coming in HOT 🔥 #DemDebate #Cato2020 pic.twitter.com/k3AjlwqRSL
— Kat Murti (@KatMurti) November 21, 2019
Harris now getting even with Tulsi Gabbard for what she did to Harris in an earlier debate. (but why?)
— Jeff Greenfield (@greenfield64) November 21, 2019
The sad part is Sen. Harris is punching up.
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) November 21, 2019
Tulsi Gabbard always low key speaks like she’s three glasses of wine deep, talking to you in a corner at a party. #DemocraticDebate pic.twitter.com/Lro5lFyh8w
— Zoë Green Appler (@zoeappler) November 21, 2019
Half an hour in, Andrew Yang got to talk and was refreshingly normal.
Andrew Yang is well liked. And he is getting his first chance to speak 32 minutes in and the crowd noticed.
— The Red-Headed Libertarian™️ (@TRHLofficial) November 21, 2019
Yang winning the “talk like a human” primary
— Tim Miller (@Timodc) November 21, 2019
Mayor Pete
Buttigieg had been rising in the polls, leading many pundits to assume he would come under attack by the other candidates. Yet they were strangely reticent, so he was forced to attack himself.
Pete Buttigieg, who went to Harvard and worked at McKinsey, casting himself as a man of the people from small town America is really a bit much
— Michael Cohen (@speechboy71) November 21, 2019
“Mayor Pete, you suck ass when you run for stuff, how can we trust you’ll not suck ass?”
Mayor Pete: “I have no money!”
— Adam Trahan (@AdamTrahan) November 21, 2019
I don’t golf. Shit man I barely earn a salary. – Another entry for the “Buttigieg brags about weird things” file.
— Caleb Howe (@CalebHowe) November 21, 2019
Amy Klobuchar insisted that she was actually the candidate of the people—and did you know girls can do anything?!?
Amy Klobuchar’s empty, performative ra-ra girl power is so tedious
— Elizabeth Nolan Brown (@ENBrown) November 21, 2019
klobuchar: “i raised $17,000 from ex-boyfriends”
weird flex but ok
— Logan Hall (@loganclarkhall) November 21, 2019
Biden agreed with her, but not exactly.
Biden: I think women are qualified, but here, love, sit down and shut your gob, and let me tell you what I did…alright, pet?
— Mr Maitra (@MrMaitra) November 21, 2019
Lock Him Up?
Rachel Maddow asked the candidates whether their supporters should chant “Lock him up” about the president the way Trump did about Hillary in 2016. Their answer: no, but really yeah.
Is this debate more full of platitude than usual, or am I just in purgatory?
— Lucy Steigerwald (@LucyStag) November 21, 2019
NOPE! – Bernie Sanders. https://t.co/PMMq30Fijz
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) November 21, 2019
They also discussed Trump’s Twitter account.
“the next president who starts tweeting, should…. anyway” -Biden
— Alexandra Petri (@petridishes) November 21, 2019
Kitchen Table Issues
They talked about child care—and how the government should pay for it.
Yang is particularly tone deaf to promote his “Freedom Dividend” as a solution to childcare problems, given that the cash payment only goes to adults, and doesn’t increase for households with more children.
— Scott Greenberg (@ScottElliotG) November 21, 2019
“Andrew how would you….”
“GIVE THEM $1k A MONTH”
— Ben McDonald (@Bmac0507) November 21, 2019
Amy Klobuchar on childcare proposal: “My plan is three months, I think that’s good, I’d love to do more” — “I am not gonna go for things just because they sound good on a bumper sticker, and throw in a free car;” knocks proposals for Medicare for All, free college
— David Wright (@DavidWright_CNN) November 21, 2019
Kamala Harris: “It is no longer the case that people in America are having children in their 20s”!!!
Live in a bubble much!?!?!https://t.co/2KLfp3AfeH— Salim Furth (@salimfurth) November 21, 2019
They talked about housing—and how the government should pay for it.
So, the housing problem in America, according to Warren, is that the Federal government stopped building housing projects.
*rubs forehead*
Ambien smoothie to go please
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) November 21, 2019
Liz warren: supply side economics!
(For housing)
— Tim Miller (@Timodc) November 21, 2019
Warren’s and Buttigieg’s supporters are getting uncomfortable now that the conversation turns to gentrification.
— Kyle Sammin (@KyleSammin) November 21, 2019
Warren: I grew up in a tiny tepee
— HollyCabot (@HollyCabot) November 21, 2019
Booker: We can fix housing by adding more subsidies for demand while doing nothing about supply.
— Ramesh Ponnuru (@RameshPonnuru) November 21, 2019
If Steyer wants to change housing policy in California, he could put a little bit of his fortune into one of those referendums he professes to love, and try to convince voters to rewrite the state’s zoning rules. It’s more likely to help than anything a POTUS can do.
— Binyamin Appelbaum (@BCAppelbaum) November 21, 2019
They talked about the environment—and how the government should fix that. Also: Tom Steyer is a secret coal baron?
Steyer says he would declare a state of emergency and use the emergency powers of the president to act on climate change.
That’s terrifying.
— Jason Howerton (@jason_howerton) November 21, 2019
Joe Biden was surprisingly prepared for that Tom Steyer diss #DemDebate
— Nick Field (@nick_field90) November 21, 2019
.@ryanmauro Biden didn’t land his counter-punch on Steyer with much grace but he did still deliver a good slap. #DemocraticDebate pic.twitter.com/wMz1oT868Z
— David M. Swindle (@DaveSwindle) November 21, 2019
By the way, _yeah_, Tom Steyer made a fortune in coal mines. https://t.co/9Fep6gW2hI
— Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) November 21, 2019
Tom Steyers is doing the climate version of “I’m a liberal but also all lives matter” to explain why he made his billions from coal
— john r stanton (@dcbigjohn) November 21, 2019
Bernie refused to answer the question, but agreed that rich people should go to jail.
Has Bernie ever agreed with the premise of a question?
— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) November 21, 2019
Bernie Sanders never accepts your premise.
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) November 21, 2019
Bernie: Let’s get some climate-criminal prosecutions going
— Rich Lowry (@RichLowry) November 21, 2019
The Rest of the World
Foreign policy came up as time wound down.
Yang a little flummoxed by a foreign policy question about what he’d say on his first call with Vladimir Putin, rebounds with a joke. He’s the only candidate on stage who routinely displays an actual sense of humor–and welcome that is.
— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) November 21, 2019
And @AndrewYang mentions China’s treatment of their ethnic minorities. That’s a big deal that wouldn’t have come up otherwise. #Uighurs
— Caroline McCarthy (@caro) November 21, 2019
Bernie pledged to be as wrong in the future as he was in the past.
Bernie bragging about voting against *first* Gulf War.
— Jason Willick (@jawillick) November 21, 2019
The Soviet freaking Union literally supported the US in the first Gulf War and tonight Bernie Sanders is boasting that he opposed it. Times have changed.
— Charles Lane (@ChuckLane1) November 21, 2019
Biden perked up a little.
Biden with a strong fopo answer in which he mentions the Uighurs—finally.
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) November 21, 2019
Biden claiming that he’s going to make Saudi Arabia a pariah state is nearly as hard to believe as Warren’s healthcare financing plan.
— Philip Klein (@philipaklein) November 21, 2019
Instead of a foreign policy question, Warren was asked: should more people join the military. Her answer was yes, but she made it weird.
I just want to be clear, was Warren sayin we should all join the military cuz it’s good cuz her brother went to Vietnam and it was bad ? #DemDebate
— Julia (@bigkittenqueen) November 21, 2019
“All Americans should be able to experience what my mother experienced while my brother was fighting in Vietnam.”
— H.P., the Hillbilly Odysseus (@tuesdayreviews) November 21, 2019
Potpourri
As the evening drew to a close, the moderators varied the topics often. Gabbard got a question and took it places.
Gabbard asked about white supremacy and ends up talking drug legalization. #DemocraticDebate pic.twitter.com/Qurn5QAiJA
— David M. Swindle (@DaveSwindle) November 21, 2019
Biden said it was almost never okay to hit a woman, and that he wanted to get tough on domestic violence. Really tough.
Biden dileneating exactly when it’s okay to hit women is a great twist
— Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) November 21, 2019
In response to a question about male violence against women, Biden replies, in a really staggeringly tone deaf comment, “We have to keep punching at it, and punching at it, and punching at it.”
— Moira Donegan (@MoiraDonegan) November 21, 2019
Domestic Violence: We’re Beating the Shit Out of It
— dylan matthews (@dylanmatt) November 21, 2019
The moderators tried to get Harris to say to Buttigieg’s face what she’d said on the stump. She declined.
Kamala: 90 seconds of complete gibberish
Buttigieg: I completely agree
— Madeline Osburn (@madelineorr) November 21, 2019
Memories of Corn Pop
The moderators asked about racial justice. Warren replied with…student loan forgiveness?
How is it being “for the people” to insist on student loan forgiveness (which realistically means Americans without college degrees get to subsidize those who do have them)? #DemDebate
— Melissa Braunstein (@slowhoneybee) November 21, 2019
Booker talked about the uneven enforcement of the drug war.
Probably Booker’s best answer of any debate this year chastising Biden on Marijuana.
“This week I heard him literally say I don’t think we should legalize marijuana. I thought you might have been high when you said it.”
— Tristan Justice (@JusticeTristan) November 21, 2019
Biden said…well…
“I come out of the black community (in terms of my support).” — @JoeBiden #Cato2020 #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/BYsA0XTbR2
— Kat Murti (@KatMurti) November 21, 2019
LOL did Joe Biden just attempt to say he was an honorary black?!!! pic.twitter.com/PLvsD8ySw6
— Storm Paglia 🇺🇸 (@storm_paglia) November 21, 2019
What would Corn Pop say if he could see him now?
Buttigieg took the question in a religious direction, and wandered into a seventeenth-century heresy.
Episcopalians around America surprised to learn that we’re all Arminians now. But Mayor Pete said so, so I guess that’s how it’s gonna be.
— Luke Thompson (@ltthompso) November 21, 2019
They talked about abortion, but you can imagine how that went.
Abortion questions at a Democratic primary are boring, the answers completely unsurprising. They all oppose any meaningful restrictions on abortion. No point in wasting precious time on this.
— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) November 21, 2019
Are We There Yet?
The eleven o’clock hour came and went.
Wait, doesn’t this thing end at 11? This seems like a whole new segment…
— Clare Malone (@ClareMalone) November 21, 2019
Buttigieg, Gabbard, and Klobuchar scuffled over foreign policy, and he held his own better than poor Kamala.
And now Tulsi is going after Pete, which will make Pete only more sympathetic to most Democrats #DemDebate
— Nick Field (@nick_field90) November 21, 2019
Now Tulsi wants in on this, criticizes him for floating idea of sending troops to Mexico.
Pete says she’s taking him out of context. Then to Assad:
“If you’re talking about experience, let’s talk about judgment. I would not have sat down with a murderous dictator like that.”
— Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) November 21, 2019
Buttigieg in turn hits Tulsi for meeting with Assad because we all needed a redux of that
Generally a draw in that exchange https://t.co/pcEbARSR4C
— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) November 21, 2019
half my timeline is saying tulsi destroyed pete and the other half is saying pete destroyed tulsi
— Ben McDonald (@Bmac0507) November 21, 2019
The candidates closed out the night in the age-old fashion: by telling everyone to go to their websites.
Guys you don’t have to spell out the urls anymore. It’s 2019.
— Lizzie O’Leary (@lizzieohreally) November 21, 2019
A few things were proved.
No one on this stage can put the Obama coalition back together.
— Ben Domenech (@bdomenech) November 21, 2019
But the people were tired.
this concludes our day of watching 15 and a half hours of TV pic.twitter.com/rOOkS552on
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) November 21, 2019
In the end, the choice was as unclear as ever.
mood pic.twitter.com/BRDWRzlpNy
— Shoshana Weissmann, Sloth Committee Chair 🦥 (@senatorshoshana) November 21, 2019
