Former Vice President Joe Biden took most of the hits during the second Democratic primary debate, facing attacks from nearly every other candidate onstage.
Still the frontrunner in the polls, the former senator from Delaware was the prime target for the other nine candidates on a whole range of issues covered in the debate.
Here are some of the biggest hits on Biden of the night, issue-by-issue:
On Immigration
- New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio asked Biden to answer for the ramped up levels of deportation that occurred under the Obama Administration, and the vice president dodged. Saying he “didn’t hear an answer,” De Blasio followed up. “I asked the vice president if he used his power to stop those deportations. If you want to be president of the United States, you need to be able to answer the tough questions. I guarantee you, if you’re debating Donald Trump, he’s not going to let you off the hook. Did you say those deportations were a good idea or did you go to the president and say this is a mistake, we shouldn’t do it?”
On Criminal Justice Reform
- During a discussion of mass incarceration, Biden got into a brief tiff with Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), criticizing Booker’s record as mayor of Newark, New Jersey. The senator replied to the vice president by saying, “We have a system right now that’s broken.” He then alluded to ongoing criticism about Biden’s policy record on race, saying, “and if you want to compare records – and I’m shocked that you do – I am happy to do that.”
- Booker pressed the attack on Biden, accusing him of inauthenticity on the same point: “There’s a saying in my community that you’re dipping into the Kool-aid, and you don’t even know the flavor,” Booker said. “You need to come to the city and see the reforms we put in place.”
On Busing
- Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) recalled Biden’s work with segregationist senators in personal detail, bringing up his moves to oppose busing. “Had I been in the Senate at that time I would have been on the other side of the aisle,” Harris said. “Had those segregationists their way, I would not be a member of the United States Senate, Cory Booker would not be a member of the United States Senate, and President Obama would not have been in a position to nominate him to the title he now he holds.”
On Health Care
- This one may have flown under the radar for some folks, but it was sharp and went to the heart of Biden’s identification with the Obama administration. Biden opened with an attack on Harris’s health care plan, calling it too expensive and claiming it would take away people’s coverage. Harris parried by noting that under Biden’s plan, health insurance companies would continue being able to jack up co-pays and deductibles, while boasting that “the architect of Obama’s Affordable Care Act,” former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, “endorsed our plan as being something that will get us to where we need to go.”
On Social Issues
- Harris brought up Biden’s past support for the Hyde Amendment, which prevents federal funds from paying for abortions outside of cases of rape, incest, or danger to the mother. The California senator called Biden’s support for the Hyde Amendment a decision “to withhold resources from poor women to reproductive healthcare, including women who were the victims of rape and incest. Do you now say that you have evolved and you regret that?” she asked, before going on to cite her own experience prosecuting rape and child molestation cases. “This directly impacted so many women in our country.”
- Sen. Kristin Gillibrand (D-NY) cited a newly revealed op-ed that Biden wrote, saying that women working outside the home would cause families to deteriorate. Gillibrand cited her own experience “as a woman who worked my entire career as the primary wage earner and caregiver.” She added that “many women want to work to provide for the community. Either you don’t believe it today, or, what did you mean?”
Biden has held his own is actually had a pretty good debate. Most progressives won’t want to hear that cuz they have this dream of a liberal champion as president making all their dreams come true.
My problem with Biden isn’t that he’s a moderate. I worried about the fact that he’s a total gaffe machine and a terrible campaigner. He stumbles all over himself while campaigning and Trump will eat him for lunch if he’s the nominee. He’s ahead now solely on name recognition and the fact that he was Obama’s VP. That’s all he has, and that won’t be enough to get him elected next fall.
Biden is running as a “next in line candidate.” That didn’t work for Humphrey, Mondale, Gore or H. Clinton, and it probably won’t work for him either. God help us all if the Democrats don’t see that in time.
Biden had an excellent debate.
Why would one encourage young people to involve themselves in politics if the end result of their investment of time and energy is the advancement of a non-entity like Biden?
As long as Democrats entertain their obsession with winning over the white working class voter we will never see a center-left figure like Warren in the White House (or in more than a few Senate seats, for that matter)…
I didn’t think Biden did all that well in this debate and he needed to. Nearly all the other candidates were stronger. Biden kind of revived at the end, but still not a good performance. Yang, who I had pretty much written off, presented some very interesting ideas…ideas that will be important in the coming decades. That is his strength although he won’t be the candidate. I would really like to see him in the administration and the same for many on the state tonight. Harris did well enough even after being sand-bagged by Tulsi Gabbard. She had to defend some areas which will be sore points in her campaign. The climate change discussion was good and of course, Inslee, did very well there. Also liked Corey Booker and Juan Castro a lot.
It was good to hear all the criticisms…insults…of the OrangeHorror. Easy target.
I always liked Joe Biden but in 2020 his time seems past. He just doesn’t seem to be foreward thinking enough for the future we are facing. He would probably be good at rebuilding our relationship with the rest of the world but that seems to be his strongest, maybe only, strong, point.