Church of God News

6 Democratic Presidential Candidates Trade Barbs, Attack Trump

January 15, 2020

WASHINGTON – Six U.S. Democratic presidential candidates traded barbs with each other in a tense debate late Tuesday, attempting to make the case to voters in the farm state of Iowa that they alone have the political fortitude and skill to take on Republican President Donald Trump in the November national election.

With heightened world tensions between the U.S. and Iran, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a self-described democratic socialist, quickly attacked the foreign policy credentials of the party’s national front-runner for the presidential nomination, former Vice President Joe Biden.

Iraq war

Sanders derided Biden’s 2002 vote authorizing the U.S. invasion of Iraq on what proved to be erroneous American intelligence that deposed dictator Saddam Hussein was amassing weapons of mass destruction, while Sanders opposed the the 2003 invasion.

He said Biden voted for the “worst foreign policy blunder in the history of this country.”

Biden, who for years has said his Iraq vote was a mistake, countered that while he had erred, as former U.S. President Barack Obama’s second in command, he worked to bring home more than 150,000 U.S. troops once stationed in Iraq and to end the conflict.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota said that she, as a candidate early in her political career, also opposed the Iraq invasion, while accusing Trump of “taking us pell-mell toward another war,” in the current conflict over the U.S. leader’s changing rationale for ordering a drone strike that killed Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani.

A key challenger to both Biden and Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a one-time Harvard law professor, and others said they would move to bring thousands of U.S. troops home from the Middle East, at odds with Trump’s recent dispatch of more forces to the region. Warren said, “We have to stop this mindset that the answer” to world’s trouble spots is to send U.S. troops overseas. Asked whether she would leave some combat troops in the Middle East, she replied: “No, we have to get them out.”

Sanders said, “The American people are sick and tired of endless wars.”

Former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, the only war-time veteran on the debate stage, said he could best serve as the country’s commander in chief, because “the lessons of the past are personal to me.” Wealthy environmentalist Tom Steyer contended that Trump “obviously has no strategy” in dealing with Iran and agreed with Biden that it would take the efforts of an international coalition to rein in its nuclear ambitions. …

Can a woman be president?

Warren and Sanders sparred sharply over a private conversation they had more than a year ago in which Warren claims that Sanders questioned whether a woman can defeat Trump to become the first female U.S. president.

Sanders denied making the remark and said no one believes a woman can’t win, noting that Democrat Hillary Clinton out-polled Trump by nearly 3 million votes in 2016, while losing the vote in the country’s state-by-state electoral college system of electing presidents.

When she was asked what she thought when Sanders told her a woman couldn’t defeat Trump in 2020, Warren responded: “I disagreed.”

Warren said that the male candidates on the debate stage had collectively lost 10 elections during their lifetimes, while the two women, herself and Klobuchar, are undefeated.

Health care for all

Biden, Sanders, Warren,  Klobuchar and Buttigieg sparred once again over health care policy, with Sanders and Warren continuing to press for their revolutionary reforms to provide government-run health insurance to all Americans, while Biden, Klobuchar and Buttigieg continued to advocate measures that modify or build on the Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration’s system of publicly subsidized insurance currently under attack by the Trump administration.

At one point, Sanders was asked about estimates that his policies would double federal spending on health care and bankrupt the country. “No, my plan would not bankrupt the country,” Sanders responded, arguing that it would cut administrative costs and co-payments in a way that lowers overall health care costs.   Klobuchar offered a rejoinder: “I think you should show how you’re going to pay for things, Bernie.”

Trump’s incumbent status means Republicans are sure to nominate him to seek a second four-year term in the White House.  But the Democratic race is highly unsettled. (https://www.voanews.com/usa/us-politics/6-democratic-presidential-candidates-trade-barbs-attack-trump)