Debate Recap: Sanders Survives Attacks as Republicans Revel in the Chaos

By Joan E. Greve, Guardian UK

26 February 20

Bernie Sanders emerges relatively unscathed

arly in the night, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders – who has emerged as the current frontrunner in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination – was the main target of his opponents’ attacks.

Billionaire centrist and former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg used his first answer of the night to criticise Sanders over recent reports that Russia may be interfering in the 2020 election to aid his campaign, and even fellow progressive, Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren used her time to insist she would would be a better president who would “dig in, do the hard work, [and] actually get it done”.

But Sanders then seemed to fade into the background as the debate repeatedly devolved into bickering. The Vermont senator’s status as the one to beat in the nominating contest appears to be unchanged.

The debate format let everyone down

The CBS News moderators were sharply criticized for their inability to maintain control of the debate, as candidates descended into shouting over each other. Commentators also bemoaned the lack of questions on key issues such as climate change and immigration, and the lack of follow up questions.

In 2015, a terror attack at Mother Emanuel AME church, which stands a few dozen feet from the debate state in downtown Charleston, killed nine people.

When former vice-president Joe Biden took Sanders to task for his record on gun control, specifically on voting for a 2005 bill that he said undermines efforts to hold gun manufacturers to account after mass shootings.

“I’ve cast thousands of votes, including bad votes. That was a bad vote,” Sanders admitted. Yet the moment faded away, and the debate moved on.

Republicans revelled in the ‘chaos’ of the night

The Trump campaign was quick to characterize the debate as a “hot mess” dismissing all the Democratic candidates as unworthy of ascending to the Oval Office.

Ronna McDaniel, the chair of the Republican National Committee, said: “When we could hear over the crosstalk, we heard Democrats singing the same old song in support of socialism.”

In one of the few moments of clarity, Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar warned: “If we spend the next four months tearing our party apart, we’re going to watch Donald Trump spend the next four years tearing our country apart.”

Mike Bloomberg had a bad night, again

Coming off his disastrous first debate performance in Las Vegas last week, Bloomberg faced the lowest expectations of any candidate but still managed to inflict some damage upon himself. For example, Bloomberg said in response to criticism from Warren on his past comments about women that he was “probably wrong” to make sexist jokes about his employees.

The white Democratic candidates tried to appeal to black voters

The candidates repeatedly tried to address racial issues in light of Saturday’s primary in South Carolina, where more than half the Democratic electorate is black. Most notably, Biden, who was long seen as favorite to win the state, promised to nominate an African American woman to the supreme court.

But the direct appeals to black voters from the seven white candidates on stage was sometimes jarring, and struck some critics as blatant pandering.