Thread by @kgosztola

First question goes to Bernie Sanders. "Will taxes go up for middle class in Sanders admin [because of health care program, etc]? How do you sell to voters?"

Sanders directs this where it should go by highlighting how Americans will pay less for health care. #DemDebate2

Q for Hickenlooper: "Democrats will lose in 2020 if Democrats embrace socialism...What are policies you think veer toward socialism?"

Hickenlooper: "If we don't clearly define we are not socialists, Republicans are going to come at us any way they can. #DemDebate2

GOP will attack Democrats for supporting "socialism," even if they support the weakest progressive policies. Because they know it's effective in ensuring Democrats aren't effective opposition to their agenda #DemDebate2

Bennet says he believes health care is a right. Says we need a public option. Debate breaks out over Bernie's proposal, and the moderators insist on not talking about health care yet so a potentially good moment is snuffed out #DemDebate2

Swalwell said Biden told him torch must be passed to younger generations. Biden responded. Everyone tried to chime in on generational issue. Sanders remarked over voices of others til they quieted. Kamala made dumb appeal to those who fear bickering. Format is awful. #DemDebate2

Biden: Build on Obamacare. Build on what we did.

What Obamacare did was force consumers to buy insurance or else they were taxed. It further entrenched the corporate power of private insurers in the U.S. health care system. #DemDebate2

Q: How do you implement on national level?

Bernie Sanders: We will have Medicare for All when tens of millions of people are prepared to stand up and tell the insurance companies and the drug companies that their day is gone. That health care is a human right.

#DemDebate2

Marianne Williamson: "We don't have a health care system in the United States. We have a sickness care system in the United States. We just wait til somebody gets sick and then we talk about how somebody's gonna pay for the treatment." #DemDebate2

Bennet: Bernie has said this will ban all private insurance.

Sanders: Medicare is most popular health insurance program in country. People don't like their private insurance companies. They like their doctors and hospitals. #DemDebate2

Several of these candidates seem to support the principles and values promoted by Medicare for All but not that policy and are under some illusion that parts of for-profit system can support these guarantees they want #DemDebate2

Biden suggests putting executives who mislead about pharmaceutical drugs, like opioids, in jail. Jailing corporate executives was something the Obama admin went out of their way not to do. #DemDebate2

Hickenlooper thinks ICE can be reformed and trained to approach what they do in a humanitarian way. #DemDebate2

Williamson: I haven't heard anybody on this stage who has talked about US foreign policy and how we might have in the last few decades contributed [to humanitarian crises] #DemDebate2

Everyone thinks it should be a civil offense to cross the border except for... Bennet? Who else was recorded on stage being awful? #DemDebate2

Question: Obama deported more than 3 million Americans. If individual is living in US without documents, should that person be deported?

Biden: Depends on if they committed a major crime. #DemDebate2

Biden says President Obama did a heckuva job. To compare him to what this guy is doing is immoral. Gets livid when faced with criticism of Obama's deportation policies #DemDebate2

Bennet fails again. Says biggest threat to US national security is Russia, not China. If you're not saying climate change or nuclear weapons, get off the stage #DemDebate2

First hour in and this seems to be more substantive than Night One. #DemDebate2

Chuck Todd brings the appropriately Veep-ish banter to start 2nd hour. #DemDebate2

Buttigieg addresses the recent police shooting in South Bend, Indiana, and doesn't shirk from taking responsibility. Gives pretty sober answer. He does seem to really understand why everyone is very outraged. #DemDebate2

Kamala Harris goes after Biden for working with segregationists to oppose busing after she invoked her race to force moderators to give her time to speak about police accountability. #DemDebate2

Biden: "I did not praise racists." He says he became a public defender, not prosecutor. (Is he insulting Kamala here?). Pretty caustic tone. #DemDebate2

What happened between Kamala and Biden will be the biggest moment of the debate tonight. It will play throughout next news cycle. #DemDebate2

Bennet: The deal that Biden talked about with Mitch McConnell was a victory for Tea Party. It extended the Bush tax cuts permanently...Great deal for McConnell, terrible deal for America #DemDebate2

There's 40 min left and Biden is only going to get more brittle as people challenge him. His handlers in his campaign have to be panicked. #DemDebate2

Kamala Harris: Climate change existential threat to species. She says without skipping a beat that she supports Green New Deal. #DemDebate2

Maddow asks Hickenlooper about oil and gas companies being partners in fighting climate change.

Frackenlooper replies socialism is not the solution. Also adds later we can't demonize business. #DemDebate2

Oh, good, Biden would like U.S. government to order the world into doing what it thinks it should do on climate change. Which means what fossil fuel industry and other corporate interests want. #DemDebate2

That was a waste of time. I think voters would get more valuable information out of a round of F, Marry, Kill. #DemDebate2

Biden says we need to reset relations with NATO. Bernie says we need to reset relations with United Nations. There's your stark difference between front runners. #DemDebate2

#DemDebate2 made it clear why Biden was avoiding criticisms from fellow Democratic candidates. His campaign handlers dreaded what he would do if he engaged press on these questions.

No questions on Venezuela during either night of the debate. Kinda stunned. Florida Democrats like Mucarsel-Powell, Shalala, and Wasserman Schultz were in local press demanding candidates openly support Trump's regime change agenda. #DemDebate2

Here's Joe Biden's post-debate interview with MSNBC's Garrett Haake. He said Kamala Harris "mischaracterized" his position. He doesn't think we should be "re-litigating these debates" on segregation and racism. #DemDebate2

From MSNBC interview, it seems Joe Biden had little grasp of what happened during the debate with him and Kamala, what it looked like to viewers, and why it totally freaked out his campaign staff #DemDebate2