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Warren & Sanders come out hard for decriminalization of illegal immigration, in order to strip the government of tools to stop it.
Bullock actually speaks up for the idea that handing out healthcare & no penalties will draw more people to the border. This is a fringe position now in the Democratic party.
Warren emphasizes standing up for people who overstay student visas.
Bullock has the effrontery to take the far-right Obama position on immigration.
Ryan joins Bullock speaking for the non-far-Left, argues that illegal immigrants should pay for their healthcare like everyone else. Bernie responds that nobody should pay for their own healthcare.
Hickenlooper says he actually did something. Advantage of being a governor. But do voters care anymore?
Buttigieg mentions that he was in high school during Columbine. Get off my lawn.
Bullock brags about being a gun owner like he's running in the 2004 primary, then pivots to ranting about the Koch brothers.
Beto says political contributions are why people commit suicide with guns.
A corrective to Beto's claims about the CDC google.com/amp/s/www.nati…
Buttigieg talks about Court-packing & DC statehood as solutions to gun violence. Bullock: Koch brothers! Williamson: drug companies are bad!
Williamson: yadda yadda yadda (actual quote)
Electability question. @jaketapper invites Bullock to fight Sanders.
Bullock suggests that soybean farmers should sue Trump for malpractice.
Bernie emphasizes that he beat Hillary in Wisconsin & Michigan. Just like Trump!
Bernie talks about the 54th anniversary of Medicare. He was 24 then.
Ryan: dude, have you people met Ohio voters?
Beto: I can win Texas like I did in 2018.
Bullock: I'm the only one here who actually won a Trump state.
Warren: no, Jake, I don't want to criticize Bernie.
Delaney: make Detroit our model.
Warren: don't run if you're just gonna talk about how we can't give everyone a unicorn.
Delaney: Social Security didn't make pensions illegal. The Warren & Sanders health plan is doomed.
Warren decides she definitely wants to fight John Delaney. Also, health insurers suck.
Bernie: free trade killed Detroit. Also free college.
Klobuchar: everybody here is making promises for votes.
Klobuchar goes after "universal" healthcare & college as unelectable.
The moderators are controlling the time well, but the fact that they keep having to shout down the candidates illustrates the problem with stages this crowded.
Bash to Delaney: you said the Green New Deal is unrealistic, but don't we need to do something unrealistic or we're all gonna die?
I suspect that Warren is winning this debate, precisely because she refuses to cede ground to the political & policy realities raised by Klobuchar, Delaney, Hickenlooper, Ryan, & Bullock.
Warren accuses Hickenlooper of citing made-up Republican talking points by talking about reality.
The surreal part is that the only candidates who haven't totally lost touch with the real world are the ones whose entire campaigns are delusional about having a shot at the nomination.
Sanders says fossil fuel companies are destroying the world. Ryan tells him to stop shouting.
Difference between Warren & Bernie: Warren wants to win. Bernie is content to be Jeremiah.
Bullock: Democrats should stop talking like hardhat workers are part of the problem. Bernie: hey, Steve, I'm a Workers of the World, Unite! guy.
Buttigieg making a statement by wearing no red, unlike Warren or Beto.
Buttigieg: I will play the veteran card and win like McCain, Dole, & Kerry.
Klobuchar talks about wanting to stop people in Flint from drinking bottled water.
Williamson: dark psychic force is the real issue.
Beto has Nixonesque five o'clock shadow.
Hickenlooper talks about urban agenda when asked about race. But unlike in Colorado, black people in the southern states are not predominantly urban residents.
Don Lemon: hey Buttigieg, your record on race is pretty bad, right?
Ryan: Trump has a point about China.
Ryan's "Chief Manufacturing Officer" thing is an obvious gimmick.
Ryan concludes with a Tom Friedmanesque ode to Chinese central planning.
Delaney: free trade is good! Obama liked it!
Warren: free trade is unpatriotic.
Warren promises to have every left-wing group on earth "at the table" in economic decisions.
Delaney accuses Warren of banning trade with the UK & Europe. Warren...doesn't deny this. "Make them raise their standards."
Credit to the CNN moderators, they are forcing the candidates to talk about their areas of disagreement.
Bernie: I voted against NAFTA!
Bernie actually missed a chance here to say something nice about Ross Perot.
Hickenlooper: "trade wars are for losers."
This format is still hugely unflattering to everyone. I think Huckabee was the only candidate I can remember who was well-suited to the 10-candidate stage.
Buttigieg says Scripture requires a higher minimum wage.
Delaney calls the capital gains tax rate a "loophole" (which is silly), but notes that Warren's wealth tax is unconstitutional & unworkable & has failed where tried.
Buttigieg notes that student loan forgiveness is unfair if it - like any amnesty - is retrospective, & will create demand for more.
Bernie Sanders says we don't talk about wealth inequality, which is news to everyone in politics.
Williamson: everything we do to spend money domestically or abroad should be for everyone.
Williamson: are you sure you people are Democrats?
Klobuchar still sounds like she's in a committee hearing.
Bernie says he will be diplomatic so we have no wars, like Obama had no wars.
Ryan comes out against Klobuchar's view - which Obama stated but didn't follow, but Trump did - that you freely meet w/Kim Jong-Un. He's right.
Klobuchar said Putin was "invading our democracy," which is...uh...news.
Buttigieg, accurately, notes that Congress has shirked its responsibility to oversee wars.
None of these people have had any theory of when you *would* use force. Hickenlooper inches towards that talking about a humanitarian mission to stay in Afghanistan.
Bullock won't join Warren on no nuclear first use, sides with Harry Truman.
Bullock points out that Warren's policy means "Detroit would have to be gone first."
Don Lemon asks Buttigieg to call Bernie old. He ducks the question, but cites the New Zealand P.M.
I'm not sure how much more of this my brain can take.
Bullock: I was the governor's newspaper boy.
Williamson: we need some radical truth time. Corruption do deep, ladies & gentlemen...voices of energy...[starts shaking]
Delaney: quotes JFK. National service. [Is declared high school debate champ]
Ryan, like Delaney, talks about getting past left/right. "There's not gonna be a savior."
Hickenlooper says he had fun tonight, which makes one person in America.
Klobuchar: [tells story of a girl dying from opioid abuse] "I can win in the Midwest." Gaffes by mentioning she was a prosecutor.
Beto: I got a lot of votes in Texas!
Buttigieg's closing is generic, but keeps his theme about beating Republicans in Congress.
Warren talks about going to college for $50 a semester, and wearing an onion on her belt, which was the style at the time.
Bernie talks about taking a busload of diabetics to Canada, which is on brand. But unlike everyone else, he remembers to close with his website & an ask for money.
If you put a gun to my head to vote for one of the Democrats, I'm pretty sure I'd pick Delaney.
