Joe Biden Has Strongest Debate Yet as Pete Buttigieg Gets Roughed Up

(Bloomberg) -- Joe Biden has held steady as the Democratic front-runner despite his weak and stumbling debates. But on Thursday he delivered a poised and crisp performance that showed voters why he’s the candidate to beat for the party’s nomination.

He didn’t ramble. He didn’t trip over his words. He didn’t flub basic facts. He didn’t evoke record players or make other archaic references. He offered flashes of humor and a moment of fiery indignation when ripping into “Medicare for All.”

And his closing statement laid out his rationale for the White House effectively with three questions: Who on stage is best-positioned to defeat Donald Trump, who can help other Democrats win, and who has a record of delivering results?

Biden was further helped by the fact that Pete Buttigieg — his chief rival for moderate Democrats who’s outperforming him in the first two contests — was roughed up in a pile-on from other candidates, including Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Bernie Sanders.

Strongest Performance

Adrienne Elrod, Democratic strategist and former Hillary Clinton campaign aide, said it was Biden’s strongest debate performance yet, and added that he benefited from Buttigieg’s clashes with rivals.

“I am so happy to see the brilliant @JoeBiden I know and love on stage tonight,” Rufus Gifford, former finance director for President Barack Obama, wrote on Twitter.

Two new polls released earlier Thursday by CNN and NBC/Wall Street Journal found Biden leading the pack, with Sanders in second place narrowly ahead of Warren. Buttigieg was a distant third in both polls.

And a CNN national poll released Friday showed both Biden and Sanders beating Trump in head-to-head match-ups, while Warren and Buttigieg trailed the president.

The attacks on Buttigieg in the debate were a gift to Biden, who is lagging the mayor in Iowa and New Hampshire, which have tended to reshape the contest in prior elections. Poor showings in the early states could threaten his support in later contests where he’s stronger, particularly in diverse places with large shares of black voters, who overwhelmingly favor Biden.

Buttigieg walked into his first clash of the evening, nearly an hour-and-a-half into the debate when Warren made her case against fancy fundraisers and special access to donors.

“Can’t help but feel that might’ve been directed at me,” he said.

‘Wine Cave’

What ensued was a lengthy tussle in which he said Democrats need all the resources they can muster to defeat President Donald Trump, to which Warren mocked him for hosting a fundraiser in a wine cave, and declared: “Billionaires in wine caves should not pick the next president of the United States.”

The exchange led to the hashtag #winecave trending on Twitter.

Later, Buttigieg faced incoming fire from Klobuchar, who argued that others on the stage have achieved more than the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana. “I have not denigrated your experience as a local official,” she said. “I just think you should respect our experience.”

In his response, Buttigieg spoke of his experiences serving in the military and “as a gay dude in Mike Pence’s Indiana.”

And that wasn’t all: Sanders mockingly said Buttigieg was trailing Biden in the contest for who has the most billionaire campaign contributors.

Buttigieg held his own throughout the various battles, but they may have taken a collective toll on his candidacy, which is premised on a message of healing and uniting a divided country.

Jeffrey Gundlach, the chief executive officer of the investment management firm DoubleLine who has previously lauded Buttigieg, had a different takeaway on Thursday: “Mayor Pete is not killing it tonight.”

Trump aides sought to draw blood from one particular Biden response in which he said “the answer is yes” when asked if he’d sacrifice some economic growth in the oil and gas industry to transition to a green economy. Biden’s full answer included an argument that such investments will offer displaced blue-collar workers strong opportunities.

Along with Biden, Buttigieg, Warren, Sanders and Klobuchar, Tom Steyer and Andrew Yang completed the seven-candidate stage. Michael Bloomberg — the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News — did not qualify for the debate, along with Cory Booker, Julian Castro and others.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sahil Kapur in Washington at skapur39@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Max Berley, Justin Blum

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