Top Takeaways From the Iowa Democratic Presidential Debate
Top Takeaways From the Iowa Democratic Presidential Debate
(Bloomberg) -- At the seventh Democratic debate in Des Moines on Tuesday, the six top-polling candidates turned up the heat with just three weeks to go until the Iowa Caucuses.
While the discussion largely focused on policy questions such as foreign affairs, health care, drug prices or universal child care, the candidates also sparred over the role of women in politics and took subtle and not-so-subtle digs at one another.
The Handshake That Wasn’t
One of the biggest moments actually came after the debate was over.
After shaking hands with Tom Steyer and Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren walked toward Bernie Sanders, who offered his hand. She declined to take it, instead clasping her hands together.
The two then appeared to have some kind of tense conversation. Midway through, Steyer approached to shake Sanders’ hand, standing awkwardly as he looked back and forth at the two, who were still talking.
In an interview with MSNBC afterward, Steyer didn’t share what the discussion was about.
“I don’t know what they were saying,” he said. “I was trying to get out of the way as fast as possible.”
The incident was reminiscent of a previous debate, when Hillary Clinton and President Donald Trump skipped the customary handshake after their second face-off in 2016.
A Female President
The standoff over the handshake followed from a set-to during the debate, when Warren hit Sanders over a recent story that he told her in a private meeting that a woman can’t win the 2020 presidential election.
Sanders again denied that he had made the remark, pointing to his public comments that a woman could be elected president.
“Anybody who knows me knows that it’s incomprehensible that I think a woman cannot be president of the United States,” he said.
Warren stuck to her story, then pivoted to go after the question head on.
“Look at the men on this stage -- collectively they have lost 10 elections,” she said. “The only people on this stage who have won every single election that they have been in are the women.”
When Was 1990?
Warren then noted that she is the only person on the debate stage “who has beaten an incumbent Republican any time in the past 30 years,” a reference to her 2012 Senate win.
Sanders tried to refute her assertion, noting that he beat an incumbent Republican in a 1990 House race.
Warren then deadpanned as she pretended to count with her fingers.
“And I said I was the only one who’s beaten an incumbent Republican in 30 years,” she said.
“Well, 30 years ago was 1990, as a matter of fact,” Sanders replied.
A Lifetime Ago
It wasn’t the only time that Sanders talked about the past, a risky topic for him, given that if elected, he would be the oldest president in U.S. history, at 79 when he took office.
During a discussion of foreign policy, Sanders argued that the two worst decisions “in our lifetimes” were the Vietnam war and the Iraq war.
The Vietnam war ended in 1975 – seven years before Pete Buttigieg, the youngest Democrat on stage, was born.
Biden-Obama 2020
Biden hasn’t named a running mate yet, of course, but for now Barack Obama is taking the spot.
The former vice president loves to cite his old running mate on the campaign trail, and it only took minutes for him to bring him up at the debate.
Defending himself from Sanders’ criticism of his early support for the Iraq war, Biden noted that Obama opposed the war from the start and later picked him as vice president.
Biden even had a bit of a Freudian slip as he made the case.
“Once we were elected president,” he said, before stopping to note that he was elected vice president.
Steyer’s Ritual
Steyer drew attention for doing two things he has done in all of the four debates he has participated in: wearing a plaid tie and drawing a cross on his hand.
Steyer accessorizes with ties adorned with Scottish tartans every day, which his spokesperson once said is because “you got to dress for the fight.”
On Tuesday night, his other daily fashion routine was briefly visible on television.
Steyer draws a Jerusalem cross -- a large cross surrounded by four smaller crosses -- on his hand every day with a ballpoint pen. He once told told an interview that the ritual is a reminder to “tell the truth no matter what the cost is.”
The cross, which was used in the First Crusade in 1095, was recently in the news after Donald Trump Jr. posted a photo online holding an AR-15-style rifle adorned with a Jerusalem cross and a drawing of Hillary Clinton behind bars.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ryan Teague Beckwith in New York at rbeckwith3@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at wbenjaminson@bloomberg.net, Max Berley, Magan Crane
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