Sanders, Warren Join Forces to Battle Moderates in Feisty Debate

(Bloomberg) -- Desperate to boost their campaigns, low-polling moderates came out swinging against Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, causing the two progressive rivals to jointly defend their similar policy visions and their political viability against President Donald Trump.

But the centrists may have squandered their opportunity to attract votes in Tuesday night’s debate. None of them, including John Delaney and Steve Bullock, contrasted their views with Joe Biden or Kamala Harris, their main rivals for moderate voters and the top-billed candidates facing off Wednesday in Detroit. The dynamic also deprived primary voters of any contrast between the two major liberal contenders.

“What you ended up seeing was both of them allying on many, many big fights together,” Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir said after the debate.

Asked about the lack of contrasts between them, Shakir said there will be “plenty of time” for them to highlight their differences when the field winnows and debate stage shrinks. “And then at that point in time, we’ll have other conversations.”

The debate clash over major issues like health care, taxes and immigration was a microcosm of the Democratic power struggle between ascendant progressives who want to restructure the U.S. economy and a party establishment that favors more modest solutions that build on the existing system. The factions also debated whether hard-left ideas will backfire with Americans or help the party by motivating disaffected people to vote.

Seeking to rebut claims that her platform makes her unelectable, Warren said her progressive vision would “give people a reason to show up and vote.”

‘Impossible Promises’

Delaney said Sanders and Warren want “bad policies like Medicare for all, free everything and impossible promises” that will turn off independents and lead to Trump’s re-election. Bullock said Americans “can’t wait for revolution.” John Hickenlooper assailed their “massive government expansions” and said he’s “a little more pragmatic.” Amy Klobuchar said her ideas were “grounded in reality.”

If the debate weren’t followed by another one on Wednesday, Delaney and Bullock might have scored lasting points to keep their campaigns alive. But it’s not clear their attacks on the left will cause moderate Democratic voters to switch their allegiances from Biden, the former vice president who’s backed by 39% of self-described moderate or conservative Democrats in a Quinnipiac poll released Monday. Among that cohort, 12% support Harris — nobody else was in double digits.

Asked why Delaney didn’t go after Biden or Harris, campaign manager John Davis said they “weren’t on stage.” He added, “It would be a different calculus, had they been there. But certainly the opportunity to have this discussion was made available by who was standing a few feet away.”

Warren set the tone of the debate when she jumped into a lengthy back-and-forth between Sanders and Delaney to defend his health care legislation, which she has co-sponsored.

‘Republican Talking Points’

“We are not about trying to take away health care from anyone. That’s what the Republicans are trying to do,” Warren said. “We should stop using Republican talking points.”

In a memorable moment, Sanders fended off skepticism from Tim Ryan on his single payer bill, “You don’t know that, Bernie,” with a characteristically snippy response: “I do know, I wrote the damn bill.”

The line delighted the Sanders campaign. “He wrote the damn bill, he won the damn debate,” said Shakir, who said it was unscripted.

On immigration, Bullock said proposals by candidates like Warren to reduce illegal border-crossing from a criminal to a civil violation is “playing into Donald Trump’s hands.”

On many occasions, Sanders and Warren echoed each other. The Vermont senator said Democrats shouldn’t be afraid of big ideas, because “Republicans are not afraid of big ideas” like giving large tax breaks to corporations. Warren said Democrats “can’t be afraid” if they want to win.

Election Strategy

Underpinning the debate is a clash involving the party’s rising left wing that believes playing it safe is a losing strategy. They cite the defeats of establishment-friendly nominees like Hillary Clinton in 2016 and John Kerry in 2004 -- and even the humiliating landslides that defeated George McGovern in 1972 and Walter Mondale in 1984, elections that are ancient history to many voters.

The left faces a long-dominant party establishment that doesn’t want to upend the economic system out of concern that leaning too far left will alienate swing voters in a general election and lock them out of the White House.

And Trump has tried to brand the entire Democratic Party as socialists in the hopes of maintaining his support among non-college educated whites.

Buttigieg, attempting to be the pragmatist, insisted Democrats should “stop worrying about what the Republicans will say” about their ideas.

“If we embrace a far-left agenda they’re going to say we’re a bunch of crazy socialists. If we embrace a conservative agenda, you know what they’re going to do? They’re going to say we’re a bunch of crazy socialists,” he said. “So let’s just stand for the right policy.”

Differences

While Sanders and Warren agree on issues like Medicare for All and canceling student debt, there are significant differences. Sanders calls himself a democratic socialist, while Warren says she’s a capitalist. Sanders focuses on the broader strokes, while Warren delves deep into policy details. Sanders has said he doesn’t want to eliminate the Senate 60-vote threshold to pass bills, while Warren says she’d support axing it if Republicans block her agenda.

Yet neither of the two showed any interest in confronting the other.

Warren dodged when asked if calling herself a capitalist is her way of signaling she’s a safer choice to voters than Sanders. “It is my way of talking about — I know how to fight, and I know how to win,” she said. When Sanders tried to jump in on a trade policy debate, and was asked by a moderator to let Warren speak, he immediately relented: “Oh, I’m sorry.”

When he did weigh in, Sanders said Warren was “absolutely right” about trade deals.

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, Joe Sobczyk

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