Democratic debate: Joe Biden struggles to defend record as 2020 rivals attack from all sides

Cory Booker impressed on a night when barbs were out for former vice president

Frontrunner Joe Biden struggled to fend off a barrage of attacks from his Democratic rivals, in an appearance that again raised pressing questions about his age and his ability to challenge Donald Trump for the White House in 2020.

The 76-year-old had gone into the second night of the party’s latest debate needing a strong and confident performance, after coming under fire over his record on race relations from senator Kamala Harris in the first debate in June.

By that low bar, Mr Biden’s efforts at the debate, held at the Fox Theatre in Detroit, were better than at his first outing. But both in word and manner, he was not even close to convincing, and will remain vulnerable to fresh assaults from the likes of Elizabeth Warren when candidates appear at the third debate in Houston in September.

“Everybody knows who Donald Trump is. We have to let him know who we are. We choose science over fiction. We choose hope over fear. We choose unity over division,” Mr Biden said in his closing remarks. “And we choose, we choose the idea that we can as Americans, when we act together, do anything.”

At the first debate in Miami, Mr Biden’s main assault came from Ms Harris. That appeared to open the floodgates.

On Wednesday, Mr Biden was assailed from all sides, sometimes by more than one person at a time. (It probably did not help that he started the night by telling Ms Harris: "Go easy on me kid!")

He was challenged by senator Kirsten Gillibrand over an article he wrote in 1981 suggesting women should not work outside the home. He was questioned by Ms Harris over his support, until recently, for a piece of Republican-created legislation that prevents the use of federal funds to pay for abortions.

He was attacked too, by Cory Booker, the senator from New Jersey who spoke both fluidly and concisely, managed to express genuine warmth, and was generally reckoned to have been among the best of the 10 candidates debating last night.

“We have a real crisis in our country, and the crisis is Donald Trump — but not only Donald Trump, I have a frustration that sometimes people are saying the only thing they want is to beat Donald Trump,” Mr Booker said. “Well, that is the floor and not the ceiling.”

Mr Biden, who frequently flailed, and repeatedly referred to things he had done as vice president to Barack Obama - a reminder to many that he represented the past but not necessarily the future - was not the only one to be challenged on stage.

Ms Harris, 53, who had entered the night in fourth place in most polls, was attacked several times over her mixed record as a prosecutor in California, where she has faced criticism for supporting “tough on crime” type policies. While she declined to pursue the death penalty against a man convicted of killing a police officer, for instance, she did defend the state's death penalty system in court. Her performance on Wednesday was solid, but as with Mr Biden, it paled when compared to the way progressives Bernie Sanders and Ms Warren stole the night just 24 hours earlier

Among the most powerful attacks against her came from congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, of Hawaii.

“Senator Harris says she's proud of her record as a prosecutor and that she'll be a prosecutor president, but I'm deeply concerned about this record,” she said. “There are too many examples to cite but she put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana.”

She added: “The bottom line is, Senator Harris, when you were in a position to make a difference and impact in these people's lives, you did not.”

Among the other candidates, Washington governor Jay Inslee made a passionate case that climate change was the most important challenge facing the US, and the world.

“We have one last chance. When you have one chance in life, you take it. Think about this. Literally the survival of humanity on this planet in civilization is in the hands of the next president,” said Mr Inslee, one of many of the 20 candidates who appeared over two nights in Michigan hoping they did enough to qualify for the third debate in Texas.

The Democratic National Committee has said it will double the qualification standards for the third debate, an attempt to thin out the crowded field. Mr Biden will certainly be there. But his performance tonight has ensured that he will again be the one his rivals will turn on.

The great unknowable question is how badly these attacks damage him in the eyes of voters. After the first debate, he saw his lead slip by up to 10 points, but it had almost recovered by the time he travelled to Detroit.

The challenge for Mr Biden, who did not look happy the entire night, may be less his polling numbers, rather than whether he can persuade major Democratic donors and grassroots activists that he is the man to get behind in 2020. On that question, Mr Biden still has a mountain to climb.