Democratic debate: Warren takes hits from all sides as Trump impeachment remains top focus
Democrats spar in the largest presidential primary debate in American history
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Twelve Democrats hoping to take on Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election took the stage tonight for the largest primary debate in American history -- just as the candidates are finally taking off their gloves.
The candidates who met the Democratic National Committee's polling and fundraising requirements to join Tuesday's night debate -- the first since an impeachment inquiry was launched into Mr Trump -- included former Vice President Joe Biden, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, California Senator Kamala Harris, entrepreneur Andrew Yang, former Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke, Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, former House Secretary Julián Castro and billionaire Tom Steyer.
Ms Warren repeatedly came under attack during the debate as rivals accused the Massachusetts senator of ducking questions about the cost of Medicare for All and her signature “wealth tax” plan.
The pile-on was the clearest sign yet that Ms Warren has a new status in the crowded Democratic primary: a front-runner in the contest to take on Mr Trump next year.
The night’s confrontations were mostly fought on familiar terrain for Democrats, who have spent months sparring over the future of health care with moderates pressing for a measured approach while Ms Warren and Mr Sanders call for a dramatic, government-funded overhaul of the insurance market.
The Democrat challengers to Trump in 2020
Show all 25But unlike Mr Sanders, Ms Warren refused to say whether she would raise taxes on the middle class to pay for Medicare for All — a stance that’s increasingly difficult to maintain given her more prominent status.
Her rivals seized on the opportunity to pounce.
“I appreciate Elizabeth’s work but, again, the difference between a plan and a pipe dream is something you can actually get done,” said Ms Klobuchar.
Mr Buttigieg added: “We heard it tonight. A ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question that didn’t get a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer.”
The political landscape has changed with Mr Trump facing an impeachment inquiry in the House focused on his quest to get Ukraine to dig up unflattering details about Mr Biden, another front-runner among the Democrats hoping to succeed him.
The debate also served as Mr Sanders’ return to the campaign trail following a heart attack earlier this month. The Vermont senator declared, “I’m feeling great.” and hinted at a rally on Saturday in which prominent freshman Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will reportedly endorse his presidential candidacy.
Additional reporting by Associated Press. Check out live updates as they came in below.
That's all for The Independent's live reporting from the Democratic debates.
Good Morning America is running its exclusive interview with Hunter Biden today, in which he discusses his career as an executive on the board of Ukranian gas company Burisma and the Giuliani-led conspiracy theorising surrounding his tenure in conversation with Amy Robach.
Speaking of Rudy, he was paid $500,000 (£395,000) for work he did for a company co-founded by Ukrainian-American businessman Lev Parnas, arrested last week on campaign finance charges, the man himself told Reuters on Monday. Parnas is a close associate of Giuliani and was involved in his effort to investigate the Bidens on behal of his boss.
Giuliani said Parnas' company, Boca Raton-based Fraud Guarantee, whose website says it aims to help clients "reduce and mitigate fraud", engaged Giuliani Partners, a management and security consulting firm, around August 2018. Giuliani said he was hired to consult on Fraud Guarantee's technologies and provide legal advice on regulatory issues.
Federal prosecutors are "examining Giuliani's interactions" with Parnas and another Giuliani associate, Igor Fruman, who was also indicted on campaign finance charges, a law enforcement source told Reuters on Sunday.
The New York Times reported last week that Parnas had told associates he paid Giuliani hundreds of thousands of dollars for what Giuliani said was business and legal advice. Giuliani said for the first time on Monday that the total amount was $500,000. Giuliani told Reuters the money came in two payments made within weeks of each other. He said he could not recall the dates of the payments. He said most of the work he did for Fraud Guarantee was completed in 2018 but that he had been doing follow-up for over a year.
Parnas and Fruman were arrested at Dulles Airport outside Washington last week on charges they funneled foreign money to unnamed US politicians in a bid to influence US-Ukraine relations in violation of American campaign finance laws. The men were preparing to board a plane to Vienna, Austria.
According to an indictment unsealed by US prosecutors, an unidentified Russian businessman arranged for two $500,000 wires to be sent from foreign bank accounts to an American account controlled by Fruman in September and October 2018. The money was used, in part, by Fruman, Parnas and two other men charged in the indictment to gain influence with DC politicians and candidates, the indictment said.
Foreign nationals are prohibited from making contributions and other expenditures in connection with US elections and from making contributions in someone else's name.
Giuliani said he was confident that the money he received was from "a domestic source," but he would not say where it came from. "I know beyond any doubt the source of the money is not any questionable source," he told Reuters in an interview.
"The money did not come from foreigners. I can rule that out 100 per cent," he said. He declined to say whether the money had been paid directly to him by Fraud Guarantee or from another source.
John Dowd, a lawyer for Parnas and Fruman, also would not discuss the source of the funding that Giuliani said he received for his work for Fraud Guarantee. "What I know is privileged," Dowd said.
Reuters
Trump last night derifed ABC News for a "big scandal" involving "gruesome FAKE footage".
It's a good thing nothing like that ever happens among the MAGA crowd.
Otherwise, his words might risk skating dangerously close to hypocrisy.
Hawaii congresswoman and presidential contender Tulsi Gabbard has rowed back on her suggestion she might quit tonight's televised 2020 debate in Ohio after branding the Democratic National Committee's qualification criteria "a serious threat to our democracy".
Gabbard was attacked on the debate stage by fellow candidate Kamala Harris back in August as an "apologist" for the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria - the former soldier having met with Assad in 2017 to demand he end chemical weapons attacks against his own people and subsequently refused to call him a war criminal.
She was subsequently forced to denounce Assad as a "brutal dictator" on CNN in an attempt to counter an issue that continues to dog her campaign.
She's now facing renewed scrutiny over her stance on Syria as it emerges her website contains discredited information about the aforementioned attacks.
Chat show host Ellen DeGeneres upset her fans last week when she was spotted at the AT&T Stadium in Texas watching the Dallas Cowboys in the company of George W Bush and then went on to defend the friendship on TV.
"People were upset," she said. "They thought, why is a gay Hollywood liberal sitting next to a conservative Republican president? A lot of people were mad. And they did what people do when they're mad... they tweet."
If they couldn't handle Bush, they're not going to like the news - resurfaced from an old copy of People magazine - that she bought the Trumps a gold baby stroller complete with crystal chandelier when their son Barron Trump was born in 2006.
A former Republican group chairman has said he would not vote for Donald Trump again even if the president walked on water.
Speaking at his rally in Minneapolis last week, Trump said his first steps towards ending the ongoing trade war and reaching an accord with China would bring in $50bn (£40bn) of farm purchases from the eastern superpower.
But soybean farmer Christopher Gibbs, a former chairperson of the Shelby County Republican Party in Ohio, said he would not believe the president until the beans were on the boat – adding that Trump’s promises felt like “deja vu”.
“The president promised massive purchases from Mexico”, Gibb said. "He’s promised massive purchases from the EU and now he’s promising massive purchases from China. He’s done this before.”
Vincent Wood has more.
A federal district court judge ruled yesterday that Trump broke the law when he declared a national emergency at the US southern border back in February in order to rake in the the funding needed to get his signature wall built without approval from Congress.
El Paso County and the Border Network for Human Rights filed the lawsuit in the US district court for the western district of Texas demanding the president be stopped from using Pentagon construction project funding to complete his notorious white elephant.
Judge David Briones has now given local officials 10 days to propose an injunction.
Here's Chris Riotta's report.
Will Trump's withdrawal from Syria inspire the Republicans to back his impeachment?
Negar Mortazavi assess the seriousness of the GOP revolt against the president's latest divisive foreign policy move.
The Daily Show thinks Trump has an imaginary friend called "Zippy".
Conrad Duncan investigates.
As we touched on earlier, the latest Democratic 2020 debate takes place at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio, this evening.
Beginning at 8pm ET, it will be broadcast live in the US on CNN, with that network's anchors Erin Burnett and Anderson Cooper joined by New York Times national editor Marc Lacey to adjudicate.
The 12 candidate line-up is as follows:
- Joe Biden
- Cory Booker
- Pete Buttigieg
- Julian Castro
- Tulsi Gabbard
- Kamala Harris
- Amy Klobuchar
- Beto O'Rourke
- Bernie Sanders
- Tom Steyer
- Elizabeth Warren
- Andrew Yang
Meanwhile, the Trump campaign is planning to fly a banner over the Midwestern city, some of which will surely take place as the sky darkens in the early evening, rendering the whole silly exercise pointless.
The message will reportedly read: "Socialism destroys Ohio jobs."
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