New Hampshire debate: Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg clash, as Joe Biden seeks a come back
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Washington Bureau Chief
After a tumultuous week gathering results from Monday's Iowa caucus, Democrats faced off in a New Hampshire debate before ahead of the state's first-in-the-nation primary next week to help determine the Democratic nominee in the 2020 presidential election. New Hampshire, neighbouring the home states of both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, will hold its primary on 11 February.
The debate saw intense clashes, with Mr Sanders and Pete Buttigieg defending their momentum out of Iowa, where the two candidates led the pack. Joe Biden was on the offensive as well, even as he recognised that a win in New Hampshire may be a long shot — and candidate Amy Klobuchar provided a strong night as she seeks a surprise moment in the race.
Following delays and reports of inconsistencies that could significantly alter the final results, Mr Buttigieg barely cracked a razor-thin lead over Vermont senator Sanders, who captured the most votes in both rounds of the caucus but captured two fewer state delegate equivalents in that contest. Massachusetts senator Warren came in a near-distant third, and former vice president Joe Biden fell to fourth place.
Following his disappointing showing, Mr Biden has shaken up his campaign, promoting Anita Dunn to lead his White House bid, while Mr Sanders criticised Mr Buttigieg's billionaire-funded campaign as well as billionaire candidate Michael Bloomberg. "He is spending hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars to buy the election", Mr Sanders said. "There's something wrong with that."
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Buttigieg responds with a call for more pragmatic approaches, which he describes as having real results.
Biden asks how much Sanders's plan will cost, and says it will cost more than "the entire" federal budget to implement Medicare for All.
He appears to have found his mark for the evening: taking on Sanders.
"I busted my neck getting Obamacare passed, getting every Democratic vote, I know how hard it is," he says, acknowledging the difficulty of getting healthcare reforms passed in Washington.
Sanders responds to Biden by saying the current system actually costs quite a bit more than any other developed nation. He calls the current system wasteful.
"What Medicare for All will do is save the average American substantial sums of money."
Klobuchar weighs in, arguing that Sanders's plan would kick people off their healthcare plans.
Which is true, though that would be replaced by Medicare for All, which is a different form of healthcare.
Warren delivers a moving defense of Medicare for All — describing families that need to choose between healthcare and groceries.
She says that the Democratic Party needs to be one that has solutions to those problems.
Buttigieg makes his big pitch on why he is ready to lead: he notes that he led an economic revival in South Bend, and notes he is a veteran who served in the Middle East.
Buttigieg says that Obama and Biden's work was incredibly important "because they met the moment" before saying that now things have changed, and there are different issues to solve.
Klobuchar pipes up to say that she saw a lot of courage in recent weeks, and notes she and others were working in the Senate over recent weeks on Trump's impeachment. She notes that two Trump administration officials were fired today after coming forward on impeachment, which she called courageous.
She attacks Buttigieg for saying it was exhausting to watch, and claims he said he wanted to watch cartoons instead.
Sanders launches in after Klobuchar by slamming America's expensive healthcare system.
Steyer jumps in now, saying that this race isn't about who has the best healthcare plan.
"The question is, who can go toe to toe with Mr Trump?"
Steyer is arguing that Trump is making the election about the economy. Says, specifically, that he is worried about Buttigieg.
Buttigieg up now saying that "we're going to win" by calling out Trump for his odd and offensive behavior.
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