New Hampshire debate: Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg clash, as Joe Biden seeks a come back
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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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"I see that temptation to walk away form it all," Buttigieg says, before noting that after impeachment, its up to the American people to act as jurors.
Yang now up, saying that Donald Trump "is not the cause of our problems, and it is a mistake to pretend that he is."
He notes that the modern economy is leaving people behind. He gets plenty of cheers.
"I think no one is above the law, and that includes the president of the United States," Warren says, to tepid applause. Curious to see how much this line actually resonates with people post-impeachment.
But she pivots, to her anti-corruption message: "People around our country are losing faith in their government," she says, except for the wealthy.
Biden just now says that Trump is going to attack anyone with lies, if he is facing them in an election.
Then he pivots to asking the crowd to get on their feet to cheer Alexander Vindman, who was fired today after testifying against the president.
Klobuchar and Sanders now joking about their time in the Senate. Klobuchar recalling a time that she and Sanders worked on drug prices together late at night, with some jokes inserted by Sanders along the way.
Klobuchar say she doesn't know if Sanders will be able to get Republican votes for his planned legislation. She says that she thinks Democrats need to choose someone who has "the receipts", which is what she says she has.
She notes that she and Warren got the NYT endorsement together.
We've moved on to a new phase of the debate, with the focus now on foreign policy.
Buttigieg has attacked Trump, and suggested that Trump doesn't even read intelligence briefings.
Warren, a few answers later, notes she has experience in the Middle East with troops — "the bottom line is nobody sees a solution to this war. Nobody can describe what winning looks like. All they can describe is endless war."
She says that some people on the debate stage would be fine with keeping US troops in the Middle East, but she says the US hasn't gotten great results out of their wars.
Sanders: “Trump wants to build a wall around America, the problem is if we want to deal with issues like climate change, not only do we as America have to take on the issue of greed in the fossil industry, we have to lead in the entire world”
He then says "maybe we pool our resources and fight our common enemy, which is climate change", he says, of diverting military funding.
Some context to these questions about drug addiction and opioid dependence: New Hampshire has some of the highest rates of opioid dependency in the country.
Biden now asked if Sanders should get the benefit of the doubt for his past gun control votes, as he has asked for some of his past votes including on criminal justice.
He says no, and attacks Sanders for that record. He then says that people need to be held accountable for their past positions.
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