A Paraphrased Summary: Night 2 of the Democratic Presidential Primary Debates
An easy-to-read, quick recap of the second Democratic debate
If you weren’t able to make yourself tune into a grueling two hours of presidential primary candidates two nights in a row, try reading this paraphrased summary of Thursday’s Democratic showdown between 10 of the 24 presidential hopefuls.
*The following is paraphrased. The quotes are a summary of the questions asked and answers given, and although some responses are verbatim, not all are direct quotes.*
1. Would you raise taxes on the middle class to pay for your social plans?
Bernie Sanders: Universal healthcare is a right. I’m going to tax Wall Street to help pay for free higher education. All of the plans I’ve introduced are paid for.
2. So… Would you raise taxes on the middle class to pay for your social plans?
Bernie Sanders: Yes. They will pay less for healthcare but they will pay more taxes.
3. What would you do about income inequality?
Joe Biden: Working, middle-class people built America. The middle class needs insurance, education, and clean air and water. We can make tax loophole cuts, and eliminate tax cuts for the wealthy.
4. Should lawmakers have a plan in place to pay for programs before they enact them?
Kamala Harris: The Republicans passed a bill that gave a tax cut to the wealthy. This economy is not working for most Americans. We should give every family that makes under $100,000 a year $500 a month to help them make ends meet.
5. What part of socialism do you disagree with?
John Hickenlooper: We can’t promise every American a government job. We can’t eliminate private insurance for 80 million people.
6. Would nominating a socialist hand the election to Donald Trump?
Bernie Sanders: President Trump lied when he said he would work for the middle class. He tried to throw 32 million people off their health insurance. 83% of his tax benefits went to the 1%. He is a fraud.
Kristen Gillibrand: I disagree with Sanders and Hickenlooper. There is a difference between greed and capitalism. We need healthy capitalism instead of corrupt capitalism.
7. Are some of your colleagues’ policies like “handing out candy”?
Michael Bennet: The middle class has been left behind, but I don’t think Medicare for All is the answer. We need to expand Obamacare and allow more people a public option, but we can’t get rid of private insurance.
Kristen Gillibrand: I wrote the part of Senator Sanders’ healthcare plan, it allows you to transition out of private insurance and into a single-payer system over a period of time.
8. Moderator speaks Spanish.
Pete Buttigieg: Speaks Spanish.
9. Why don’t you support free college?
Pete Buttigieg: I believe in free college for low and middle-income students. But I don’t want to subsidize rich kids’ education. But we should raise the minimum wage to at least $15 so people can make a decent living without having to go to college.
Eric Swalwell: This problem needs to be solved by my generation.
10. Andrew Yang, you want to give every adult in the US $1,000 a month, which would cost over $3.2 trillion a year. How do you pay for that?
Andrew Yang: You can’t do it unless you make big companies like Amazon pay taxes, first of all. Also, I would also use a small value-added tax, that would generate over $800 billion in revenue. We would also save money on homelessness and mental health, and create millions of jobs. We currently have an issue because we are losing so many jobs to automation.
11. So, would they be spending their $1,000 on new taxes?
Andrew Yang: No, the value-added tax would be something that impacts mostly the 1%.
12. What would you do to make sure people’s jobs aren’t automated away?
Eric Swalwell: Our technology has to create more jobs than it displaces. Invest in our schools and communities. When I was 6, I saw Joe Biden in person. He said it was time to pass the torch to a younger generation. He was right.
Joe Biden: I’m still holding onto that torch. We’ve got to make sure everybody is educated. I propose tripling the amount of money we spend on title 1 schools, make universal pre-k free, making community college free, making sure no one has to pay back their student loans until they’re making over $25k a year. We have to make continuing education available to everyone.
Pete Buttigieg: I’m the youngest person on stage so I deserve to weigh in on the generation stuff.
Marianne Williamson: We forgive you for your very young and immature comment.
Bernie Sanders: We have to take on big money interests.
Kristen Gillibrand: Marianne deserves to have a turn, all the men are speaking over her.
Kamala Harris: America doesn’t want to witness a food fight. They want to know how we’re going to put food on their table. Most families don’t own stocks. Unemployment is low, but people are working 2 and 3 jobs. No American should have to work more than one job in order to support themselves.
Marianne Williamson: I’d like to say something if I might.
13. We are moving on. Who would abolish private healthcare in favor of a government-run plan?
Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders raised their hands.
Michael Bennet: I’d like to.
Kristen Gillibrand: No, it’s my turn. Medicare for All is single-payer, but it has a buy-in transition period which is really important. Anyone who doesn’t have insurance can buy-in for a portion of their income. Universal healthcare is a right. We need to foster competition in the insurance marketplace. People will buy in their whole lives, just like social security, and then it’s always there when you need it.
Pete Buttigieg: I would do a flavor of Medicare on the exchanges and people can buy in. People will naturally want it if it’s a good product. We can still have private insurance. My dad has a terminal illness, so this personal for me.
Joe Biden: My wife and daughter were killed in and auto accident and my two sons were badly injured. My other son was diagnosed with terminal cancer a few years ago and was given a few months to live. I can’t fathom what would have happened in those situations if we didn’t have healthcare available to us immediately. The best way to fix healthcare is to build onto Obamacare.
Bernie Sanders: Every other major country on Earth has figured out how to provide healthcare to their citizens and they’re doing it at half the cost.
14. How do you implement that Nationally? Many states have tried and failed.
Bernie Sanders: We will have Medicare for All when the people tell the drug companies that healthcare is a human right.
Marianne Williamson: The government shouldn’t have made a deal with big pharma in the first place. We wait until people get sick in America and then talk about how we are going to pay for it. We’ve got to figure out why Americans are sick at a higher rate than people in other countries. This has to do with chemical, food, and environmental policies also.
Michael Bennet: Building on Obamacare is the best way to get us to universal healthcare. I also had cancer so this is personal to me. This will make having private insurance illegal except for cosmetic. I guess that’s for plastic surgery?
Bernie Sanders: Under our plan, people can go to any doctor or hospital they want.
Kamala Harris: This impacts real people. Some people have kids that get sick and then they don’t know if they should take them to the doctor or not because of how much it costs, and some of those people have insurance!
Eric Swalwell: I am a parent and I had a child in the emergency room last week.
15. Raise your hand if you think illegal immigrants should have free healthcare?
Everyone on stage agrees the government should provide free healthcare to illegal immigrants.
Pete Buttigieg: Our country is healthier when everyone is healthier. Our immigrants pay sales tax, so they qualify for free insurance. We should give illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship. My father was an immigrant.
Joe Biden: You can’t let sick people go uncovered, no matter where they came from. The more people we allow to be on government insurance, the more money the government will have to pay for it.
16. What would you do about the huge influx of asylum seekers?
Kamala Harris: I will use executive action to reinstate DACA and issue a no deportation order for their parents. I will also help illegal immigrants who are veterans. I will release the children and get rid of private detention centers.
John Hickenlooper: This is kidnapping. ICE needs to be reformed and more humanitarian. We must provide, food, clothing, and healthcare to these illegal immigrants.
Marianne Williamson: These are state-sponsored crimes. It’s collective kidnapping and collective child abuse. Just because the government is doing it, doesn’t make it less of a crime. No one is talking about the situation in South America and how our own government may have contributed to it!
Kristen Gillibrand: We need comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship and community-based treatment centers for illegal immigrants to meet their needs. I would do away with the for-profit prisons.
17. Raise your hand if you think it should be a civil offense rather than a crime for crossing the border without documentation.
Everyone except John Hickenlooper, Michael Bennet, and Marianne Williamson raises their hand.
Pete Buttigieg: That is the crux of the issue. If we aren’t arresting them for illegally crossing the border, the families aren’t getting separated. The GOP cloaks themselves in the language of religion, and they are hypocrites and have lost all claim to ever use religious statements again.
Joe Biden: I’d send billions of dollars to the region immediately. I already fixed this once. This president has messed it up, but I can fix it again.
18. The Obama/Biden administration deported over 3 million people. Should illegal immigrants be deported?
Marianne Williamson: No
Joe Biden: Only if they’ve committed a serious crime. We should take in all asylum seekers.
Bernie Sanders: On day one I will use my own executive orders to undo all of Presidents Trump’s damn executive orders. Also, you’ve got to look at root causes concerning this South America problem. We’ve got to meet with their leaders.
Eric Swalwell: Illegal immigrants should not be deported unless they’re criminals.
Kamala Harris: Illegal immigrants should not be deported unless they’re criminals. The problem with this kind of policy is that if an illegal immigrant is afraid of being arrested for being in the country illegally, they won’t report crimes to the police.
19. How would you stand up to China?
Michael Bennet: Russia is the biggest threat to National Security, not China. As far as the border goes, my mother was separated in Poland from her family during the Holocaust. We need to make serious changes at our border.
Andrew Yang: I agree, Russia is our greatest geopolitical threat. They are laughing their asses off at us. About China, we need to crack down on them but trade wars and tariffs aren’t the way to go.
Pete Buttigieg: China is so far ahead of us technologically. We should be more concerned with this than we are tariffs.
20. Mayor Buttigieg, you’ve recently had an officer-involved shooting and your city’s police force is only 6% black despite the fact that almost 30% of the population is black. Why?
Pete Buttigieg: Because I couldn’t get it done. The investigation about the shooting is underway. The officer involved didn’t have their body camera on, and I’m not allowed to say much else about it. But we have made changes.
John Hickenlooper: Then those changes are taking too long. We made big changes in my state concerning the police force very quickly with big results.
Eric Swalwell: If your officer didn’t have his body camera on, you should have fired them.
Pete Buttigieg: We are doing an investigation, and the officer will be held accountable.
Eric Swalwell: Dude, you’re the mayor… If he didn’t have his body cam on and that’s the law, you should have fired him.
Marianne Williamson: The root of the problem is racial injustice. Democrats should support reparations. Most Americans aren’t racist, but most are uninformed about racial history in our country.
Kamala Harris: As the only black person here, I demand to speak about race!
Moderators: We will let you speak now, and then we’ll give you another turn in a minute to talk about race more if you’d like.
Kamala Harris: Black people in America face discrimination every day. I don’t think Joe Biden is a racist, but you have said nice things about racists before and you’ve worked with racist people. Also, in the ’70s, you opposed busing, and I benefited from busing.
Joe Biden: That’s a mischaracterization of my position across the board. Concerning busing, I argued for busing but didn’t want the federal government intervening in a local issue. In my career, I was a public defender, not a prosecutor (like Kamala Harris).
Kamala Harris: Were you wrong to oppose busing in America?
Joe Biden: No, I didn’t oppose busing. I opposed busing mandated by the Department of Education.
Kamala Harris: But I benefited from busing! Sometimes the states fail to preserve the civil rights of all people and the federal government must step in.
Joe Biden: I have supported the ERA and the Voting Rights Act. I’ve fought my entire career for the rights of black Americans.
21. Should diversity matter when people vote?
Bernie Sanders: We encourage and believe in diversity and having more women and LGBT. But we need to ask ourselves why the top 1% has seen a trillion dollar increase in their wealth over the past 30 years. We need someone who will stand up to the powerful special interests.
Kristen Gillibrand: We must get money out of politics. If we do that, we can guarantee universal healthcare and improve race relations.
Joe Biden: I introduced the first constitutional amendment to get money out of politics when I was a young senator.
22. Will you work with Republicans to get things done in government?
Michael Bennet: Mitch McConnell is ruining everything. We need better policies and a broad coalition, end gerrymandering, and overturn citizens united.
Joe Biden: I have worked with Mitch McConnell before, I can get things done. After Donald Trump was elected, I helped pass the Cures Act for cancer research funding. And when we can’t work with them, we fight them at the ballot box.
Michael Bennet: That deal you made with Mitch McConnell extended the Bush tax cuts permanently. You totally undercut the Democratic Party by doing that.
Kristen Gillibrand: That deal was made because the GOP had to pay back their donors. It all goes back to corruption.
23. What is your plan if Roe is struck down by SCOTUS when you’re president?
Bernie Sanders: We will do everything we can to protect Roe V Wade. I would rotate judges off the supreme court so we could have more liberal judges there.
24. Do you want 10 more seconds to answer the question?
Bernie Sanders: No.
Kristen Gillibrand: Abortion is a right. I have been a fierce abortion advocate for ten years.
25. What is your climate change proposal?
Kamala Harris: It is a climate crisis, and it represents an existential threat to our species. I support The Green New Deal and I will reenter us into the Paris Climate Accords.
Pete Buttigieg: We need a carbon tax and dividend payout.
John Hickenlooper: Socialism is not the solution to this. What will really make a difference is building a network for electric vehicles and trading coal for solar and wind power.
Joe Biden: I propose building 500,000 charging stations across America so we can have all clean cars by 2030. I’d invest $400 million in new science and technology to export a green economy and create millions of jobs. I’d rejoin the Paris Climate Accords.
Bernie Sanders: Scientist say we have 12 years, this is a global issue. We need to get the world away from fossil fuels and into clean energy.
Eric Swalwell: Here’s an idea, you guys should probably pass the torch.
Marianne Williamson: You may have a young body, but you have old ideas. Politics is supposed to include great people, and great plans, and the excitement of people. We need a clean economy and a New Green Deal.
26. If you had to choose one policy to pass when you’re elected, what would it be?
Eric Swalwell: Ending gun violence.
Michael Bennet: Climate change and helping upward mobility.
Kristen Gillibrand: Paid family leave, universal pre-k, affordable daycare,and raising the minimum wage.
Kamala Harris: Working families tax cut and DACA.
Bernie Sanders: We need a political revolution, we can transform this country.
Joe Biden: The first thing we have to do is defeat Donald Trump.
Pete Buttigieg: Fix our democracy and everything else gets better.
Andrew Yang: Universal basic income.
John Hickenlooper: Climate change.
Marianne Williamson: First, I would call the Prime Minister of New Zealand because she said New Zealand is the best place for a child to grow up. I want to tell her, ‘Girlfriend you are so wrong, America is the best place for a child to grow up.’
27. Tell us your gun control/reform plan.
Eric Swalwell: I propose a mandatory government assault weapon buyback program. People can keep pistols, rifles, and shotguns, but assault weapons should be banned.
28. Senator Sanders, you said in an interview, “My own view on guns is, everything being equal, states should make those decisions.” Do you still feel this way?
Bernie Sanders: That is a mischaracterization of what I said.
Moderator: That is a quote of yours, sir.
Bernie Sanders: We need comprehensive gun legislation, universal background checks. Assault weapons are military weapons and they shouldn’t be on the streets.
Eric Swalwell: Your plan leaves 15 million assault weapons on the street.
Bernie Sanders: We will ban the sale and distribution.
Eric Swalwell: That will leave 15 million assault weapons on the street. Will you buy them back?
Bernie Sanders: If the government wants to.
Eric Swalwell: You’re the government.
Bernie Sanders: Yeah.
Kamala Harris: I will give Congress 100 days to give me a bill to sign, or I will mandate universal background checks and ban assault weapons imports by executive order.
Pete Buttigieg: More guns don’t make us safer. There are weapons that don’t belong on the street.
Joe Biden: I got the Brady Bill passed, assault rifles banned, and clips banned. I support buybacks too. Our guns should be smart and use bio-metrics to fire.
29. Has America’s image been damaged abroad?
Michael Bennet: We have to repair our democracy at home. We have to change the corruption in Washington, DC. We also have to repair our relationships with our allies.
30. As president, what relationship would you want to “reset”?
Marianne Williamson: I’d call all the European countries and make sure we repair our Western alliances.
John Hickenlooper: China.
Andrew Yang: China and North Korea.
Pete Buttigieg: We have no idea who all President Trump will piss off before I get to the White House.
Joe Biden: NATO
Bernie Sanders: Rebuilding trust in the UN and solving conflicts with diplomacy, not war.
Kamala Harris: NATO
Kristen Gillibrand: Iran
Michael Bennet: Our European allies and every South American country that will meet with me.
Eric Swalwell: We are breaking up with Russia and making up with NATO.
31. JoeBiden, you voted for the Iraq War, so why should America trust your judgment?
Joe Biden: 1. I would consult with Congress concerning war. 2. I would bring our troops home from Afghanistan. 3. I would eliminate the AUMF, and only use it to go after terrorists, but never alone. I would work with our allies.
Bernie Sanders: 1. I led the opposition to the war in Iraq. 2. I led the effort to use the War Powers Act to get us out of Yemen. 3. I will do everything I can to prevent a war with Iran.
Closing Statements-
Eric Swalwell: I am the father of a two-year-old and an infant. When I’m not changing diapers, I’m changing Washington. The diapers smell better. I had student debt myself, so I am not disconnected. This generation will stop gun violence, end student loan debt, and thwart climate change. We demand bold solutions.
Marianne Williamson: Donald Trump won’t be beaten by insider politics talk or someone with plans. He’ll be beaten by someone that understands he has harnessed fear for political purposes. I am going harness love for political purposes, and love will win.
Michael Bennet: My mom is an immigrant. Climbing out of poverty is getting harder, and I think I can help. We need to build a new era of American democracy and a new era of American opportunity.
John Hickenlooper: We reduced teenage abortion, legalizes marijuana, transformed our criminal justice system, passed universal background checks, attacked climate change, got near-universal healthcare, and we’ve been the #1 economy in America. You don’t need big government to do big things. We cannot turn toward socialism.
Kristen Gillibrand: Women in America are on fire, but our abortion rights are under attack. I helped repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, I have a plan to get money out of politics. I will take on the big challenges, even if I stand alone.
Andrew Yang: I can beat Donald Trump in 2020. We know how to solve the problems that he got elected on. I can build a broader coalition to beat Donald Trump, it is not left, it is not right, it is forward.
Kamala Harris: This election is about your hopes, dreams, and fears. What wakes you up at 3 am. I have a “3 am Agenda”, that solves real problems. Please join us at kamalaharris.org.
Pete Buttigieg: I’m a veteran, a gay man, a mayor, and 35 years younger than Donald Trump. I’m running because we need climate solutions, racial equality, and an end to endless war. We need to send a new generation to Washington before it’s too late.
Bernie Sanders: We are good people with good ideas, but things haven’t been changing. But nothing will change unless we have the guts to take on Wall Street the insurance, pharmaceutical, and fossil fuel industries, and the military industrial complex. If we don’t do this, the rich will get richer, and the rest will continue to struggle.
Joe Biden: I think it’s important we restore the soul of this nation. I disagree with everything this president has done. We need to replace the common worker’s dignity. We can do anything if we’re together. God bless you all and may God protect our troops.
Secret Stacy is a best-selling author, entrepreneur, and a senior contributor to CitizenSource, writing with a focus on U.S. elections and politics, media criticism, and illegal immigration. She hails from Little Rock, Arkansas.
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