What You Missed: Democrats Take the Debate Stage in Ohio
Live Updates:
• As the debate ended, candidates offered their closing statements. Here is what some of them had to say:
Elizabeth Warren: "But the problem here that we need to focus on is, first, how widespread gun violence is. It’s not just about mass shootings. It’s what happens in neighborhoods all across this country. It is about suicide, and it is about domestic violence."
Bernie Sanders: "And there is no job that I would undertake with more passion than bringing our people together around every agenda that works for every man, woman and child in the country this country rather than the corporate elite and the one percent.”
Joe Biden: "We’re fighting for the soul of America."
• Elizabeth Warren has not been shy about taking on Facebook. Warren does not agree with the company allowing candidates to lie in political ads. After Facebook declined to remove an ad posted by Trump that had unsubstantiated allegations against Biden, Warren posted an ad falsely claiming Facebook supported Trump’s re-election campaign, wanting to see how far Facebook would go. "We intentionally made a Facebook ad with false claims and submitted it to Facebook's ad platform to see if it'd be approved," she tweeted. "It got approved quickly," Warren said.
• Beto O’Rourke and Pete Buttigieg had a disagreement over O’Rourke’s proposed mandatory buy backs of assault-style rifles. Buttigieg said that O’Rourke’s proposal is impractical. “You just made it clear that you don’t know how this is going to take weapons off the street,” he said. “If you can develop the plan further, we can have a debate. But we can’t wait,” Buttigieg said.
• Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro said President Trump is “caging kids on the border” and he is “effectively letting ISIS prisoners run free” in Syria. "He has made a tremendous mistake, a total disaster in Syria," Castro said.
• As democratic candidates are debated in Ohio, President Donald Trump vetoed the Senate bill that would end his emergency declaration to obtain money for the wall he wanted to build for border security.
• Sen. Kamala Harris voiced her concerns around women’s health care. “This is the sixth debate we have had in this presidential cycle. Not one word with all of these discussions about health care, on women’s access to reproductive health care. It’s outrageous,” Harris said.
• At the start of the debate, moderators asked candidates about the impeachment inquiry into President Trump. Former Vice President Joe Biden has been at the center of the inquiry. He was asked about his son Hunter’s ties with Ukraine. Biden said, "My son did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong.”
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The race continues as Democrats gear up to debate on the path to face President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
On Oct. 15, Democratic candidates will take the stage at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio.
The debate will feature 10 candidates who appeared at last month’s debate in Houston, Texas, as well as two more candidates who have qualified to appear. Qualifying candidates had to meet the Democratic National Committee’s requirements: having 130,000 individual donors and receiving two percent support in at least four qualifying polls.
Here are several things to expect as candidates make their case for the presidency.
