The first round of the first Democratic debate took place on Wednesday night in Miami Florida. We were told that 20 people qualified for the first round of debates. Apparently to qualify for the debates, you simply have to be wildly radical and hate President Trump. The first round of debates seemed like nothing more than a Democrat pillow fight with soft questions and few answers. So what have we learned?
Well first, we learned that the first 10 candidates presented hate President Trump. As has been the rhetoric over the past 2 and a half years, President Trump is a horrible guy and must be defeated. There is no option of working with him and Jay Inslee stated that Trump is the biggest threat facing America.
We also learned that Democrats are completely focused on big government, open borders and immigration and no restrictions to abortion. Each candidate supported expansion of government programs and ending any restrictions on abortion. None of this was surprising in anyway as it was generically canned answers.
There were a couple surprises of the night however. The first was in the response to healthcare and Medicare for All. One of the questions asked if all of the candidates on stage would give up their current health plan to go onto a Medicare for All plan. Senator Elizabeth Warren and NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio both supported abolishing private health insurance and establishing a government run insurance. Medicare for All has been one of the most hot topic pushes in the main stream media. Many of the candidates were hesitant to fully join the support of the M4A plan as Warren and De Blasio did. Most cited support of establishing Medicare as an alternative plan.
The second surprise was in the response to gun violence and control. Questions were asked regarding gun control measures following the Parkland school shooting. Most of the Democrats dodged the gun issue as much as possible. Senator Cory Booker was vocal in his plan to require licenses to purchase guns since you need a license to drive a car. No one on stage called for a gun ban or buyback program as would be expected from Thursday’s round of debates. Some 2020 candidates spoke out on Twitter about the issue.
So now for my takeaways from round 1. The clear winner among the candidates was Senator Elizabeth Warren. It was very evident MSNBC had formulated most of the format and questions to benefit her and giving her more time to answer. Another winner is Julian Castro and I expect some movement in the polls for him after the debate. He performed very well. I think the overall winner is the sound room for MSNBC however. The technical issues were much more entertaining than the actual debate.
Wednesday night was a clear display of how Democrats are focused on expanding government reach and programs. They have no solutions for the crisis at the border, except to blame President Trump. After watching round 1 of the debate, I agree with President Trump.
You can contact JD through the Liberty Loft website or by Twitter.
