Washington - Ten of the more than 20 Democrats running for
president faced off in Miami on Wednesday in the first of two debates
this week as opposition party candidates jostle for the chance to
take on US President Donald Trump in 2020.
American voters got their first look at just under half the crowded
Democratic field on a single stage, with the three women and seven
men gathered for the televised event.
Of the field of 25, only 20 qualified to take part in the debate.
The group included Senator Elizabeth Warren, whose support according
to polls is the highest among the 10. The front-runner among the
Democrats, former vice president Joe Biden, and Senator Bernie
Sanders, another candidate whose polling number are among the
highest, are scheduled to debate Thursday night.
Though the 2020 presidential election is still 16 months away,
Democrats are eager to winnow down the field and choose a candidate
they believe has the best chance to beat Trump.
Facing each other on the day a haunting photo of an immigrant father
and daughter who drowned in the Rio Grande at the US-Mexico border
was published, the candidates sparred over immigration policy, but
all agreed that separating families at the border, a controversial
Trump administration policy affecting migrants who cross into the
country with children, was wrong.
The candidates also answered questions on foreign policy, including
tensions in the Middle East, health care, labour law and climate
change.
Asked to name the greatest geopolitical threat to the US, Washington
Governor Jay Inslee received loud cheers when he said, "The biggest
threat to the security of the United States is Donald Trump."
Senator Amy Klobuchar took a jab at Trump's belligerent tweets and
decision to pull back from launching attacks on Iran in retaliation
for the downing of a military drone 10 minutes before the plan was to
go into action.
"This president is literally, every single day, 10 minutes away from
going to war, one tweet away from going to war," she said. "I don't
think we should conduct foreign policy in our bathrobe at 5 in the
morning."
But the candidates did not come down hard on Trump, as plenty of time
remains to do that in debates scheduled to take place over the next
several months. They stuck instead to outlining their own platforms
and trying to stand out in the pack.
Warren blasted large corporations that she said don't pay their fair
share in taxes and devote themselves strictly to profit.
"What's been missing is courage, courage in Washington to take on the
giants," she said.
Three of the candidates - former US Representative Beto O'Rourke and
Senators Cory Booker and Julian Castro - slipped into Spanish in
making their pitches to voters, while US Representative Tulsi
Gabbard, a combat veteran of the Iraq war, played up her military
experience.
Currently a major in the US Army National Guard, Gabbard warned
against a war with Iran and clashed with US Representative Tim Ryan
when he said the US must stay "engaged" in Afghanistan.
"We must have our State Department engaged. We must have our military
engaged to the extent they need to be," Ryan said in response to a
question about the lengthy war in Afghanistan.
Gabbard told Ryan she found his comment "unacceptable" and said the
US must bring its troops home from Afghanistan.
"We are in a place in Afghanistan where we have lost so many lives.
We've spent so much money," she said, adding that she'd rather see
that money spent on domestic programmes.
Trump, who was en route to the G20 summit in Japan during the debate,
expressed his opinion in a single-word tweet: "Boring," he wrote.
Nate Silver, a pollster, also saw little excitement in the debate.
"On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is the debate having no impact and 10
is a huge impact, I'd guess this was like a 2 or a 3," he tweeted.