Democratic Candidates Go on the Attack, and Buttigieg Is the Target

Buttigieg has risen rapidly in the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire in recent months, after his persistent attacks on Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and her support for single-payer health care. For many weeks, Buttigieg, a municipal official who at 37 would be the youngest president in history, escaped corresponding criticism from his fellow Democrats.

That changed in Los Angeles on Thursday evening in a debate that unfolded in the shadow of President Donald Trump’s impeachment. Warren struck back at Buttigieg for his courting of wealthy donors at private fundraisers — including a recent event at a so-called wine cave — and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota expressed clear skepticism of Buttigieg’s electoral track record and public accomplishments. Taken together, it amounted to the most strenuous challenge so far to a relative political newcomer who has captivated many voters with his soaring rhetoric and intellectual mien.

Klobuchar, a three-term senator, rebuked Buttigieg most pointedly for dismissing the value of experience in Washington. She gilded her attack with praise for other candidates, hailing Warren for designing a new financial regulatory agency, former Vice President Joe Biden for directing vast resources to cancer research and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont for championing veterans.

“While you dismiss committee hearings, I think this experience works,” Klobuchar told Buttigieg, noting that despite his claims to electoral strength, he lost campaigns for state treasurer in Indiana and for the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee.

Buttigieg parried the criticism from all directions. He accused Warren of seeking to impose “purity tests” for a fundraising model — eschewing elite donors — that she did not follow as a Senate candidate, and he raised the subject of their comparative affluence, pointing out that Warren was far wealthier. He also invoked his experience in the military as proof of his seasoning, and cited his identity as a gay man who campaigned for office in “Mike Pence’s Indiana” as proof of his political mettle.

But his candidacy appeared to enter a new stage over the course of the evening, as his image as an articulate political wunderkind faced a rigorous test that is unlikely to ease up anytime soon. Even Andrew Yang, the former tech executive who has been a good-natured presence in every debate so far, got in a light jab at Buttigieg by alluding to candidates who must “shake the money tree in the wine cave.”

The Democratic primary battle as a whole seemed to be at a transition point Thursday, as seven candidates, the smallest field so far, engaged for about 2 1/2 hours at Loyola Marymount University in exchanges that were spirited and often funny — providing a wide-ranging debate over matters of global diplomacy, economic prosperity and presidential impeachment. Four top-tier candidates remain in the race, with Biden leading in the national polls, followed by Sanders and Warren, and Buttigieg surging in the earliest primary and caucus states.

Less than two months before the Iowa caucuses, the race remains highly fluid, with considerable room for movement not just among the top few candidates but among the underdogs as well. Buttigieg has become such a target for his rivals because of his growing strength especially in Iowa, a state that most of the candidates onstage have been counting on as a springboard to help them overtake Biden nationally.

Buttigieg was not the only candidate who became a focal point for criticism. Late in the evening, Sanders delivered perhaps his most concerted attack of any debate, challenging Biden over his support for the Iraq War and for his opposition to “Medicare for All”-style health care. For much of the evening, however, Biden seemed to recede from the foreground as other candidates battled around him — though when he did speak, he delivered his smoothest remarks from a debate stage to date this cycle.

For the second consecutive month, the Democrats debated amid highly public impeachment proceedings against Trump. And for the second consecutive month, the gravity of impeachment appeared at times to restrain the candidates or to soften their remarks. For all their sharp arguments, the candidates uniformly reserved their harshest attacks for Trump, and several of the Democrats repeatedly interjected to plead for a mood of civility and cooperation within the party.

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Every candidate voiced support for the House Democrats who voted Wednesday to impeach Trump. But without exception, the rivals also seemed to anticipate Trump’s acquittal in the Republican-controlled Senate; when asked how they would persuade the country to support Trump’s ouster, the leading Democrats all explained instead how they would approach the task of defeating him in November.

Buttigieg nudged voters’ attention to the general election, arguing, “No matter what happens in the Senate, it is up to us in 2020.”

A sterner voice of skepticism came from Yang, the former tech executive mounting an underdog campaign, who described impeachment as a distraction from more important economic issues. Suggesting Trump’s acquittal in the Senate was a foregone conclusion, Yang likened it to “a ballgame where you know what the score is going to be.”

Democrats, he said, should focus instead on offering a “new positive vision for the country.”

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Yet for all of the unity against Trump, the contest was also punctuated by heated arguments that highlighted clear philosophical and ideological differences within the party. Most notably, the tensions that had been building for weeks between Warren and Buttigieg over campaign funding and transparency reached a boiling point, playing out in a strikingly sharp and at times personal exchange.

“So the mayor just recently had a fundraiser that was held in a wine cave full of crystals,” Warren said, adding that “billionaires in wine caves should not pick the next president of the United States.”

Buttigieg protested: “You know, according to Forbes magazine, I’m literally the only person on this stage who is not a millionaire or a billionaire. So, this is important. This is the problem with issuing purity tests you cannot yourself pass.”

“Senator,” he added, “Your net worth is 100 times mine.”

“I do not sell access to my time,” Warren rebuked him.

Their exchange was curtailed by Klobuchar. Sensing an opening to cast herself as above the fray and focused on party unity, she jumped in with some humor.

“I did not come here to listen to this argument,” she said. “I came here to make a case for progress. And I have never even been to a wine cave. I have been to the wind cave in South Dakota.”

The ideological clash between Buttigieg and Warren continued over which Americans should qualify for free college. Buttigieg said that “if you’re in that lucky top 10%, I still wish you well, don’t get me wrong, I just want you to go ahead and pay your own tuition.”

“I very much agree with Sen. Warren on raising more tax revenue from millionaires and billionaires,” Buttigieg added. “I just don’t agree on the part about spending it on millionaires and billionaires when it comes to their college tuition.”

Warren, who supports free tuition at public colleges and canceling most student loan debt, was ready with a quick rejoinder: “The mayor wants billionaires to pay one tuition for their own kids. I want a billionaire to pay enough to cover tuition for all of our kids.”

Fault lines emerged throughout the debate on matters of the economy, with two candidates — Klobuchar and Sanders — diverging on the merits of Trump’s new trade deal with Mexico and Canada, which the House approved only hours earlier.

Once again, Klobuchar produced an agile debate performance of the kind that has kept her in the mix so far as an underdog, with a clear message that pairs her Midwestern background with a moderate legislative résumé.

Trump provided a backdrop for the forum, and not only because of his newly embattled status and his anticipated victory on trade. In a series of exchanges, on issues such as climate change, press freedom and American relations with China and Israel, the candidates held him up as the embodiment of all they would not do with the presidency.

The Democrats were particularly unsparing with regard to the president’s foreign policy record, calling him an ally to tyrants and a figure of fun on the international stage. Klobuchar alluded to Trump’s tempestuous departure from a recent NATO summit after a video surfaced of several foreign leaders joking about him. “He is so thin-skinned that he walked, he quit,” she said, adding, “America doesn’t quit.”

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Several of the leading candidates vowed to take a more coordinated and forceful approach to dealing with China, including on human rights. Biden said he would seek to levy United Nations sanctions against the Chinese government for rounding up Muslim Uighurs in camps, while Buttigieg said he was open to the possibility of boycotting the 2022 Olympics in Beijing.

“We’re not looking for a war,” Biden said, “but we’ve got to make clear: We are a Pacific power and we are not going to walk away.”

A note of caution on the subject was sounded by Tom Steyer, the billionaire former hedge fund investor who has been self-funding his campaign. The U.S. needs Chinese cooperation on a range of urgent issues, including climate change, Steyer said, proposing to “work with them as a frenemy.”

The composition of the debate stage itself was up for debate. When a moderator noted that Yang was the only member of a minority group on the stage, Yang described that distinction as “both an honor and disappointment.”

“I miss Kamala and I miss Cory, though I think Cory will be back,” Yang said, referring to Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, who failed to qualify for the debate, and Sen. Kamala Harris of California, who recently withdrew from the race.

If the lack of racial diversity onstage was a source of embarrassment to some Democrats, the subject of gender came up repeatedly, thanks in part to former President Barack Obama. A moderator prompted Biden and Sanders to respond to Obama’s recent comments that the world would be better off run by women, rather than by “old men, not getting out of the way.” Biden responded lightly, “I’m going to guess he wasn’t talking about me.”

But gender is likely to be a central dynamic in the final phases of the race. When Warren was asked to address the reality that she, like Biden and Sanders, would be the oldest president ever inaugurated, her reply drew loud applause: “I’d also be the youngest woman ever inaugurated.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .