Clashes as 10 Democratic candidates meet in debate

The issues of healthcare and immigration highlighted a divide among the Democratic presidential field on Tuesday, with ideological differences apparent between progressive and moderate candidates.

Going into the first evening of the second round of televised debates in Detroit, two of the leading candidates among the ten - US senators US Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont - attempted to differentiate themselves from each other. They both favor universal healthcare and rail against excessive corporate profits.

In a spirited debate on the issues, the senators defended their progressive stances against a couple of upstart, moderate candidates - Montana Governor Steve Bullock, making his first debate appearance, and former US representative John Delaney of Maryland. Both men made a noticeable effort to stand out from the field.

Sanders, meanwhile, was looking to bounce back from what many considered a middling performance in the first debate. The 77-year-old was booming and forceful in defense of his positions.

"Right now we have a dysfunctional healthcare system. Eighty-seven million uninsured or underinsured, 500,000 Americans every year going bankrupt because of medical bills, 30,000 people dying while the healthcare industry makes tens of billions of dollars in profit. Five minutes away from here ... is a country called Canada. They guarantee healthcare to every man, woman and child as a human right," Sanders said.

Delaney responded: "We don't have to go around and be the party of subtraction and telling half the country who has private health insurance that their health insurance is illegal. My dad, the union electrician, loved the healthcare he got from the IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers)."

Delaney earlier suggested that it was "bad policies like universal healthcare that got Trump elected".

"We are the Democrats," Warren replied to Delaney. "We are not about trying to take away healthcare from anyone. That's what the Republicans are trying to do. And we should stop using Republican talking points in order to talk with each other about how to best provide that healthcare."

Warren earlier said that the current healthcare system is "working great for insurance companies and drug companies", which she said "do not have the God-given right to make $23 billion in profits".

Another flashpoint was immigration, particularly whether entering the country undocumented should be decriminalized, which Warren favors.

"You are playing into Donald Trump's hands," Bullock told her.

Sanders said Trump was "demonizing a group of people. A mother and child walk thousands of miles on a dangerous path. They are not criminals. Bring the entire hemisphere together to talk how we rebuild Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador."

Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan, who opposes decriminalizing entry by migrants at the United States' southern border, replied: "If you want to come into the country, you should at least ring the doorbell."

Ten more Democratic candidates were scheduled to appear in Wednesday's debate, also in Detroit.

hengweili@chinadailyusa.com

(China Daily 08/01/2019 page10)