Winners and Losers From the Democratic Debate in Iowa

The final debate before the 2020 Democratic primaries kick off with the Iowa Caucuses next month went down on Tuesday night.

The stage was fraught with tension: a bitter feud between Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders was launched on Monday by a CNN report, apparently leaked by the Warren camp, accusing the Vermont senator of telling his Massachusetts colleague he didn’t believe a woman could win in 2020. Sanders denies the allegation.

But CNN had the manners to save that topic for later in the debate, which kicked off instead with a question on foreign policy. That set up another clash, between Sanders and Joe Biden, who has recently come under his fire for his early support of the Iraq War.

The six candidates on stage — Warren, Sanders, Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Tom Steyer — had more time to shine than those in the overcrowded debates of 2019. That said, some stood out for the better, others for the worse.

Here are our winners and losers of CNN’s Democratic debate in Des Moines, Iowa.

WINNERS

Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren had high risk going into Tuesday night’s debate. She faced an intense backlash from Sanders supporters after confirming CNN’s reporting on her claim that he told her a woman couldn’t win in 2020. Allegations of cloak and dagger politics abounded on Twitter.

But when CNN’s moderators brought up the spat, Warren’s response was widely praised — both on Twitter and by the De Moines crowd, which treated her comments to heavy applause.

“I think the best way to talk about who can win is by looking at people’s winning record,” Warren said. “So, can a woman beat Donald Trump? Look at the men on this stage. Collectively, they have lost ten elections. The only people on this stage who have won every single election that they’ve been in are the women.”

That was heralded as “the best moment of the debate” by CNN senior political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson.

On top of that Warren dominated her rivals on the stage, earning the most speaking time — with 18:59 minutes, according to the New York Times.

Tom Steyer

Steyer didn’t have a great start to the debate, citing his well-stamped passport as a qualification for commander-in-chief. He recovered in the aftermath, however, and ended up delivering a solid performance despite being the last novelty candidate remaining on the debate stage (Andrew Yang, despite Twitter’s best efforts, did not make the cut for CNN’s event).

His taking a sledgehammer to the United States foreign policy consensus in the Middle East likely earned him points from the Democratic base.

“This may be Steyer’s clearest and most forceful answer in any debate – top-to-bottom denunciation of D.C. foreign policy thinking, and a plea for electing an outsider,” said New York Times national political correspondent Alex Burns.

LOSERS

Bernie Sanders

Sanders arguably lost out on the fight with Warren over his alleged comment on whether a woman can win in 2020. He can thank, in part, CNN debate moderator Abby Phillip for that, who sided with Warren when she delivered this pointed question to the Massachusetts senator, immediately after Sanders had denied the allegation:

“Senator Warren, what did you think when Senator Sanders told you a woman could not win the election?” Phillip asked.

Phillip completely ignoring the Sanders denial got called out on Twitter, but for the millions watching the debate, it likely cemented his position as the liar between he and Warren.

In the aftermath, his defense against the allegation wasn’t ideal. His claim that no one believes a woman can’t win the election in 2020 is dubious — and unsupported by polling on the topic.

What’s more, his math challenge to Warren was awkward. Weird moment.

Caveat to all of this: it remains to be seen whether this rough debate for Sanders will do anything to quell his momentum heading into the Iowa caucuses, the first election of the primary season, in which he is currently the frontrunner.

Joe Biden

“Biden had a terrible debate,” CNN’s Nia-Malika Henderson said at the immediate conclusion of the event, summing it up. Former Obama adviser David Axelrod twisted the knife by referring to the ex-vice president as “low energy.” Expect that word to come up a lot in the general election if Biden ends up winning the Democratic primary.

Out of the gate, Biden was panned by Sanders over his support for the Iraq War. While the former Delaware senator copped to that being a “mistake,” he repeated the false claim that he soured on the war as soon the United States invaded in 2003.

As CNN fact checker Daniel Dale pointed out on Twitter, Biden called his vote in favor of the war a “mistake” in 2005.

“He keeps saying he came out opposed to the war right when it started in March 2003,” Dale wrote. “He very much did not. He was a vocal supporter of the war, though also a critic of Bush’s handling of it, through 2004.”

Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar

Didn’t really shine. Not even worth getting into it. Yawn.