Tuesday's Democratic presidential debate could be unlike any of the others so far this cycle. The generally polite disputes over policy items are likely to be replaced by pointed - and personal - attacks.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., left, poses for a photo with attendees after speaking at a campaign event, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2020, in Marshalltown, Iowa.
But Warren chastised Sanders over the weekend following a report that his campaign instructed volunteers to speak poorly of her to win over undecided voters. The tensions escalated on Monday after CNN reported Sanders told Warren in 2018 that he didn’t think a woman could win the election, a charge Sanders vigorously denied.
Those shifting dynamics mean Tuesday’s debate could be unlike any of the others that came before it this cycle. The generally polite disputes over policy items including health care and immigration are poised to be replaced by increasingly bitter and personal knocks. And it will happen as many Democratic voters are just beginning to tune into the race.
This will be the first debate since President Donald Trump authorized the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, which heightened tensions throughout the Middle East. John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee and a Biden supporter, previewed Biden’s argument Monday in Knoxville, Iowa. Kerry didn’t mention Iraq or Biden’s evolving positions on U.S. engagement there. The former secretary of state instead kept the focus on Trump and his changing stories about his decision to order Soleimani’s killing.
That echoed a new argument the Warren campaign unveiled this weekend: that she is the candidate who can best unify the different factions of the party, a case new endorser Julián Castro made when introducing the senator on the stump in Iowa.
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