7 Key Moments From the Third 2020 Democratic Debate
Midway through a Julián Castro squabble with Joe Biden during Thursday night’s third 2020 Democratic presidential debate, elder millennial Pete Buttigieg lamented that sniping between the candidates “is why presidential debates are unwatchable.” Frankly, he was not wrong, and not just because of the enduring Real Housewives reunion vibes.
The latest debate between the 10 remaining candidates amounted to a three-hour-long slog that even America’s preeminent pundits deemed all but miserable, from a 35-minute, largely repetitive health-care debate to zero minutes on reproductive rights (is that what happens when Kirsten Gillibrand is no longer there?) and Amy Klobuchar’s awkward reference to the 2004 Tom Cruise sci-fi “classic” The Day Before Tomorrow. For those who missed the debate or who, like Buttigieg, simply thought it unwatchable, here are the seven key moments to know about.
Bernie Sanders debuted a gravelly, extra hoarse voice, prompting a great many calls for therapeutic throat lozenges.
Julián Castro brought the fire. Seizing what could be his last chance to appear on the debate stage (the barrier to entry gets higher next time), the former Obama-era Housing and Urban Development secretary didn’t hold back, accusing Biden of backpedaling on an earlier statement about requiring people to opt in to Medicare. “Are you forgetting what you said two minutes ago?” Castro repeated, a comment widely interpreted as a burn on Biden’s age. “We need a health-care system that automatically enrolls people regardless of whether they choose to opt in or not.... I’m fulfilling the legacy of Barack Obama and you’re not.” But Castro’s critique turned out to be an empty one, as transcripts later revealed Biden hadn’t said he’d require a buy-in after all.
Castro also went hard on Buttigieg after the South Bend, Indiana, mayor decried the jabs between Castro and Biden as “scoring points against each other, poking at each other,” to which Castro replied: “That’s called an election!”
Many viewers momentarily woke up when Beto O’Rourke skirted the usual cowering Democratic-politician promise to “not take away your guns,” and said that he does indeed want to take away your guns—if they’re military-style assault rifles being used to kill civilians.
Then there was the delightfully cutting instance when Kamala Harris slammed Trump, as he might say, bigly.
And who can forget the awkward moment when Klobuchar, discussing climate change, tried a The Day After Tomorrow reference on for size, saying: “You know that movie, The Day After Tomorrow? It’s today. We have seen a warming in our world like never before.” The line flopped, both because it was overly rehearsed and also because it’s an Ice Age, not extreme warming, that befalls the planet in the movie.
Last, but certainly not least, let it sink in that during the approximately 180 minutes of debate time, the moderators failed to ask the candidates a single question about abortion access or reproductive rights.
Originally Appeared on Vogue
