Elizabeth Warren fights off a barrage of attacks at Dem debate while Joe Biden takes a backseat, supporters say it only made her stronger
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren had a tough time at the fourth Democratic presidential debate in Ohio on Tuesday, October 15, as her rivals in a crowded podium took her on.
The 70-year-old received most of the attention of the candidates and moderators at the Westerville debate while the embattled Joe Biden, who was leading the race so far, went to the back row.
That Warren was at the center of the storm was evident from the fact that she spoke for nearly 23 minutes during the three-hour event, six minutes more than the second-placed Biden.
Over the past few weeks, the senator has made it to the top of the 2020 candidates and is now considered as a frontrunner, along with Biden. According to polling aggregation site RealClearPolitics, she has a slight lead ahead of Biden (0.2 percentage point more) in the national polls.
While Biden had a lot of questions come flying at him all these days, it was Warren’s turn on Tuesday. Her supporters, like Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, however, believed that the attacks on Warren only made her stronger.
David Axelrod, director of UChicago Institute of Politics, said Warren's status as the frontrunner in the Democratic race was certified by the amount of attack she faced in Ohio.
Warren was taken on by for having failed to directly answer whether her healthcare plan would raise taxes on middle-class Americans. She said the costs will go up for the wealthy and big corporations while they will go down for the hard-working middle-class families.
But she did not say either a yes or no on whether she would raise the taxes.
Buttigieg and Klobuchar take Elizabeth Warren on
Pete Buttigieg, who had an exchange with Beto O’Rourke over gun-control reforms, attacked Warren saying her health care plan would divide the country.
He said he failed to understand why the only way to deliver affordable coverage is by obliterating private plans. The South Bend mayor also tried to show Warren as a representative of Washington who had little connection with the voters in the Midwest.
Amy Klobuchar also took Warren on over the healthcare plan, saying the latter hadn't elaborated on how she was going to pay for the plan.