The second Democratic presidential debate: July 30-31, 2019

Last week’s second Democratic debate did little to change the race — Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren continue to be the top candidates, per new post-debate polls.

National polls from Quinnipiac, HarrisX, Reuters/Ipsos, and Politico/Morning Consult — and a New Hampshire poll from the Boston Globe/Suffolk — all show Biden in first place, with somewhere between 21 and 33 percent of the vote.

There’s still a lot we don’t understand about misinformation, social media manipulation, and online election interference after the 2016 election. In 2019, that’s becoming increasingly apparent.

Case in point: the second round of Democratic debates, which have prompted widespread but unfounded speculation that bots were influencing which candidates trended on Twitter and in Google search results.

The president of the United States has a lot of power.

She can bomb and invade foreign countries, negotiate and implement new international agreements, impose sanctions and tariffs, pardon nonviolent drug offenders, change regulations of Wall Street and greenhouse gas emitters, break up corporate monopolies, set monetary policy through Federal Reserve appointments, and reshape the federal judiciary — all with limited or no involvement from Congress.

At the first Democratic presidential debates in June, issues of reproductive rights and justice were front and center. The gender pay gap got a discussion as well.

The candidates didn’t always have well-thought-out answers, but they showed an awareness of some key questions that matter to female voters and anyone who can get pregnant. In the second round of debates this month, they had an opportunity to build on their successes.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) was looking to have a moment reminiscent of the first Democratic debate’s viral exchange between Sen. Kamala Harris’s (D-CA) and Joe Biden at the second Democratic debate Wednesday night on an issue he’s been dedicated to his entire career: criminal justice reform.

Ahead of the debate, Booker signaled he planned to attack the former vice president over his role in the 1994 crime bill, which Biden helped write and, as Vox’s German Lopez has reported, experts now see as one of the major contributors to mass incarceration in the 1990s. Booker did indeed attack Biden on the issue, working to — as many of Biden’s other Democratic competitors have — paint the former vice president as out of touch with the Democratic Party due to his past positions.

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker made an uncomfortable but necessary point during the second Democratic primary debate: The bar for action on climate change is higher than it used to be, and pledging to rejoin the Paris climate agreement is too low of a bar for presidential candidates.

“Nobody should get applause for rejoining the Paris climate accords. That is kindergarten,” Booker said. “[T]he majority of this problem is outside the United States, but the only way we’re going to deal with this is if the United States leads.”

The Joe Biden-Kamala Harris showdown at the second Democratic debate started on, what else, health care.

It’s a top issue for Democratic voters and has featured heavily in every primary debate so far. Biden has positioned himself as the moderate, proposing a plan that would allow Americans to buy into a government insurance plan, but would otherwise maintain much of the health care system that currently exists.

Sen. Kamala Harris leveled a pointed question against former Vice President Joe Biden during Wednesday’s Democratic presidential debate in Detroit: The former senator previously backed the Hyde Amendment, a measure that bars federal funding for nearly all abortions, for decades. Then, this past June, he had a sudden change of heart: Why?

“You made a decision for years to withhold resources to poor women to reproductive health care, including women who were the victims of rape and incest. Do you now say that you have evolved and you regret that?” the California senator and presidential candidate asked.

Former Vice President Joe Biden wants illegal immigration to stay illegal.

That’s what he said during the second Democratic primary debate, and it reveals just how little he understands about the nuances of immigration policy.

Former Vice President Joe Biden really wants Barack Obama to be his guardian angel.

Biden’s challengers on the Democratic debate stage Wednesday took every opportunity to take a swipe at the former vice president, who has been consistently leading the polls since announcing his run. And every time the going got tough, Biden invoked his former running mate.

The death of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man killed in 2014 after an encounter with police, hung over the Democratic debate on Wednesday, as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and former Vice President Joe Biden’s roles in the aftermath were called into question.

In 2014, Garner died after being confronted by police in Staten Island for allegedly selling untaxed loose cigarettes. One of the officers, Daniel Pantaleo, put him in a department-prohibited chokehold — in footage of the incident, Garner can be heard saying “I can’t breathe” multiple times. The Department of Justice has decided not to file charges against Pantaleo, who remains on paid desk duty at the NYPD and underwent a NYPD departmental trial earlier this year that could result in his termination. In the meantime, de Blasio has declined to fire Pantaleo, saying that it’s up to the police commissioner to do so.

In a stark shift since the last campaign cycle, a significant number of Democratic candidates for president are now aggressively treating the fossil fuel industry as an adversary in the fight against climate change.

During Tuesday night’s Democratic debate, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) called out coal, oil, and natural gas producers in five separate instances.

Democrats vying for the White House are fighting for working-class votes and union endorsements. These days, it’s not unusual to see presidential candidates marching with McDonald’s workers or picketing with striking grocery store employees, like Elizabeth Warren did.

But so far, union leaders aren’t too impressed. Only three candidates — Pete Buttigieg, Jay Inslee, and Bill de Blasio — have come up with detailed plans to make it easier for workers to join labor unions.

Self-help guru Marianne Williamson was the breakout star of CNN’s first Democratic debate — at least if internet chatter and pundits are to be believed.

Williamson was the most-searched person on Google after the debate in 49 out of 50 states. CNN analyst and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm praised her “really compelling and authentic” answer on reparations, saying, “Honestly, I think she brought it.” GOP pollster Frank Luntz tweeted that “she’s cutting through the clutter tonight.” A Washington Post article claimed she had “a big night,” writing that she “used her limited time on the microphone to maximum effect, attracting attention for meaningful answers on race and Democratic ideology.” Even current Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) singled out her “surprisingly eloquent answers” to some of the debate questions during his post-debate MSNBC appearance.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren has released not one, but five climate change plans as part of her campaign for president. So far.

Since April, she has outlined an agenda to counter growing greenhouse gas emissions and rising average temperatures through policies for public lands, the military, trade, climate risk disclosure, and US manufacturing. And more are in the works, according to her campaign.

Twenty Democrats vying to become the next president take the stage in Detroit this week to participate in the CNN debates.

While the two-day event will almost certainly feature more questions about domestic affairs, it will also provide a chance to ask candidates about their foreign policy views.

A trio of CNN’s most prominent correspondents — Jake Tapper, Don Lemon, and Dana Bash — will moderate the second round of Democratic debates in Detroit on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The moderators, like those in the first round of debates last month, will have a hefty responsibility. With a full stage of 10 candidates each on both nights, the trio will be pivotal to steering the focus of the conversation and ensuring that each person has a chance to make their case.

The one area any US president has the most control over isn’t tax policy or health care or even the economy.

It’s foreign policy. From launching nuclear weapons to pulling out of important international agreements to forging new alliances and trade deals, the US president often has nearly unchecked authority.

Only a month after the first debates, the large field of 2020 Democrats is heading back to the stage for their second round of debates in July.

The second scheduled debate will be hosted by CNN on July 30 and 31 in Detroit (Michigan is a battle state that Trump narrowly won in 2016) at 8 pm Eastern — and qualifications for the debate are the same as the first.