ELECTION 2020: Six things to watch in tonight’s South Carolina debate
Seven Democratic presidential candidates take the debate stage in Charleston, South Carolina, on Tuesday evening ahead of the Saturday primary. It’s the last debate before the March 3 Super Tuesday contests. Though it takes place just six days after the last time the candidates debated, dynamics could be quite different than last week’s Michael Bloomberg pile-on.
The debate airs at 6 p.m. MST on CBS and will be moderated by CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell and CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King, with additional questioning by “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan, chief CBS Washington correspondent Major Garrett, and “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker. The Congressional Black Caucus Institute is co-hosting the debate, and Twitter is a debate partner.
Here are six things to watch in the debate.
Knives out for Bernie Sanders
Saturday’s Nevada caucuses made Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders the clear front-runner in the race, and more centrist candidates hoping to stop his rise have previewed their attacks on him.
Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg is regularly taking swipes at Sanders in his stump speech and criticized Sanders’s “inflexible ideological revolution” on Saturday. Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York mayor, highlighted Sanders’s past opposition to gun control legislation on Monday. Former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign compared recent Sanders comments praising some aspects of Cuba’s dictatorship to President Trump praising dictators.
Will Elizabeth Warren attack Bernie Sanders?
The Massachusetts senator has not gotten into a spat with Sanders in a debate since January when Sanders disputed Warren’s allegation that he told her in a private 2018 meeting that he did not think a woman could be president. A “hot mic” moment caught her confronting him after the debate: “I think you just called me a liar on national TV,” she said.
During the last debate and in a speech after the Nevada caucuses, she set her aim at Bloomberg, even going after his height in a Trump-like move. With Sanders the biggest threat to amass a delegate lead, the question is whether Warren will turn on her far-left ideological ally.
Joe Biden performance in his “firewall” state
South Carolina could be make-or-break for Biden’s presidential aspirations after his disappointing finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire. He enjoys high support among the majority African American primary electorate in the state, but a poor debate performance on Tuesday could dampen voter enthusiasm for him.
Michael Bloomberg comeback
The New York billionaire admitted that he did not perform well in his first debate appearance last week when he was hammered for his past alleged comments about women and for supporting the stop-and-frisk policing policy in New York.
“Wasn’t my best night,” Bloomberg said in an interview Sunday. “I didn’t have a chance to really say what I wanted to say.”
Tuesday is Bloomberg’s last chance to reach voters from the debate stage before the first time he is on the ballot in Super Tuesday contests. He rescheduled a CNN town hall that was supposed to air Monday in order to have more debate prep time.
Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar attempt to stand out
The former South Bend, Indiana, mayor and Minnesota senator are each vying for votes from more centrist voters and hoping to become the main alternative to Sanders, but both face challenges appealing to nonwhite voters, and neither earned more than 15% of the statewide vote in Nevada.
In last week’s debate, Buttigieg and Klobuchar exchanged harsh blows. This week, they may focus on showing strength against top rival Sanders rather than tearing each other down.
Tom Steyer’s last stand
For the first time, two billionaires will be on one Democratic debate stage. Hedge fund king-turned-political-activist Steyer did not make the cut for last week’s debate.
Steyer has poured resources into South Carolina and polls exceptionally better there than he does nationally. The RealClearPolitics average of primary polls shows that he is in third place with 14.7% in the state but in seventh with 2.2% support nationwide. Despite funneling more than $267 million of his own money into his presidential bid, he has not earned a single nominating delegate to the Democratic national convention. South Carolina could be Steyer’s last chance to show that he should be taken seriously.