HOUSTON (CN) – The much anticipated three-way showdown between Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders dominated the start of the third Democratic debate Thursday night, putting the clear ideological split among the front-runners on full display with the top polling candidates on stage for the first time of the primary season.
But the nearly three hour-long debate also gave emerging candidates a chance to take on their fellow 2020 Democratic rivals, as well as a prime time audience to test out fierce jabs at President Donald Trump that will play out through the general election.
Biden, the former vice president who has remained the top pick for Democrats since January, quickly found himself the target of the nine other candidates onstage looking to breakthrough to voters. He was forced to defend his record on health care, gun control, race relations in America and his 2003 vote to authorize the Iraq War, while issues including immigration, criminal justice and international trade were also debated.
Remaining on defense mode throughout the night, Biden found himself in testy exchanges with former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, a former San Antonio mayor and the last candidate to qualify for the September debate, drawing audible reactions from the audience at Houston’s Texas Southern University.
Biden took the first shot of the night at his two closest rivals, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, accusing the two liberal senators of not being upfront with the true costs of their health care plans.
“I know that the senator says she’s for Bernie, well I’m for Barack,” Biden said singling out Warren. “I think the Obamacare worked. I think the way we add to it, replace everything that’s been cut, add a public option, guarantee that everyone will be able to have affordable insurance, number one.”
Warren and many of the other Democrats onstage praised President Barack Obama’s signature health care plan. The Massachusetts senator said the “richest individuals and the richest corporations are going to pay more,” while middle class families will pay less under her plan, though she declined to answer directly whether middle class families would see a tax increase.
“You’ve got to defend the fact that 500,000 Americans are going bankrupt,” Sanders told Biden, saying that his health care plan would put people “into financial ruin because they suffered a diagnosis of cancer.”
Biden quickly hit back.
“I know a lot about cancer. Let me tell you something, it’s personal to me” he said. “Let me tell you something, every single person who’s diagnosed with cancer or any other disease can automatically become part of this plan. They will not go bankrupt because of that.”
The ten top-polling Democratic candidates are locked in a battle for the party’s nomination at a time when a series of polls nationwide, and in ruby red Texas, show an increasingly competitive general election contest.
The ten candidates participating in Thursday’s debate, hosted by ABC News in partnership with Univision, appeared on stage in the following order, from left to right: Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sanders, Biden, Warren, California Sen. Kamala Harris, entrepreneur Andrew Yang, former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke, and Castro.
Ten other Democrats did not make the narrowed-down debate stage Thursday night, including Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and progressive billionaire Tom Steyer.