Democrats swipe at inquiry

With the impeachment inquiry unfolding earlier Wednesday against the man they hope to replace, 10 Democratic presidential candidates took to a stage in Atlanta to make their cases for the White House.

It was the fifth of 12 Democratic primary debates scheduled for the 2020 presidential election. The debate at Tyler Perry Studios was hosted by MSNBC and The Washington Post.

Five of the 10 candidates were US senators: Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kamala Harris of California and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. It is in the Republican-controlled Senate where if the Democratic-led House approves the articles of impeachment, that a trial would be held.

The other five candidates on the stage were former vice-president Joe Biden, South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, billionaire businessman Tom Steyer of California, and entrepreneur Andrew Yang of New York

The first question was about US ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland and his testimony at the House Intelligence Committee impeachment inquiry in Washington.

Sondland said top White House officials such as Vice-President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were in the loop about efforts to have Ukraine open two political investigations, one into Joe Biden and his son Hunter and another about any interference role Ukraine may have played in the 2016 US presidential election.

"Read the Mueller report," Warren said. "The president felt free to break the law again and again," alluding to obstruction of justice. "I asked everyone who's running for president to join me in that. And not a single person has so far. How did Ambassador Sondland get there? … That tells us about what has happened in Washington. Anyone who wants to give me a big donation? Don't ask to be an ambassador," said Warren, who by far had the most airtime in the debate's opening 20 minutes.

"We cannot simply be consumed by Donald Trump," Sanders said. "Because if we are, you know what? We're going to lose the election. We can deal with Trump's corruption, but we also have to stand up for the working families of this country."

"I've made it very clear that this is impeachable conduct," Klobuchar said.

"We have a criminal living in the White House," said Harris, who called the Trump administration a "criminal enterprise".

"I learned that Donald Trump doesn't want me to be the nominee," Biden said of the impeachment hearing. "I found out that Vladimir Putin doesn't want me to be president."

Biden, who perhaps got off to his strongest start in the five debates, also said he would "be able to go into states like Georgia and North Carolina and other places and get a Senate majority. That's what I'll do."

In the only question related to China that came up as of 10 pm EST, Buttigieg was asked by moderator Rachel Maddow if farm subsidies put in place by Trump to help farmers burdened by tariffs from the administration's trade dispute with the country, said:

"We shouldn't have to pay farmers to take the edge off of a trade war that shouldn't have been started," Buttigieg said. When pressed on whether he would continue the subsidies, he said yes, but "we won't need them" because he would end the trade war.

Healthcare also was a recurring topic, with Warren and Sanders making the case for Medicare for All, and Biden opposing it.

"Some of the people up here think that we shouldn't take on the insurance industry and the pharmaceutical industry," said Sanders. "Now is the time for Medicare for All." Sanders said he would push for the policy in his first week in office.

Biden said Medicare for All could not pass the House or Senate, even among Democrats.

"(House Speaker) Nancy Pelosi is one of those people" who said it didn't have the votes, Biden said. "I trust the American people to make a judgment," about private insurance or Medicare.

Booker said he agreed with Warren's focus on the rich to pay for Medicare for All, but disagreed with taxing assets above $50 million. He said it was "tried by other nations" and was "cumbersome".

Booker also said later he "would bring creativity to the office" that has never been seen before. The former mayor of Newark, New Jersey, said gentrification in cities was leading to further racial segregation.

Sanders said he rejected the notion that the US "is a divided nation".

Gabbard, an Iraq War veteran generally considered the party's most conservative candidate, has been calling for an end to military adventurism, "an end to this ongoing Bush, Clinton, Trump foreign policy doctrine of regime change wars, overthrowing dictators in other countries. Needlessly sending my brothers and sisters in uniform into harm's way to fight in wars that actually undermine our national security and have cost us thousands of American lives."

The moderators asked Harris to respond, perhaps because Gabbard famously criticized Harris at a previous debate over her record as California attorney general.

"I think that it's unfortunate that we have someone on this stage who is attempting to be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States, who during the Obama administration spent four years full time on Fox News criticizing President Obama," said Harris, continuing "when Donald Trump was elected, not even sworn in, buddied up to Steve Bannon to get a meeting with Donald Trump in the Trump Tower, fails to call a war criminal by what he is, as a war criminal. And then spends full time during the course of this campaign, again, criticizing the Democratic Party."

Buttigieg, who has repeatedly been asked previously how as a mayor of a city with just above 100,000 people could lead a nation of more than 325 million, said, "I have the right experience to take on Donald Trump. I get it's not traditional establishment Washington experience, but I would argue we need something very different right now."

Klobuchar, in a poke at Warren and Sanders on extending paid family leave past three months, said: "I'm not going to go for things just because they sound good on a bumper sticker and then throw in a free car. We have an obligation as party to, yes, be fiscally responsible, yes, think big, but be honest."

Climate change was a topic in the second hour, with Sanders railing against the fossil fuel industry and he even talked about possible prosecutions related to pollution.

Yang, in one his few comments during the debate, said to laughter: "I'm sorry I beat your guy, or not sorry," when asked what he would say to Putin if he were elected US president.