Hey there, we're at the site of the second Democratic debates
in Detroit, Mich., where things have just wrapped up.
I'm Asma Khalid, one of the campaign reporters for NPR.
I'm Domenico Montanaro, political editor.
And so, Domenico, I would say
one of the key takeaways for me tonight was
there was a lot of pre-debate chatter about whether or not the
progressive icons, Bernie Sanders the senator from Vermont,
and Elizabeth Warren, the senator from Massachusetts,
whether or not they would actually clash with one another.
And they really didn't clash.
They actually had each other's back throughout the
debate. And instead we saw a number of the more moderate
candidates try to critique some of
their public policies such as
“Medicare for All,” or getting rid of private health insurance.
"At the end of the day I'm not going to support a plan that rips away
quality health care from individuals. This is an example
of wish-list economics. It used to be just Republicans wanted
to repeal and replace. Now many Democrats do as well."
"Let's be clear about this. We are the Democrats. We are not
about trying to take away health care from anyone.
That's what the Republicans are trying to do.
And we should stop using Republican talking points
in order to talk with each other about
how to best provide that health care."
We saw a lot of these moderate candidates really
come out swinging right from their opening statements.
You had Gov. Steve Bullock,
who got left off the stage the last time.
This is the first time in the debate lineup for him.
He's the governor of Montana,
and he has stressed repeatedly that he's won in a red state
in a place that President Trump has won, and he's one of
these people who feels like the Democratic Party has sort of
moved away from understanding that part of the country,
and he really made his case, came out very strongly —
I thought he had a real strong night.
I think that a lot of people didn't know who
he was, if you're a moderate Democrat who is looking for that
kind of candidate, you have another option now, especially if
you know former Vice President Biden winds up fading.
He's in the debate tomorrow night. Did not have a
great debate the very first time he debated.
You saw John Delaney, the former congressman
from Maryland, really try to go after Elizabeth Warren
for example, but she was able to really parry back at him
and had one of the lines of the night.
"So I think Democrats win when we run on real solutions,
not impossible promises.
When we run on things that are
workable, not fairy-tale economics."
"You know, I don't understand why anybody goes to all the
trouble of running for president of the
United States just to talk
about what we really can't do
and shouldn't fight for."
And I think the pushback to this to me that was
really interesting is we did see
some of the more direct criticism
go after Bernie Sanders rather than Elizabeth Warren,
which to me was interesting because
it allowed Warren to come
off as the more pragmatic choice of the two. 
Right, well Sanders is an easy foil for the 
moderates because they can say he goes way too far left,
here are all the things he wants to do, he embraces the
socialist moniker — which Elizabeth Warren doesn't, right?
She says, I'm a capitalist, firmly.
She wants big structural change.
She wants more regulation.
She wants to work within the system.
She's sort of — we've said this before on the podcast —
that she wants to kind of 
gut the house, but leave the framework
of the house in place.
If it's up to Sanders, he's going to
blow up the house and you know 
create a completely different one.
At the end of the night here, because there was such a
rich tension, I would say, such an intense fight between the
progressive and the moderates. Do you feel that one
side of this conversation won out overall when we talk about
what Democrats are looking for?
Was one side more compelling or
made their case?
Well, you know, what I had been hearing from a lot of
Democratic strategists after the
first round of debates was how
frustrated they were seeing Democrats raise their hands to
policies that they felt like were going too far to the left.
to win an election in the fall. When they felt like there was a
broad array of Democratic policies that the country
actually likes. They're very much in favor of, but not things like
decriminalizing border crossings. 
Not things like giving immigrants
in the U.S. illegally free health care.
Not necessarily even things like free college for everyone.
Those are things they feel like go too far
when they test these things.
And then we did our poll
the NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, 
and a lot of that then came true
where there are a lot of Democratic policies that are very
popular but a few of those things, not so much. And I think
that's what some of the clapback was
tonight, with the moderates
feeling like they need to take more of the reins of the party to
say hey guys this is not...
Did they accomplish, you think, what they needed to do?
I think for the first time they didn't seem guilted into not
talking about those things. Whereas I feel like the
Twitterverse, sort of woke-topia universe,
had been dominating the narrative and
making people, making moderates feel 
guilty about talking about some
of these more moderate issues
that they were able to do tonight. 
So one last thing before we go.
There are a number of candidates 
who were onstage tonight who
will likely not be with us when we get to the next debate, the
third debate in September,
which will be in Houston. And that's
because the DNC has stricter criteria to make the next debate.
There's a higher fundraising threshold and a higher
polling threshold as well.
So, Domenico, why don't you walk us through
some of the folks who
who will not be with us...
Or might not, right?
Might not. We should not get ahead of ourselves, yes.
Marianne Williamson has become something of a 
meme throughout the primary with the ways — with
her affect, with the way she talks, 
she's a spiritualist and author,
certainly very different. Not an elected leader.
She may very well not be in the fall debates.
John Hickenlooper, the governor of
Colorado, hasn't qualified yet.
John Delaney, the congressman from
Maryland, who got into those back-and-forths
over moderate policies
with Elizabeth Warren.
These are people who need to have some
breakouts so that they become 
better known to have raised their
polling floor, or to gain more
donors, some of them have one or the other.
Amy Klobuchar, also for example, senator from Minnesota,
really needed to do something 
tonight because she's not quite there
on both of those things too.
I believe that we have seven 
candidates to date who've qualified for that
September debate.
But anyhow, we are going to leave it there for
now, but we will be back here tomorrow night.
And of course you can always tune in 
and catch more coverage on the NPR Politics Podcast.
Take a listen there.
