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The tenth Democratic debate is being touted as a spectacle, but one candidate, Bernie Sanders, might have reason to celebrate because of it.
With Super Tuesday coming up, this was the final chance for some of the Democratic candidates to try getting a foot in before South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas, California and many other states start voting on Tuesday.
Super Tuesday will help determine whether Bernie Sanders will remain the top contender, or if he’ll need to share the spotlight–or if his campaign is halted altogether, considering how many jabs the other candidates took at him.
Related: South Carolina Democratic Debate: What You Need to Know
Here are some of the top quotes from Tuesday’s South Carolina Democratic Debate:
“The people know me. My entire career has been wrapped up in dealing with civil rights and civil liberties. I don’t expect anything. I plan to earn the vote. I’m here to ask. I’m here to earn it.”
“But, folks, I intend to win in South Carolina, and I will win the African-American vote here in South Carolina.”
“Bernie and I agree on a lot of things, but I think I would make a better president than Bernie, and the reason for that is that getting a progressive agenda enacted is going to be really hard, and it’s going to take someone who digs into the details to make it happen.”
“I don’t care how much money Mayor Bloomberg has. The core of the Democratic Party will never trust him. He has not earned their trust. I will. And the fact that he cannot earn the trust of the core of the Democratic Party means he is the riskiest candidate standing on this stage.”
“If you keep on going, we will elect Bernie, Bernie will lose to Donald Trump, and Donald Trump and the House and the Senate and some of the statehouses will all go red and then, between gerrymandering and appointing judges, for the next 20 or 30 years we are going to live with this catastrophe.”
“And if you want to beat Trump, what you’re going to need is an unprecedented grassroots movement of black and white and Latino, Native American and Asian, people who are standing up and fighting for justice. That’s what our movement is about.”
“And let me tell Mr. Putin, who interfered in the 2016 election … hey, Mr. Putin, if I’m president of the United States, trust me, you’re not going to interfere in any more American elections.”
Bernie also hit back about whether his campaign ideas were too radical–such as his push for medicare for all, saying, “They’re not.”
“I will tell you what the Russians want. They don’t have a political party. They want chaos, and chaos is what is coming our way.”
“I can tell you exactly how it all adds up. It adds up to four more years of Donald Trump, Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House, and the inability to get the Senate into Democratic hands.”
“The time has come to stop acting like the presidency is the only thing that matters. Not only is this a way to get Donald Trump re-elected, we got a House to worry about, we got a Senate to worry about.”
The debate ended with a question for each candidate, asking them, “What’s the biggest misconception about you, and what words do you live by?”
None of the candidates had a surprising answer, and all used the time allotted to direct a closing statement toward South Carolina voters and other Super Tuesday states.
In summary, Sanders held firm against the heat directed his way; Biden, Buttigieg, Warren, Klobuchar, and Steyer stayed on their usual scripts; Biden was more animated than usual, and Bloomberg at least didn’t do as badly as he did last time.
Related: Obama Has Had Enough, Steps Back into the Political Ring
Jennifer Victor, a professor of political science at George Mason University mused to Politico:
“The race is Sanders’s to lose. He took more lumps than anyone but held his own. Back when there were a dozen candidates on the stage, the debates were chaotic, noisy and lacked substance. Tuesday’s debate felt very much like those early contests.”
“There was an intensity and hunger coming from all the candidates, which means that the event was not particularly enjoyable or substantive for the audience. From that perspective, the debate is not likely to have a big effect on the primaries in South Carolina and on Super Tuesday.”
