Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns

Warren, who has endorsed a proposal by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont for single-payer care, has consistently refused to say that she would embrace middle-class tax increases to finance the plan. She maintained that practiced position on the stage in Ohio, vowing that she would lower health care costs for all but the wealthy yet repeatedly sidestepping the question of whether she would enact a broad-based tax increase.

“I will not sign a bill into law that does not lower costs for middle-class families,” Warren said, declining to go into detail. But the answer failed to keep her foes at bay, and for the first time in the race Warren found herself assailed from multiple sides over an extended period in the debate. Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, accused her of evading “a yes-or-no question,” while Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota called the single-payer proposal backed by Warren and Sanders a “pipe dream.”

Klobuchar reserved her sharpest words, however, for only one of those two progressives. “At least Bernie’s being honest here,” Klobuchar said, challenging Warren to tell voters “where we’re going to send the invoice” for single-payer care.

Warren was not alone in facing scrutiny early in the debate: Joe Biden was quickly pressed on the issue of his son Hunter and his work for a Ukrainian gas company while his father was vice president. Biden responded to a question about his son’s overseas work in narrow and repetitive terms, saying several times that he and his son had done “nothing wrong.”

The drawn-out argument over health care, in a debate sponsored by CNN and The New York Times, captured one of the defining themes in the Democratic race: the ideological divide over the best way to provide universal coverage, and over the proper scale and cost of government-backed social programs. Up to this point, the Democrats’ policy debate has largely been defined by Warren and Sanders, with their promises to restructure huge parts of the American economy. The debate in Ohio represented the most assertive effort so far by candidates skeptical of their policies to put up resistance to those ideas.

The fierce exchange also signaled that the race had entered a new phase, defined by Warren’s apparent status as a leader of the Democratic pack and a new mood of urgency among other candidates eager to challenge that status.

Sanders, who has observed a kind of informal nonaggression pact with Warren so far, did not exactly break from that approach Tuesday night. But he called it “appropriate” for candidates to explain the fiscal trade-offs involved in a Medicare for All system: Sanders said that voters would see their taxes go up, but that they would save money overall because of the way health care would be restructured.

“Premiums are gone, copayments are gone, deductibles are gone, all out-of-pocket expenses are gone,” Sanders said, adding, “The tax increase they pay will be substantially less, substantially less than what they were paying for premiums and out-of-pocket expenses.”

But Sanders more forcefully scolded the candidates onstage who opposed single-payer care and whom he described as “defending a system which is dysfunctional, which is cruel.”

The Democratic field appeared far more eager to attack Warren for her health care policies than to critique Biden, who remains a top candidate in the race, for the family business entanglements that have defined a weekslong clash between Biden and President Donald Trump.

Biden has tried to put to rest criticism of his son’s financial dealings in Ukraine and China. Over the weekend, he said he would not allow members of his family to do business overseas during a potential Biden presidency, and Hunter Biden stepped down from his role at an investment fund linked to China.

Prompted by a moderator to explain why his family had not observed similar restrictions while he was vice president, Biden avoided answering directly and repeatedly defended his son. He pointed to an interview Hunter Biden gave to ABC News, in which he described his decision to work in Ukraine as an error of judgment but said he had not done anything wrong ethically.

“I carried out the policy of the United States government in rooting out corruption in Ukraine,” Biden said, adding, “My son’s statement speaks for itself.”

The other Democrats onstage did not appear eager to press the issue, in part because they believe there is no appetite among primary voters for criticism of Biden’s family. There is also a feeling among some Democrats that Biden is on the downswing in the race and that it makes little sense to attack him in ways that might antagonize his supporters. Neither Warren nor Sanders, Biden’s two most formidable rivals, took up the line of attack on Ukraine.

Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, who in previous debates took on Biden in pointed terms, instead scolded the moderators for even asking Biden about his son’s work in Ukraine.

“The only person sitting at home enjoying that was Donald Trump,” said Booker, lamenting what he called “elevating a lie and attacking a statesman.”

After presenting her message at the previous three debates with only intermittent challenges from her rivals, Warren was met with cutting criticism of her signature populist flourishes.

“I want to give a reality check to Elizabeth,” Klobuchar said, before alluding to hedge fund executive Tom Steyer, one of the 12 candidates onstage. “No one on this stage wants to protect billionaires. Not even the billionaire wants to protect billionaires. We just have different approaches.”

Buttigieg was just as pointed, repeatedly casting Warren as a “Washington politician,” but they were not alone. Even lagging candidates such as former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas and Andrew Yang, a former tech entrepreneur, took on Warren, all but confirming her front-runner status.

Warren largely refrained from responding to the candidates in personal terms and reaffirmed her progressive message.

If the two Midwesterners, Klobuchar and Buttigieg, displayed a new level of aggressiveness, two other candidates who were at the center of previous debates were invisible for stretches of time. Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris of California seemed to have little appetite to confront Warren or interject generally.

Sanders was not as ubiquitous a presence as he had been at past debates, but he drew applause by pre-empting a question about his health, after having a heart attack two weeks ago. “I’m healthy, I’m feeling great,” he said before vowing “a vigorous campaign.”

That, Sanders said, “is how I think I can reassure the American people.”

Other candidates besides Warren occasionally found themselves under attack. After weeks of sparring from afar over gun control, Buttigieg and O’Rourke clashed heatedly over an issue on which Democrats have sought to outdo one another with far-reaching proposals in the wake of a series of mass shootings.

“I don’t need lessons from you on courage, political or personal,” Buttigieg said before O’Rourke could even get off his sharpest criticism about what he said were his rival’s cautious, “poll-tested” proposals on guns.

Buttigieg has claimed that O’Rourke’s plan to buy back weapons amounted to “a shiny object” that would only make it harder for Democrats to enact gun control. Brushing aside that criticism, O’Rourke said the assertion amounted to “a slap in the face” to victims of gun violence and their families.

With a dozen candidates onstage and impeachment in the air, it was unclear heading into Tuesday’s debate whether it would prove to be a turning point in the race. With Trump’s struggle to stabilize his presidency dominating the news, along with a national security and humanitarian crisis unfolding in Syria, the trading of rhetorical blows on a stage in suburban Ohio may or may not captivate the attention of primary voters across the country this week.

Still, the debate promised to test Biden and Warren’s competing claims to the status of Democratic front-runner: The two candidates have been closely matched in recent polling, nationally and in the early primary states, with Warren assembling an increasingly formidable coalition on the left and Biden remaining the favorite among more moderate Democrats. In recent weeks, the former vice president has been increasingly critical of Warren’s vows to overhaul the U.S. economy, and he has spoken dismissively about the idea of electing a “planner” to the presidency — an allusion to Warren’s swollen sheaf of policy proposals.

They entered the debate battling different vulnerabilities. Biden has been mired in a nearly monthlong battle with Trump over the work Biden’s son did in foreign countries while Biden was vice president. Trump’s attacks have veered into personal smears and even potentially impeachable behavior, with entreaties to Ukraine and China to investigate the Bidens, but they have left Biden off balance at a perilous moment in his candidacy.

Up to this point, Warren has been careful not to allow any daylight to emerge on the health care issue between her and Sanders, her most formidable populist rival, who has made Medicare for All the defining cause of his campaign. But there may now be more pressure on Warren to revise her stance in a way that might reassure voters on the center-left than there is on her to protect her left flank from Sanders, who has been fading in the polls and grappling with the aftermath of a heart attack.

Sanders has been off the campaign trail for nearly all of October, since he was hospitalized in Las Vegas and had two stents placed in an artery. He has been recovering at his home in Burlington, and he announced plans for a comeback tour starting in New York this weekend. But with his advanced age in the spotlight and his poll numbers slowly declining, Sanders may face a steep climb to overtake either Biden or Warren.

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Warren Comes Under Fire on Funding for Health Care Plan

WESTERVILLE, Ohio — Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, an emerging front-runner in the Democratic presidential race, battled sustained criticism from her Democratic rivals over her position on health care in a debate Tuesday night, squeezed by a combination of moderate and progressive opponents who pressed her to describe in plain terms how she would fund a “Medicare for All”-style system.

Facing all of his closest competitors for the first time in a debate, Biden, the Democratic front-runner, repeatedly invoked President Barack Obama’s name and policy record as a shield against rivals who suggested his own record was flawed, or implied his agenda lacked ambition. On health care, immigration, foreign wars and more, Biden’s central theme was his tenure serving under Obama.

By constantly invoking Obama, a popular figure among Democrats, Biden sought to mute the ideological and generational divisions that have left him vulnerable in the primary race. To voters who might see him as a candidate of the past, Biden seemed to counter that the past was not so bad.

In an early exchange over health care, Biden referred to Warren’s support for Sanders’ “Medicare for All” plan. “The senator says she’s for Bernie,” Biden said. “Well, I’m for Barack — I think the Obamacare worked.”

Explaining his preference for more incremental health care improvements, like the creation of an optional government-backed plan, Biden challenged Warren and Sanders to defend the cost of their plans, warning that they would require tax increases on middle-income Americans.

Biden was steadier in what was his third debate of the primary contest, rattling off statistics and parrying attacks with good cheer, although he still rambled at other moments. And despite their criticism, none of the nine other candidates onstage appeared to significantly damage his candidacy.

But Biden’s challengers were undeterred by his embrace of Obama, and the progressive candidates made clear the choice before primary voters.

Several argued — some subtly, some stridently — that the party needed to move well beyond the policies of the last Democratic president. And if Biden appealed to voters’ sense of nostalgia, his rivals pressed the case for broader change.

Warren, of Massachusetts, argued that her and Sanders’ approach would build upon Obama’s legacy rather than unraveling it. She credited Obama with having “fundamentally transformed health care,” but said the next president had to go further.

“The question is, how best can we improve on it?” Warren said, promising: “Costs are going to go up for giant corporations, but for hardworking families across this country, costs are going to go down.”

Sanders sidestepped the mention of Obama altogether, asserting to Biden that a single-payer system would save consumers money by breaking the influence of insurers seeking to “protect their profits.”

“Americans don’t want to pay twice as much as other countries,” Sanders, of Vermont, said.

Other challengers in the 10-candidate field were less diplomatic in demanding a break from the center-left policy framework that guided the Obama administration. Julián Castro, who served as Obama’s housing secretary, echoed news anchor Jorge Ramos in questioning the Obama administration’s record of deporting millions of unauthorized immigrants. When Ramos pressed Biden to say whether he had made any mistakes on immigration as vice president, Biden pleaded personal loyalty.

“We didn’t lock people up in cages; we didn’t separate families,” Biden said, adding, “The president did the best thing that was able to be done.”

But pressed by Ramos about his own role, Biden deflected: “I’m the vice president of the United States,” he said. That prompted an impatient reaction from Castro, who repeated a criticism previously leveled at Biden by Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey.

“Every time something good about Barack Obama comes up, he says, ‘Oh, I was there, I was there, I was there, that’s me, too,’” said Castro, who was the most aggressive combatant against Biden on Thursday. “And then every time somebody questions part of the administration that we were both part of, he says, ‘Well, that was the president.’”

Biden, he said, “wants to take credit for Obama’s work but not have to answer to any questions.”

Biden responded as if Castro were asserting that Biden was insufficiently defensive of the former president.

“I stand with Barack Obama all eight years,” Biden said. “Good, bad and indifferent.”

Biden’s fealty to Obama, throughout the debate, was consistent with his overall approach to the campaign. He has staked out a position, unapologetically, as a candidate of the Democratic center, building a sizable but far from dominant base of support, anchored in the admiration of moderates, older voters and African Americans. But he has yet to expand his appeal beyond that base, which appears to make up between a quarter and a third of the Democratic electorate.

His resilience, though, has prompted some of his rivals to recalibrate their approach as the race enters the fall. After unleashing one of the contest’s toughest attacks against Biden in the first debate, Sen. Kamala Harris of California steadfastly avoided critiquing the former vice president or any of her Democratic opponents.

Harris used her opening statement to speak directly to, and criticize, President Donald Trump. During the health care contretemps she lamented that “not once have we talked about Donald Trump.” And when she made the case for using executive action to overcome legislative gridlock, she turned to Biden, let out a laugh and borrowed Obama’s signature line. “Hey Joe, let’s say ‘yes we can,’” she said.

Harris’ attempt at a strategic makeover was hard to miss, but other candidates also tried to show voters a fuller version of themselves. Warren stayed true to her vision for sweeping policy proposals, but she also used a debate that was held in the city where she went to college to talk more about her personal story, which many voters are only dimly aware of. She recalled her Oklahoma youth, repeatedly cited her brothers’ military service and talked about being a public school teacher.

If Warren seemed determined to unfurl her biography, Sanders came prepared to take on Biden. Sanders was assertive about drawing contrasts between his progressive credentials and Biden’s far more varied record. Where Sanders shied away from direct conflict the last time he shared a debate stage with Biden, in June, this time he sought out areas of sharp disagreement, including over the NAFTA trade deal and the war in Iraq. Biden supported both; Sanders opposed them.

The Democratic Party’s lively, sometimes heated internal disagreements were on vivid display throughout the night, on subjects as diverse as gun control, trade with China, the war in Afghanistan and the Senate filibuster. And if the clearest philosophical gulf separated Biden from the prominent populists who flanked him — Sanders and Warren — the debate made plain that the party was in the midst of a far more complex process of defining its identity.

The remaining field of candidates arrayed themselves around the same philosophical dividing line, most of them aligning more closely with Biden. And for the first time in this primary race, a few of the trailing contenders sharpened their attacks.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota derided Sanders’ single-payer health care bill as a “bad idea,” while Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, accused Sanders and Warren of seeking to take away choice from consumers.

“I trust the American people to make the right choice for them,” Buttigieg said. “Why don’t you?”

A harshly contentious clash between Biden and Castro provided one of the most heated exchanges of the evening, at least in terms of political theatrics. Seizing on a moment in which Biden described his health care proposals imprecisely, Castro questioned Biden’s memory — a charged subject for the former vice president, who is 76.

“Are you forgetting already what you said two minutes ago?” Castro said, prodding insistently before boasting, “I’m fulfilling the legacy of Barack Obama and you’re not.”

Biden shot back, “That would be a surprise to him.”

There was more consensus on the stage when it came to praising the leadership of former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas in the aftermath of the mass shooting last month in El Paso, his hometown. And O’Rourke won a booming ovation from the audience when he was asked whether he would try to confiscate some weapons.

“Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47,” he said. “We’re not going to allow it to be used against fellow Americans anymore.”

Booker, who lives in Newark, said the outrage over gun violence was long overdue. “I’m sorry that it had to take issues coming to my neighborhood or personally affecting Beto to suddenly make us demand change,” he said. “This is a crisis of empathy in our nation. We are never going to solve this crisis if we have to wait for it to personally affect us or our neighborhood or our community before we demand action.”

There were, though, plenty of lighter moments in Houston.

Booker, a vegan, assured viewers he would not push Americans away from eating meat.

“First of all I want to say: No,” he said, before adding with a touch of comedic timing, “I want to translate that into Spanish: No.”

Harris drew titters for saying Trump “reminds me of that guy in ‘The Wizard of Oz,’” adding that “when you pull back the curtain, it’s a really small dude.”

And Andrew Yang left many of his competitors onstage all but speechless when he used his opening statement to unveil a new gambit aimed at drawing attention to his proposal to offer Americans a universal basic income.

“My campaign will now give a freedom dividend of $1,000 a month for an entire year to 10 American families, someone watching this at home right now,” he said. “If you believe that you can solve your own problems better than any politician, go to yang2020.com and tell us how $1,000 a month will help you do just that.”

Invoking Obama, Biden Jabs Back at Progressives

HOUSTON — Former Vice President Joe Biden clung tightly to the legacy of the Obama administration in a Democratic primary debate Thursday, asking voters to view him as a stand-in for the former president as an array of progressive challengers, led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, brandished more daring policy promises and questioned Biden’s political strength.

By constantly invoking Obama, a beloved figure among Democrats, Biden sought to mute the ideological and generational divisions that have left him vulnerable in the primary race. To voters who might see him as a candidate of the past, Biden seemed to counter that the past was not so bad.

Biden was steadier in what was his third debate of the primary contest, rattling off statistics and parrying attacks with good cheer, though he still rambled at other moments. And despite their criticism, none of the nine other candidates onstage appeared to significantly damage his candidacy.

But Biden’s challengers were undeterred by his embrace of Obama, and the progressive candidates made clear the choice before Democratic primary voters.

Warren argued her and Sanders’ approach would build upon Obama’s legacy rather than unraveling it. She credited Obama with having “fundamentally transformed health care,” but said the next president had to go further.

“Americans don’t want to pay twice as much as other countries,” Sanders said.

But pressed by Ramos about his own role, Biden deflected: “I’m the vice president of the United States,” he said. That prompted an impatient reaction from Castro, who repeated a charge previously leveled at Biden by Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey.

Biden, he said, “wants to take credit for Obama’s work, but not have to answer to any questions.”

Biden responded as though Castro’s complaint was that Biden was insufficiently defensive of the former president.

Harris used her opening statement to speak directly to, and criticize, President Donald Trump. During the health care contretemps she lamented that “not once have we talked about Donald Trump.” And when she made the case for turning to executive action to overcome legislative gridlock, she turned to Biden, let out a laugh and borrowed Obama’s signature line. “Hey Joe, let’s say ‘yes we can,’” she said.

Harris’ attempt at a strategic makeover was hard to miss, but other candidates also tried to show voters a fuller version of themselves. Warren, while staying true to her vision for sweeping policy proposals, repeatedly sought to use a debate that was held in the city where she went to college to talk more about a personal story that many voters are dimly aware of. She recalled her Oklahoma youth, repeatedly cited her brothers’ military service and talked about being a public-school teacher.

The Democratic Party’s lively, sometimes heated internal disagreements were on vivid display throughout the debate, on subjects as diverse as gun control, trade with China, the war in Afghanistan and the Senate filibuster. And if the clearest philosophical gulf separated Biden from the prominent populists who flanked him — Sanders and Warren — the debate made plain that the party was in the midst of a far more complex process of defining its identity.

Harris drew titters for saying Trump “reminds me of that guy in ‘The Wizard of Oz,’” who, she noted, “when you pull back the curtain, it’s a really small dude.”

And Andrew Yang left many of his competitors onstage all but speechless when he used his opening statement to unveil a new gambit aimed at drawing attention to his proposal to offering Americans a universal basic income.

Attacks on Biden in Debate Highlight Divide Over the Obama Legacy

HOUSTON — Former Vice President Joe Biden clung tightly to the legacy of the Obama administration in a Democratic primary debate Thursday, trying to offer himself as a stand-in for the former president as an array of progressive challengers, led by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, brandished more daring policy promises and questioned Biden’s political strength.

Biden, facing all of his closest competitors for the first time in a debate, quickly took the initiative to challenge Warren and Sanders for supporting a “Medicare for All”-style health care system that would displace the existing forms of private insurance. Cloaking himself in the accomplishments of the Obama administration, Biden branded Warren as seeking to upend the progress of the Affordable Care Act.

“I know the senator says she’s with Bernie — well, I’m for Barack,” Biden jabbed, attacking the cost of a single-payer program: “How are we going to pay for it?”

Warren and Sanders, flanking Biden onstage, pushed back in tandem, dismissing Biden’s criticism and promising that a government-managed health insurance system would ultimately be less expensive for consumers than the private insurance they currently buy. Warren credited former President Barack Obama with having “fundamentally transformed health care in America” but said the country needed to go further.

“The richest individuals and the biggest corporations are going to pay more, and middle-class families are going to pay less,” she said.

But asked twice by a moderator whether she would acknowledge that the taxes of middle-income Americans would go up under her proposal, she declined to respond directly.

In a tart exchange that channeled their profound philosophical differences, Sanders held up Canada as a country that provided universal coverage for a lower total cost, prompting Biden to jump in: “This is America.”

Sanders fired back: “Americans don’t want to pay twice as much as other countries.”

The remaining field of candidates arrayed themselves around the same philosophical dividing line, most of them aligning more closely with Biden. And for the first time in this primary race, a handful of the trailing contenders sharpened their attacks.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota derided Sanders’ single-payer bill as a “bad idea,” while Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, accused Sanders and Warren of seeking to take away choice from consumers.

But it was a harshly contentious clash between Biden and Julián Castro, the former federal housing secretary, that had the potential to stand out the most from the early exchanges of the evening, at least in terms of political theatrics. Seizing on a moment in which Biden appeared to reverse his own description of his health care proposals, Castro questioned Biden’s memory — a charged subject for the 76-year-old Democratic front-runner.

Biden shot back: “That would be a surprise to him.”

As the bickering grew more intense, Buttigieg interjected that voters would not like the attacks and attempts to “score points,” which he said prompted only more derision.

“That’s called a Democratic primary election,” Castro interjected. “This is what we’re here for.”

Trying to stay above the fray was the candidate who unleashed one of the race’s toughest attacks at the first debate, Sen. Kamala Harris of California. Harris used her opening statement to speak directly to, and criticize, President Donald Trump and during the health care contretemps lamented that “not once have we talked about Donald Trump.”

Thursday’s debate, the first since July, came at a moment when a race that once seemed volatile had become remarkably stable. Over the summer the field divided into two distinct classes, with Biden, Sanders and Warren representing the top tier both in national and early-state polling.

While Biden remains the front-runner in the Democratic race, he has yet to produce the kind of commanding debate performance that might excite undecided Democrats or put to rest their unease about his readiness for a contest with Trump. Biden’s support has held steady for the past few months, hovering around 30% of primary voters, but there is no indication he has won over any skeptical voters since entering the race in April.

After a disastrous first debate in June, when Harris delivered a thumping denunciation of his record on race, Biden appeared somewhat more sure-footed during a July debate in Detroit. But he still struggled to turn back sharp critiques of his record from Harris and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, or to articulate a clear message for his own candidacy besides resisting the large-scale promises of the left.

He may well be able to win the Democratic nomination by holding tightly onto the constituencies that already support him, chiefly moderates, older whites and African Americans. But Biden’s allies acknowledge it would be dangerous to his candidacy if he were to continue appearing limp or flustered throughout the debates this fall and winter.

The most significant change to the campaign over the course of the summer has been Warren’s steady rise — and the impact her surge has had on the trailing candidates. After months of training their fire at Biden, a few of the Democratic hopefuls have started to target the Massachusetts senator, specifically her array of ambitious policy proposals.

At the New Hampshire Democratic Convention last weekend, Booker and Buttigieg both invoked Warren’s much-discussed plans to make the case that ideas alone were insufficient to winning the presidency and enacting an agenda

It was the first time either of the two candidates, who have needled Biden in ways that are both overt and subtle, had implicitly taken on Warren or reflected both her new status in the race and the urgency others are feeling to slow her rise.

Though Warren has drawn the most attention as a potential antagonist for Biden, Sanders has shown a greater appetite than she has for direct conflict. On the campaign trail, he has periodically lashed Biden for having supported free-trade deals like NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and for opposing the creation of a single-payer health care system. Many of his supporters are dead set against Biden’s nomination, and Sanders would seem to have little to lose from clashing with the former vice president.

Sanders is under political pressure, too: With Warren gaining strength and his own poll numbers stalled, he cannot afford to let her emerge as the leading champion of their party’s populist left. Should a Biden-Warren rivalry come to dominate the next phase of the race, Sanders could find himself frozen in third place.

But that is a better position than where most of the other contenders find themselves at the moment. And few were under as much pressure to show signs of progress as Booker and Buttigieg.

For Booker, demonstrating a sign of political life in Houston was a necessity, because it would be difficult for him to finance a full-fledged campaign into next year if he did not show growth in early-state polling. While he has several endorsements in both Iowa and New Hampshire, he has sought to straddle the mainstream and progressive wings of the party and has proved unable to break through the din of a crowded field.

Buttigieg, 38, has similarly sought to avoid lining up with either ideological bloc and has not been able to sustain any real growth in the polls with his generational case. He is in no danger of being unable to meet a payroll, but he faces the specter of being branded as a mere donor candidate, beloved by the party’s wealthy financiers but with scant support from its rank-and-file.

For Harris, the Houston forum represented a chance to show Democrats the promise in her candidacy that was on display in the first debate, when she confronted Biden. But she has struggled in the months since to articulate a coherent case for her candidacy or even to settle on a single identifiable message. Like some of the contenders just on the other edge of the top tier, Harris has sought to avoid being seen as full-throated progressive or as a pragmatic moderate.

There is little doubt about Klobuchar’s positioning — she aligns with the party’s centrist wing. But she has proved unwilling to take on her fellow Democrats and has been stagnant in the polls, even in her neighboring state of Iowa where she has spent considerable time on the ground this year.

For Castro and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas, the debate offered at least a symbolic home-field advantage. The two Texans have held up their home state as something of a rationale for their campaigns: They have both presented themselves as experts on the culture of America’s border region and called for liberalizing the country’s immigration laws, with Castro positioned on the left flank of the field. And in the second debate in July, O’Rourke argued hopefully that if Democrats nominated him, they would have a good shot at carrying Texas and blowing a hole in the Republicans’ path to 270 Electoral College votes.

O’Rourke’s candidacy has changed drastically since then: After a white supremacist gunman carried out a massacre in his hometown, El Paso, last month, O’Rourke reoriented his campaign to focus on cracking down on gun violence and battling racism. He has pushed the Democratic debate leftward on the issue of gun control with his call to require the owners of assault-style weapons to sell them to the government.

But if he has drawn new interest from some Democratic voters, O’Rourke has also not yet had to articulate his new message side by side with other candidates who may be equally convincing or better credentialed on the same subjects.

The least-predictable figure onstage was perhaps Andrew Yang, the former technology executive who has promised to establish a new government benefit to give every citizen $1,000 per month. Yang, who has never held public office, has built a small but sturdy constituency that has kept him in the debates longer than a throng of more conventionally qualified candidates, including sitting governors and senators. Whether his message of alarm about the automation of American jobs can resonate more widely remains to be seen.

Divide Over Health Care Ignites Fiery Exchanges in Democratic Debate

HOUSTON — The leading Democratic presidential candidates split sharply over the issue of health care in a debate Thursday night, exposing the gulf between former Vice President Joe Biden’s careful moderate politics and the transformational liberal ambitions of Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

But perhaps more than any other presidential front-runner in modern history, he begins his bid confronting deep skepticism from friend and foe alike that he can capture his party’s nomination.

Here are five questions looming over Biden’s candidacy, the answers to which could determine whether he becomes America’s 46th president or concludes his career by losing his third bid for the White House.

— How will he handle the onslaught?

Most casual voters, even in the primary, know Biden as President Barack Obama’s vice president. But he was a senator from Delaware for 36 years before he entered the West Wing, and his record from a decidedly earlier day in Democratic politics is where his rivals for the nomination will focus their fire. He opposed busing to integrate schools, wrote a hard-line criminal justice bill and supported the Iraq War.

Most immediately, Biden will have to decide how to respond to new critical comments by Anita Hill, the law professor who in 1991 accused Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. Biden recently called her, according to an aide, to express regrets that he did not do more for her when he presided over her appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

But she told The New York Times that the call left her deeply unsatisfied, and that she did not consider it an apology. She said she is not convinced that Biden truly accepts the harm he caused her and other women.

It remains unclear what his broader strategy will be for handling scrutiny from the press and bombardments from his Democratic opponents along with a legion of left-wing critics who want to defeat his candidacy and ward off any return to a more moderate brand of liberalism.

Biden’s supporters hope Obama offers him something of a halo. Many in Biden’s orbit hope that rather than litigate every criticism about his Senate record, he restrains himself and focuses on his partnership with the country’s first black president.

— Can he stay above the fray?

The message from Biden’s announcement video was urgent and unmistakable: President Donald Trump’s tenure amounts to a national emergency, and defeating him is essential to America’s survival. Framing the campaign this way does not just make 2020 a referendum on the president, it also offers Biden a rationale for why Democrats should put forward a septuagenarian in the winter of his political life. This is not, he is arguing, yet another nomination clash in one more presidential campaign.

But so far, it has sure seemed that way. Even the candidates who believe that Trump should be impeached are not eager to discuss the president or why he should be removed from office. The race has mostly focused on their policy ideas, biographies and how to accommodate a party drifting left. Before Biden’s announcement, the campaign was animated this week by a debate over whether prisoners should be allowed to vote.

Many Democratic strategists believe that Biden should resist tangling with his intraparty rivals and avoid the temptation to prove that he is just as progressive as they are. “Don’t let the agenda stray from the argument that he can deliver us from Trump,” said Paul Begala, the former Bill Clinton adviser.

But when Biden appears before reporters and voters upon arriving in Iowa next week, that may prove easier said than done. Never known for his discipline, the former vice president is entering a media environment unlike that in his first two presidential campaigns; now his every misstep will immediately pinball across the internet. And he is stepping into a race filled with candidates who could lift their profiles by baiting the front-runner into a back-and-forth that would quickly erase memories of Biden’s high-minded call to arms.

— What’s an ‘Obama-Biden Democrat’?

Biden this month played down his party’s leftward turn, pointing out the success of moderates in last year’s midterm elections and telling reporters he was a proud “Obama-Biden Democrat.” But less clear is what exactly that means in 2019.

Biden has not sketched out any vision on health care, criminal justice, education or the environment. He has said he has the most progressive record of any candidate, but then amended that to indicate he was alluding to his stances on social issues like LGBT rights.

Biden may be too tenuous a front-runner to alienate any of his party’s core constituencies, but he could risk just as much by portraying himself as anything besides a mainstream liberal. He faces few more important tasks than finding that balance: reflecting the party for what it is today without attempting a cringe-inducing reinvention of what he likes to call his “brand.”

— Does he have ideas for the future?

Biden’s announcement video was about one big promise to voters: He would eject Trump from office and lead a country that they could be proud of. Asked by a reporter outside a pizzeria in Wilmington, Delaware, on Thursday afternoon about his message for the rest of the world, he said “America is coming back” and said his administration would be “ethical, straight, telling the truth.”

But the traditional American values Biden extolled may only go so far in inspiring voters, both in a primary and a general election. Some of his Democratic competitors already have well-developed signature proposals that have helped to define their candidacies, like Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All Act, Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s plan to forgive student loans and Sen. Cory Booker’s “baby bonds” program. Biden has nothing comparable, at least so far.

Biden may start to fill in this blank space Monday, when he is to visit a Pittsburgh union hall and speak about the middle class and the economy. But it is unclear whether he will be inclined to develop sweeping policy plans, or whether he will stay close to his roots as a moderate who favors political compromise and incremental change.

The risk to Biden, if he takes too long to define his vision for the future, is that he might come to be seen mainly as a figure of nostalgia — a candidate of the past.

— Can he raise money, without being defined by it?

So far, the most important fundraising in the Democratic race has happened online. And several of the most prominent candidates, including Sanders and Warren, are fundraising almost exclusively that way.

Biden’s approach will be different, and far more reliant on the largess of the wealthiest benefactors of the Democratic Party. His aides have already spent more than a week encouraging donors to send $2,800 checks — the maximum sum allowed — to his primary-campaign-in-waiting, and a Comcast executive who oversees the company’s lobbying division was hosting a major fundraiser for Biden in Philadelphia on Thursday night.

The financial challenges for Biden are twofold. He must raise an immense amount of money rapidly, without the benefit of a robust online fundraising machine of the kind some of his rivals possess. And Biden must raise that amount without stoking suspicions among Democratic primary voters that he is compromised by his dependency on big money.

The latter danger — that “Middle-Class Joe,” as he styles himself, could come to be seen as a candidate of rich people and corporations — may be especially vexing to Biden because his record on banking and corporate regulation has already drawn sharp criticism from the left. Yet, without having spent years cultivating an online donor base, and lacking the novelty factor that has helped other candidates soak the internet, Biden appears to see little alternative to seeking out the biggest checks possible.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/25/us/politics/joe-biden-president-2020.html" id="779f28ec-d582-3d72-a973-815d129bb9d7">The New York Times</a>.

WILMINGTON, Del. — Former Vice President Joe Biden’s entry Thursday into the sprawling Democratic primary has immediately reshaped the race, giving definition to a contest that has been defined mostly by uncertainty. Biden offers voters a household name, nearly a half-century of political experience and the implied promise of restoring the country to a less polarized, pre-Trump era.

5 Questions That Will Determine if Joe Biden Can Succeed

That approach carried risks. Biden missed the chance to recruit top-level aides, including former Obama advisers, women and people of color, because he had not formalized his campaign. He left urgent questions about his political vulnerabilities lingering, and he has not deployed researchers to review his vast record, because he has not hired any.

Still, the former vice president persisted with his unrushed strategy — until this past week, when it appeared to backfire in striking fashion.

Biden has faced accusations from multiple women who came forward to complain that his penchant for close physical contact made them feel uneasy. Rival Democrats demanded that he account for his treatment of the women, and President Donald Trump lobbed taunts that offered a preview of how he might attack Biden in a 2020 general election.

It was a multiday crisis that seemed entirely foreseeable, given that Biden’s physical touching occurred over many years, often in public. But despite almost five decades in the political arena, Biden, 76, did not have an agile, fully staffed campaign in place to confront it.

He issued three statements and one online video attempting to explain his conduct, only to joke about the issue in a speech to a union conference Friday. Afterward, he gave an ambivalent response to reporters who asked if he was sorry, acknowledging that he would have to change his behavior but apologizing only for the fact that he “didn’t understand more” about the implications of his conduct.

Biden showed no evident regret about his wait-and-wait-some-more strategy, explaining coyly that he would “give everybody else their day, then I get a shot.”

But Biden’s eventual announcement now seems fated to fall in the shadow of the recent allegations and the progressive concerns he has declined to address. Far from remaining above the fray, Biden will enter the campaign as bruised as any of the 16 other candidates already in the race.

“They’re in this never-never land right now,” said David Plouffe, the former strategist to President Barack Obama’s campaign, “because they’re being treated by the outside world like they’re in the race full speed and they’re not. That’s a really tough place to be.”

Plouffe cautioned that Biden’s initial difficulties could all mean very little should the former vice president enjoy a successful start when he formally enters the race.

Indeed, amid the week’s chaos, Biden for the first time took several swift steps toward becoming a candidate: His allies have been told to expect an announcement after Easter and the former vice president was sighted Thursday in Scranton, Pennsylvania, apparently recording a video at his childhood home there. And Biden has secured the services of Mark Putnam, a Democratic ad maker known for crafting gripping, cinematic commercials, according to people familiar with the decision. (Putnam declined to comment.)

Biden has used his time on the sideline to some advantage. Aides have put him through “murder board” sessions on his vulnerabilities and compiled documents detailing his accomplishments and weaknesses. His likely campaign manager, Greg Schultz, has organized now-weekly conference calls with future staff members.

But if the attacks from Trump and his allies illustrated that Republicans are worried about facing Biden, the controversy this past week has also shined a light on the risks Democrats would be taking in nominating him — and not just because of his recent problems.

The uneven response to the women’s accusations capped a four-month stretch in which Biden has labored to expand his core group of older, mostly white advisers; failed to defuse the political equivalent of ticking time bombs relating to race and gender that await his entry in the race; and delayed a campaign that will have considerable ground to make up organizationally, financially and technologically.

Even some of his strongest allies are growing anxious. “I’d like to see him go ahead and get engaged because the summer is going to be here before you know it, the debates are going be here before you know it,” said Sen. Doug Jones, R-Ala., who was a state chairman for Biden’s 1988 presidential bid.

The questions now looming over his campaign-in-waiting, however, are not merely ones of timing. Biden’s uncertainty over how to address his past positions and conduct, and how contrite he ought to be, captures the tension at the heart of his emerging candidacy: Can he retain the unvarnished, tell-it-like-it-is political brand that appeals to so many voters, especially older ones, while also inspiring a Democratic Party that has grown more progressive and is increasingly defined by its youthful, diverse constituencies?

He does retain obvious strengths as a potential candidate: He is still at the top of the polls, albeit not quite as high as he was at the start of the year. Democratic voters view him in overwhelmingly favorable terms, as a thoroughly qualified commander in chief and an emblem of the Obama administration. And there is also deep and lasting sympathy for Biden and his family after the death of his eldest son, Beau, from cancer in 2015.

Yet his decision to wait on announcing his candidacy has come with a cost, in part because he did not use the time to better prepare for some of the most inevitable questions about his lengthy record in politics. Without a campaign in place, Biden has also not done any polling to determine his most glaring liabilities or substantial assets.

Biden has yet to apologize to Anita Hill even though he said last month that he regrets that “he couldn’t give her the kind of hearing she deserved” — a reference that seemed to play down his powerful role as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee when Hill testified at Justice Clarence Thomas’ confirmation hearing in 1991 that Thomas had sexually harassed her.

Biden has also done little to reach out to feminist leaders before entering a campaign in which his mixed record on abortion rights is sure to be an issue. He has not contacted Ilyse Hogue, the head of NARAL Pro-Choice America, or Cecile Richards, the former head of Planned Parenthood, according to Democratic officials.

He has said publicly that he wants a campaign that reflects the country, but his inner circle remains largely white and male, and some of his overtures to next-generation Democratic strategists have fallen flat or petered out, several people briefed on the efforts said.

Karine Jean-Pierre, a top official with the liberal group MoveOn, met privately with Biden but elected not to pursue a campaign job. Biden advisers sought to hire Tara McGowan, a highly regarded Democratic digital strategist, and Emmy Ruiz, an operative who managed several Western states for Hillary Clinton in 2016. Neither signed on, and Ruiz now works for Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. (All three women declined to comment or did not respond to requests.)

Many Democrats also expected Larry Grisolano, another veteran of Obama’s campaigns, to take a senior role in Biden’s organization, but this year Grisolano declined.

It is not clear how strongly Biden might be able to rely on other members of Obama’s political network, many of whom have gravitated toward newer candidates like Harris and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas. (Obama himself has been tight-lipped during his former running mate’s difficult week; a spokesman for the former president declined to comment while noting that Obama had praised Biden warmly in recent months.)

And Biden has done little self-vetting of his legislative record because he has not hired a research director. His aides have contacted at least two Democratic officials, James Singer and Helen Smith, about research jobs, but Singer went to work for Harris and Smith is planning to work on a House race.

Patti Solis Doyle, who managed Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2008, said Biden had already sacrificed some of his political strength by waiting so long. She said Biden remained formidable, but urged him to enter the race soon and initiate a “bigger, more thoughtful conversation about how men of power interact with women with not so much power.”

“I think he can look at this as an opportunity, and I wish he would,” Solis Doyle said.

As he demonstrated on Friday with his joking references to giving hugs and his impromptu press availability, there is only so much his aides can do to contain Biden. His reliance on his own instincts has been legendary for decades, since his turbulent 1988 campaign chronicled in the classic political book “What It Takes.”

But it’s unclear whether Biden’s instincts will be enough to navigate his party’s shifting center of gravity. After declaring at a Democratic fundraising dinner in Delaware last month that he would be “the most progressive candidate” in the race, Biden clarified on Friday that he meant his positions on issues like race and LGBT rights — not, as he put it, on the question: “Are you a socialist?”

Quieting aides who sought to cut short his session with reporters, he argued that the “party has not moved” and said “the vast majority of the members of the Democratic Party are still basically liberal to moderate Democrats in the traditional sense.”

Some of Biden’s longtime friends, who winced at his boast in Delaware, urged him to campaign as the center-left Democrat he has always been.

“You can’t try to out-progressive the field, you’ve got to be who you are,” said William Daley, the moderate former White House chief of staff who lost a race for mayor of Chicago this year.

John Morgan, a prominent Florida trial lawyer who raises money for Democrats, said he believed Biden’s authenticity would still connect powerfully with voters. Biden’s “only sin,” he said, “is he loved people.”

But, Morgan added, it was past time for Biden to make a decision about the race.

“There are two ways to get in a cold pool,” he said, ”toe by toe, or take a tequila shot and do a cannonball.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/06/us/politics/joe-biden-2020.html" id="9bcdc0d6-a9ab-3ca1-a1f8-7bfdee09ade2">The New York Times</a>.

Biden Didn't Rush Into 2020. The Race Came to Him Anyway.

For months, former Vice President Joe Biden hewed to a tortoiselike strategy for the 2020 presidential race: Repeatedly delaying his final decision, he hoped to skirt a long stretch of campaigning as a front-runner with a target on his back.

Biden has also been privately reaching out to a range of influential Democrats, including party donors, members of Congress and allies in the early primary states, to gauge their support. A pillar of organized labor, the International Association of Fire Fighters, is prepared to support him in the Democratic primary.

And in recent weeks, Biden’s strategist, Steve Ricchetti, has called a handful of would-be candidates and their aides to signal that the former vice president is likely to enter the race and of late has been telling Democrats that he’s 95 percent committed to running, according to officials directly familiar with the discussions.

Yet while Biden is plainly further along in preparing for a White House bid than he was four years ago, when he grudgingly deferred to Hillary Clinton after months of consideration in the aftermath of his son Beau’s death, there is still one crucial element that’s outstanding: full and final consent from the former vice president himself.

This juxtaposition — an eager cadre of supporters laying the groundwork for a campaign they assure is all but certain while the would-be candidate publicly vacillates — has effectively kept the nascent Democratic race on hold.

Biden’s decision looms as perhaps the most significant unanswered question of the 2020 contest and his entry could bring shape to what has been a diffuse Democratic primary, providing voters with a clear front-runner.

As a candidate, Biden would present Democrats with a clear alternative to the hard-charging liberals who now dominate the race and test the appeal of his old-school political profile at a moment the party is hungry for fresh faces but even hungrier to win.

“I absolutely believe he’s going to run,” said Rep. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, who talked to Biden on the phone earlier this week. “There may still be some doubt in his mind but there’s no doubt in my mind.”

Richmond, the former head of the Congressional Black Caucus, said he believes the former vice president is the party’s “best candidate to beat Trump.”

Still, in conversations over the phone and strategy sessions in his rented Northern Virginia home that are occasionally interrupted by his German shepherds, Major and Champ, Biden has acknowledged that he is uncertain about his place in the 2020 Democratic primary. He is also uneasy about potential attacks from rivals on his family, aides and advisers say, namely his son Hunter, a lawyer and lobbyist who went through a high-profile divorce in 2017 and has struggled with substance abuse.

WASHINGTON — The pieces for a Joe Biden presidential campaign are falling into place: His nucleus of advisers has begun offering campaign positions to seasoned Democratic strategists. They are eyeing a headquarters in Delaware or nearby Philadelphia and a launch date in the beginning of April. Biden’s family is on board — his wife, Jill, enthusiastically so.

Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns

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