Elizabeth Warren cements status as Democratic frontrunner by icing out Biden at 2020 debate, but it’s Bernie who gets AOC and her Squad’s coveted endorsement, as all 12 candidates unite behind impeaching Trump

• A dozen Democratic candidates headed to Westerville, Ohio, for the fourth primary debate Tuesday night
• Senator Bernie Sanders took to the stage at Otterbein University just a few weeks after his heart attack 
• He reassured the crowd of his health saying: ‘I’m healthy, I’m feeling great!’ 
• Joe Biden defended his family’s name during the debate despite scrutiny in the Ukraine scandal and his son’s international business dealings saying: ‘My son did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong’ 
• Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, was interviewed by ABC News Tuesday morning, where no topic was off limits 
• Elizabeth Warren has recently emerged as the frontrunner – surpassing Biden in several polls this month 
• She is facing controversy over claims she was forced from a teaching position because she was pregnant, which critics point out she contradicted in the past
• Tuesday’s debate started with a united front with all candidates calling for Trump’s impeachment 
• In the first hour Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota delivered an impassioned attack on Trump and called out Elizabeth Warren by questioning her Medicare for All single-payer healthcare plan
• In the second hour of the debate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Mayor Pete Buttigieg, both military veterans, went head to head over U.S. presence in the Middle East and Syria 
• Mayor Buttigieg and former Congressman Beto O’Rourke sparred over his proposed mandatory buy-backs of assault-style rifles

Democratic presidential candidates who took the stage for the fourth presidential debate in Ohio called for Donald Trump’s impeachment for ‘selling out’ the American people – then blasted emerging front-runner Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

But during a prime-time event where Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders had to field questions about both his health and his age, it is the 78-year old Vermonter who got a jolt when it was revealed New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would be endorsing his campaign at a Queens rally Saturday. The progressive firebrand will be joined by fellow squad member Rep. Ilhan Omar of Michigan.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, who has dominated polling for months, began the debate by defending the conduct of his son’s work in Ukraine on a day Hunter Biden fielded questions during a sit-down interview on his work for a Ukrainian energy company. He said he and his son had ‘done nothing wrong’.

During the first portion of the debate, he spoke on impeachment and his son, then remained on the sidelines for long stretches while Warren, who has jumped in national and state polls, fielded attacks from rivals.

Biden went after Warren directly later in the debate when he said others didn’t measure up to his accomplishments.

‘I’m the only one on the stage who’s gotten anything really big done,’ Biden said.

Warren countered by citing her work as an architect for what became the Consumer Financial Control Board before she got elected to the Senate. ‘I convinced people to vote for it,’ Biden responded.

Warren parried that she was ‘deeply grateful to president Obama who fought so hard to make sure that agency was passed into law’.

Sanders also pushed back and Biden for his claim at the expense of the group’s accomplishments.

‘Joe, you talked about working with Republicans and getting things done. But you know what, you also got done, and I say this as a good friend – You got the disastrous war in Iraq done. You got a bankruptcy bill, which is hurting middle class families all over this country. You got trade agreements like NAFTA and (trade relations) with China done, which have cost us 4 million jobs,’ he said.

Warren spoke for nearly 23 minutes during the three-hour debate, with Biden getting the second-most time, but a full six minutes less, followed by Klobuchar.

The Massachusetts senator responded to a question from CNN after the debate about attacks from some rivals that her health plan would soak the middle class.

‘Yes your taxes will go up, but your overall costs will go down,’ she said.

Warren repeated her call to break up big tech companies like Facebook and Google.

Entrepreneur said it would be absurd for people to want to use the number four search endinge. ‘There is a reason why no one is using Bing today,’ he quipped.

Buttigieg went after former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke over his assault weapon buyback program, and said there was no time for ‘purity tests.’

O’Rourke said the nation must not ‘be limited by the polls and the consultants and the focus groups.’

That prompted Ban angry rejoinder from Buttigieg, who shot back: ‘The problem isn’t the polls. The problems is the policy. And I don’t need lessons from you on courage, political or personal.’

Others blasted Warren for the cost of her Medicare-for-all plan.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota told her: ‘I’m sorry Elizabeth. You are making Republican talking points in this room,’ adding: ‘We owe it to the American people to tell them where we will send the invoice.’ She told Warren, ‘The difference between a plan and a pipe dream is something that you can actually get done.’

‘I don’t understand why you believe the only way to deliver affordable coverage is to obliterate private plans,’ South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg told Warren.

California Sen. Kamala Harris pushed Harris to join her demand that Twitter suspend Donald Trump’s account due to his incendiary tweets.

‘I would urge you to join me,’ she said, saying Trump used the platform to ‘intimidate witnesses, to threaten witnesses, to obstruct justice.’

Warren shot back: ‘I don’t just want to push Trump off Twitter, I want to push him out of the White House.’

A record 12 Democratic 2020 candidates took to the debate stage in Ohio Tuesday night and immediately united in calling for Donald Trump – the man they all have been planning to run against – to be impeached with Joe Biden calling him ‘the most corrupt president in all our history.’

Meeting for the first time since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi proclaimed a formal impeachment inquiry, the candidates blasted Trump’s push to have Ukraine investigate the Bidens, and accused him of self-dealing and ‘selling out’ the American people.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has jumped in the polls, fielded the first question at the fourth Democratic debate. An early caller for Trump’s impeachment, she said: ‘This president has obstructed justice and had done it repeatedly,’ Warren said.

‘Impeachment is the way that we establish that this man will not be permitted to break the law over and over without consequences,’ Warren continued.

Sanders, on stage for the first time since his heart attack, called Trump: ‘The most corrupt president in the history of this country.’

Sanders accused Trump of ‘enriching himself while using the Oval Office … in order to get dirt on a presidential candidate is beyond comprehensible.’ He called for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to ‘do the right thing and allow a free and fair trial in the Senate.’

Biden, whose son Hunter’s business in Ukraine featured in Trump’s push for a probe by the Ukrainian government, called Trump ‘the most corrupt president in modern history and I think all of our history.’

The dozen candidates met in Ohio for the first time since 10 front-runners met in Houston last month. It was the largest Democratic debate in recent memory. Others split candidates into separate pools.

The intervening period featured a dramatic move among House Democrats toward opening an impeachment inquiry of President Trump, after a whistle-blower alleged the president abused his office by pressuring the Ukrainian government to investigate the Bidens.

Biden delivered yet another defense of his son, on a day when Hunter Biden told ABC he would forego foreign work if his father wins the presidency, acknowledged some responsibility for the appearance of favoritism, and admitted he got jobs due to his father’s name.

‘My son did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong. I carried out the policy of the United States in rooting out corruption in Ukraine,’ Joe Biden said when pressed on the issue – while seeking to steer clear of details.

‘My son’s statement speaks for itself what I think is important is we focus on why it’s so important to remove this man from office,’ Biden said. ‘Rudy Giuliani, the president and his thugs, have already proven that they are in fact flat lying,’ Biden intoned, referencing Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who pushed Ukraine to probe the Bidens.

Biden argued the focus should be on Trump.

‘This president on three occasions, three occasions has invited foreign governments and heads of government to get engaged in trying to alter our elections. The fact is that it is outrageous. Rudy Giuliani, the president and his thugs have already proven that they, in fact, are flat lying. What we have to do now is focus on Donald Trump. He doesn’t want me to be the candidate. He is going after me because he knows if I get the nomination, I will beat him like a drum,’ he said. Trump did focus attacks on as the poll leader throughout the summer while officials were deliberating on how to push Ukraine.

His comments came after Biden adviser Anita Dunn told DailyMail.com of Hunter’s performance in an interview designed to move past the issue: ‘He answered all the questions.’

Sen. Kamala Harris of California, a former prosecutor, said Trump ‘has committed crimes in plain sight.’ She said Trump had been ‘selling out the American people.’

‘On this issue with Ukraine he’s been selling out democracy,’ Harris said, standing by her statement that she has seen enough evidence to vote to impeach.

‘I know a confession when I see it,’ she said.

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker said he feels as much ‘outrage’ as fellow Democrats. But he cautioned: ‘This has got to be about patriotism and not partisanship.’

Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota delivered an impassioned attack on Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

‘He’s digging up dirt on an opponent. That’s illegal conduct,’ said Klobuchar, also a former prosecutor. ‘I’m still waiting to find out from him how making that call to the head of Ukraine and trying to get him involved in interfering in our election makes America great again.’

‘I would like to hear from him how coddling up to Vladimir Putin makes America great again. It doesn’t make America great again, it makes Russia great again,’ she said, playing off Trump’s campaign slogan.

Former Obama Housing and Urban Development secretary Julian Castro said of the impeachment effort: ‘We can walk and chew gum at the same time.’

Biden, who has taken heat for a series of verbal stumbles on the campaign trail, flubbed when he said: ‘I want to eliminate the capital gains tax – I would double the capital gains tax’ – one of his signature tax proposals.

‘The rich are not like you and me,’ said Warren, calling for her tax on multi-millionaires’ accumulated wealth.

Klobuchar didn’t denounce the idea, but said: ‘Just because we have different ideas and get to the same place in terms of beating Donald Trump and taking this on – we are in Ohio, we can win Ohio in the presidency, but only if we unite … and [not] go fighting against each other.’

But as the debate shifted quickly from impeachment to health, the united front crumbled rapidly.

Elizabeth Warren came under attack from her fellow Democrats for not being more specific about how she would pay for her universal health care plan, which some economists predict could cost in the trillions.

‘I have made clear what my principles are here. That is costs will go up for the wealthy and for big corporations and for hard working middle class families, costing will go down,’ the Massachusetts senator said of her support for Medicare for All. ‘Costs will go up for wealthy, for big corporations. They will not go up for middle class families. I will not sign a bill into law that raises their costs. Because costs are what people care about.’

Pete Buttigieg went on the attack against Warren, who has lead recent polls for the Democratic nomination, arguing that her universal health care plan would divide the country over health care.

‘I don’t understand why you believe the only way to deliver affordable coverage is to obliterate private plans,’ he said. ‘Our country will be polarized, more than now, after everything we have been through, after everything we are about to go through, this country will be more divide. Why divide this country over health care when there’s a better way to deliver coverage for all?’

Amy Klobuchar also struck out at Warren, saying she hasn’t said how she will pay for her plan.

‘I’m sorry Elizabeth,’ she said. ‘You are making Republican talking points in this room.’

Klobuchar went on to say: ‘Bernie is being honest. We owe it to the American people to tell them where we will send the invoice.’

Sanders had acknowledged earlier in the debate taxes will go up under his Medicare for All plan.

‘As somebody who wrote the damn bill, as I said, let’s be clear. Under the Medicare for All bill that I wrote, premiums are gone. Co-payments are gone. Deductibles are gone. All out-of-pocket expenses are gone. We’re going to do better than the Canadians do. That’s what they have managed to do. At the end of the day, the overwhelming majority of people will save money on their health care bills. I do think it is appropriate to acknowledge that taxes will go up. They will go up significantly for the wealthy and for virtually everybody, the tax increase will be substantially less than what they were paying for premiums and out of pocket expansions,’ he said.

Klobuchar, meanwhile, went in for the kill on Warren.

‘I appreciate Elizabeth’s work,’ she added but then said: ‘The difference between a plan and a pipe dream is something that you can actually get done. We can get this public option done.’

Both Klobuchar and Kamala Harris expressed frustration about how many times Democrats have argued about health care, noting they are in the fourth debate and saying the same things on the issue.

‘What bothers me about this discussion, which we had so many times, is that we don’t talk about the things that I’m hearing about from regular Americans. That’s long-term care,’ Klobuchar said. ‘We need long-term care insurance and strengthen Medicare. In Ohio that has been hit by the opioid epidemic, we need to take on the pharmaceutical companies and make them pay for the addictions they have caused in the people they have killed.’

And Harris got an extended round of applause for standing up for the abortion issue, which is of huge importance to Democratic primary voters who are worried judges appointed by Trump will revoke Roe vs. Wade.

‘This is the sixth [sic] debate we have had in this presidential cycle. Not one word with all of these discussions about health care, on women’s access to health care. It’s outrageous. There are states that have passed laws that will virtually prevent women from having access to reproductive health care. It’s not an exaggeration to say women will die because these Republican legislatures in these various states who are out of touch with America are telling women what to do with their bodies. Women are the majority of the population in this country. People need to keep their hands off of women’s bodies and let women make the decisions about their own lives,’ she said as the heavily Democratic audience cheered loudly.

When the debate turned to foreign policy, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard faced rejoinders from Democrats when she called out both President Trump and threw out blanket attacks on those who back what she termed a ‘regime change war’ in Syria.

‘First of all, we’ve got to understand the reality of the situation there, which is that the slaughter of the Kurds being done by Turkey is yet another negative consequence of the regime change war we’ve been waging in Syria,’ Gabbard said. ‘Donald Trump has the blood of the Kurds on his hand, but so do many of the politicians in our country from both parties who have supported this ongoing regime change war in Syria that started in 2011,’ she continued, before blasting members of the ‘mainstream media’ who she said have been ‘cheerleading this regime change war.’

‘Just two days ago the New York Times put out an article saying that I’m a Russian asset and an Assad apologist and all these different smears. This morning a CNN commentator said on national television that I’m an asset of Russia. Completely despicable. As president I will end these regime change wars,’ she said.

Gabbard was referencing a recent Times piece that noted the lawmaker, who met with Assad in Syria and has accused fellow Democrats of ‘rigging’ the race, had injected ‘chaos’ in the race, while drawing supportive comments from former Trump strategist Steve Bannon and online approval from Russian bots.

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg took on Gabbard.

‘Well, respectfully, congresswoman, I think that is dead wrong. The slaughter going on in Syria is not a consequence of American presence, it a consequence of a withdrawal and a betrayal by this president of American allies and American values.’

Buttigieg, who like Gabbard has been deployed overseas as part of the military, said it was wrong to ‘abandon the international stage’ or ‘think our only choices are between endless war and total isolation.’

He said many U.S. troops are ‘ashamed of what their country has done’ by abandoning Kurdish allies who served as a ground force to take on ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

‘I don’t think we should have troops in the Middle East,’ said Warren. But she said the U.S. should extract its troops ‘the right way,’ then teed off on Trump, saying he has ‘sucked up to dictator,’ has ‘cut and run on our allies,’ and ‘has enriched himself at the expense of the United States of America.’

Warren tried to turn the tables on her rivals when asked about her plan to tax multimillionaires.

‘My question is not why do Bernie and I support a wealth tax. It’s why is it does everyone else on this stage think it is more important to protect billionaires than it is to invest in an entire generation of Americans?’ she asked.

‘No one is supporting billionaires,’ Biden interjected.

Buttigieg said he was ‘all for’ a wealth tax. ‘I’m all for just about everything that was just mentioned in these answers. Let me tell, though, how this looks from the industrial Midwest where I live. Washington politicians, congressmen and senators, saying all the right things, offering the most elegant policy prescriptions, and nothing changes,’ he said.

Added Warren: ‘So understand, taxing income is not going to get you where you need to be the way taxing wealth does, that the rich are not like you and me. The really, really billionaires are making their money off their accumulated wealth, and it just keeps growing. We need a wealth tax in order to make investments in the next generation.’

CNN anchor Erin Burnett took the debate in a fraught direction when she asked a series of candidates questions about their age.

‘To the issue of candidates and their health: Senator Sanders, I want to start with you,’ she began.

‘I’m healthy. I’m feeling great,’ Sanders interrupted, drawing laughter from the crowd.

‘And Senator Sanders is in favor of medical marijuana. I want to make sure that’s clear as well,’ Booker jested.

‘I’m not on it tonight,’ Sanders insisted.

‘Senator, we are all very glad you’re feeling well,’ Burnett said.

Then she posed a ‘question on a lot of people’s minds … You’re 78 years old, and you just had a heart attack. How do you reassure democratic voters that you’re up to the stress of the presidency?’

‘Well, let me invite you all to a major rally we’re having in Queens, New York,’ Sanders said. ‘We’re going to have a special guest at that event, and we are going to be mounting a vigorous campaign all over this country. That is how I think I can reassure the American people.’

‘But let me take this moment, if I might, to thank so many people from all over this country, including many of my colleagues up here, for their love, for their prayers, for their well wishes,’ Sanders continued. ‘And I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart and I’m so happy to be back here with you this evening.’ That drew sustained applause from candidates and audience members alike.

Burnett then asked Biden if he could handle the office of the presidency being inaugurated at the age of 80. She also put an age question to Warren, 71.

Any of the three of them would all be the oldest president ever inaugurated in their first term in U.S. history if elected.

At the top of the debate, Sanders walked into the venue alongside Biden and others, smiling as he took the podium for the first time and clapping for fellow Democrats.

He is still among the three poll leaders, although support for Sanders has dipped in recent polls following his heart attack, while Warren has equaled Biden in some recent national polls.

Bernie Sanders faces standing at a podium for three hours after his recent heart attack but some of his rivals for the Democratic nomination for the White House have problems of their own ahead of Tuesday’s debate in Westerville, Ohio.

Democrats are holding their most crowded debate night in modern history on Tuesday where a dozen candidates will take stage.

Former vice president Joe Biden is facing persistent allegations of wrongdoing overseas that could undermine his argument that he is best positioned to defeat Donald Trump while Elizabeth Warren is fending off new scrutiny of her biography.

Warren suddenly emerged as the frontrunner candidate in recent weeks, taking over the No. 1 position that was consistently held by Biden until this month.

Biden’s son, Hunter also broke his silence while appearing on ABC News Tuesday morning, bringing more attention to the growing scandal surrounding his father. He agreed to an interview where no questions were off-limits.

Sanders is recovering from a heart attack that raised questions about his ability to withstand the vigor of a presidential campaign.

While 12 Democratic presidential candidates will meet on Tuesday, there are three leading candidates, Biden, Sanders and Warren, who face the most intense spotlight that could expose glaring liabilities in their quest for the White House.

The debate marks the first time the candidates will meet since the Democratic-controlled House moved forward with an impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump, stemming from a controversy involving his conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart.

While they are united on that issue, the debate will again expose a political party struggling to coalesce around a unifying message or messenger with the first primary contest just over three months away.

The event, hosted by CNN and The New York Times, will be held in Ohio, at the private liberal arts college Otterbein University.

Ohio is a so-called swing state that has long helped decide presidential elections but has drifted away from Democrats in recent years.

The White House hopefuls will represent the political and personal diversity that has come to define the Democratic Party of 2019: four women, four people of color, an openly gay man and an age range that spans four decades.

With such a crowded stage, candidates will not be provided any time for opening or closing statements and will have one minute and 15 seconds to answer questions and 45 seconds to respond to other candidates or present a rebuttal.

Sanders, an independent Vermont senator, will be under pressure to prove he has the physical and mental stamina to stand on a podium for three hours less than two weeks after suffering a heart attack.

Age was already a concern for the 78-year-old before he was taken to a Nevada hospital on October 1 and had two stents put in to clear a clogged artery in his heart.

Sanders and his allies insist the health scare has only strengthened his commitment to the 2020 contest and his case for his signature health care plan, Medicare For All.

His first time speaking to the press after his heart attack, Sanders said he was more ‘fatigued’ lately and should have listened to his body. A day later he walked back on the comment, claiming he ‘misspoke’ and that he would continue a ‘vigorous’ campaign and rally schedule.

Sanders plans to note, as he has in recent days, that millions of Americans without health insurance could have been forced into bankruptcy, or worse, under the same circumstances.

‘Bernie is a political marathon runner,’ said Sanders’ confidante RoseAnn DeMoro, the former executive director of National Nurses United. ‘I think the debate is going to be a great reassurance to the public.’

The stakes are also high for Warren, a fellow progressive candidate, who stands on the debate stage for the first time as a front-runner, a status that makes her a top target of rivals in both political parties.

Biden, 76, and others have jabbed her intense focus on detailed liberal policies that may be difficult to implement with a divided Congress.

South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg has highlighted the absence of a specific Warren health care plan; she has embraced Sanders’ single-payer plan instead.

Republicans, meanwhile, have raised questions about whether Warren, 70, was actually forced from her teaching job because of a pregnancy nearly a half century ago – a claim that has become a core part of her personal message she shares with supporters at rallies.

Critics have pointed to past speeches and documents that suggest she left on her own. But Warren is standing by her story.

The issue is particularly threatening because it is not the first time she has been accused of embellishing her biography.

Warren, a Massachusetts senator, was already forced to apologized for claiming Native American heritage decades ago after a DNA test revealed she was likely only 1/1024 American Indian.

While it showed distant tribal ancestry, it also sparked a rebuke of Warren from some Native Americans for attributing tribal membership to genetics.

‘The good news is that most attempts to attack Warren actually make her stronger,’ said Adam Green, a Warren supporter and co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

‘Questioning whether she got fired for being pregnant ended up increasing her breadth and intensity of support, particularly among women,’ he said.

Biden is no stranger to the pressure of front-runner status.

But he enters his fourth debate under the weight of intensifying questions from Trump about his family’s work overseas.

Trump has repeatedly said that Biden’s 49-year-old son, Hunter, improperly profited from work in Ukraine and China while the elder Biden was vice president. He also insists that Biden used his office to protect his son from allegations of wrongdoing in those countries.

Biden will almost certainly be asked by the debate moderators to defend himself.

In Hunter’s interview on ABC in the hours ahead of the debate, he admitted he used ‘poor judgement,’ but insisted that he did nothing wrong.

‘In retrospect, look, I think that it was poor judgment on my part. Is that I think that it was poor judgment because I don’t believe now, when I look back on it – I know that there was – did nothing wrong at all,’ he told ABC News in an interview that aired Tuesday morning on Good Morning America.

‘However, was it poor judgment to be in the middle of something that is…a swamp in- in – in many ways? Yeah.’

‘I gave a hook to some very unethical people to act in illegal ways to try to do some harm to my father. That’s where I made the mistake,’ he noted.

Joe Biden addressed the situation over the weekend, promising to bar family members from occupying any office within the White House if elected. But he has yet to address Trump’s allegations facing a national debate audience.

Hunter also released a statement over the weekend saying he was resigning from his board position at a Chinese-backed equity firm and claiming he would not get involved in any foreign business if his father were to become president.

How Biden fares during the first debate since the revelations of his son’s business dealings could determine whether he maintains his place atop the crowded field.

Many other candidates, meanwhile, are fighting for their very political survival.

The debate will also feature Buttigieg, California Senator Kamala Harris, New York entrepreneur Andrew Yang, former Texas Representative Beto O’Rourke, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, former Obama housing chief Julian Castro, billionaire activist Tom Steyer and Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard.

This is the first Democratic debate of four that Booker’s girlfriend, actress Rosario Dawson, will appear. There is a seat reserved for her in the second row of the gymnasium of the Rike Center, which is being used as the debate hall on Otterbein’s campus.

She was noticeably missing from the first three debates in June, July and September. The New York Post first reported in January that the two were an item and they made their first joint appearance in June when Booker was interviewed by renowned Drag Queen RuPaul.

Even though Gabbard qualified for the fourth Democrat debates, she said earlier this month that she was considering boycotting the event to expose the Democratic National Committee and media’s efforts to ‘rig the 2020 primary’ against lower tier candidates and political outsiders by setting ‘arbitrary’ requirements to qualify for the debates.

‘I am seriously considering boycotting October 15 debate to bring attention to DNC/corporate media’s effort to rig the 2020 primary,’ she tweeted earlier this month.

In an accompanying video, Gabbard said there were none-transparent requirements to qualify for the debates and argued Democratic Party leaders ‘are trying to hijack the entire election process.’

‘In order to bring attention to this serious threat to our democracy, and ensure your voice is heard, I am giving serious consideration to boycotting the next debate on October 15th,’ she added.

Gabbard tweeted Monday – a day before the debate – that she would be attending.

Fellow candidate Amy Klobuchar responded supposedly in jest, ‘Same.’

With the Iowa caucuses scheduled for February 3, time is quickly running out for the lower-tier candidates to make a move.

Based on current polling, several would not qualify for the next round of debates.

The risks offer a compelling reason for the struggling White House hopefuls to be more aggressive.

Buttigieg has squabbled with O’Rourke recently over guns, and he signaled over the weekend that he planned to make a sharper distinction between himself and Warren.

Health care emerged as a key contrast among candidates in recent debates and it likely will again, at least according to the 37-year-old mayor, whose plan would give people a choice of whether to join a government-backed health care system or their private insurer.

Speaking to a labour union audience at a presidential candidate forum in Iowa, he warned that some of his competitors, without explicitly naming Warren, would give Americans no choice.

‘I’m not pushing Medicare For All whether you want it or not,’ Buttigieg said.

source:dailymail