‘Party of Death’ Debates Ahead of Iowa Caucus

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DES MOINES, Iowa (ChurchMilitant.com) - Climate change, Iran, health care and whether a woman could win the White House were among the topics debated by Democratic candidates Tuesday night at Drake University in Des Moines.

The Democratic Party, nicknamed the Party of Death (POD) for its support of abortion, euthanasia, same-sex "marriage" and "transgender" ideology, held its last nationally televised debate before the first official vote of the primary season at the Feb. 3 Iowa caucus. The candidates are seeking to unseat President Trump, who was busy wooing his own crowd Tuesday night at a Milwaukee, Wisconsin rally.

Present at the Des Moines debate were Sen. Bernie Sanders, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and billionaire Tom Steyer.

Candidates Tulsi Gabbard, Andrew Yang, Michael Bloomberg, and Deval Patrick failed to make the cut Tuesday night. The night before, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker announced he was dropping out of the running, joining Marianne Williamson, Kamala Harris, Julián Castro, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Beto O’Rourke.

CNN moderators asked a series of typical questions — Why would you make the best Commander in Chief? Why is your health care plan better than the others'? What would you do with poor communities once climate change forces them to move? — among others.

A Woman Can't Win?

Perhaps the "memorable moment" of the night came when a CNN moderator asked Bernie Sanders if he did indeed tell Elizabeth Warren that a woman cannot win the White House, as Warren said he had.

The Vermont senator denied making the comment. Warren shot back by pointing out how she and Klobuchar — the two women on the stage — were the only ones there to have won all their past elections, reiterating that America is ready to elect a woman for president.

Reports about the alleged comment circulated throughout Tuesday. Warren's claim was leaked to CNN, which wrote what some have called a hit-piece against Sanders.

Warren and Sanders are vying for the progressive socialist vote of the POD and, until now, there has been public peace between them.

As CNN reported, the two candidates, reportedly good friends from the Senate, met privately in 2018 to plan a potential truce should both of them run for president. They were sensitive to the possibility of fracturing the "progressive wing" of the POD.

Some debate-watchers noticed that because the CNN report came ahead of the Iowa caucus, it may have been strategically timed to make Sanders appear "anti-woman." They suggest that the "woman card," now a cornerstone of Democratic Party identity politics, could be a winning strategy.

Trump Spoke in Milwaukee

Meanwhile, in Milwaukee, Donald Trump greeted thousands of supporters Tuesday night.

The president weighed in on the Warren-Sanders controversy, touting, "According to Elizabeth 'Pocahontas' Warren, who has somewhat less Indian blood than I do, and I have none ... she said that Bernie said a woman can't win for president."

After admitting he doesn't know Sanders, and that he's "a nasty guy," the president asserted, 'I don't believe he said this [about women candidates]."

According to Real Clear Politics, Biden is the national front-runner. The site shows Trump losing to each of the top-tier Democrats by a razor-slim margin.

Later in the debate, Buttigieg, the only open homosexual in the race, challenged Donald Trump: "[I]f ... a guy like Donald Trump keeps trying to use religion to somehow recruit Christianity into the GOP, I will be standing there not afraid to talk about a different way to answer the call of faith, and insist that God does not belong to a political party."

Interviewing Buttigieg after the debate, CNN's Chris Cuomo wished Buttigieg good luck: "Congratulations to you and your husband going forward."

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