Democratic presidential candidates are aiming to play up differences on issues like healthcare and immigration. But they’re in agreement about what makes for a good stump speech line.
During Wednesday’s debate in Detroit, several of the 2020 Democrats’ candidate debate responses featured sections that had been previously used by campaign trail rivals.
When New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called out President Trump for his tax policies, his bit about “socialism for the rich” was nearly identical to a speech Sen. Bernie Sanders gave almost two months earlier.
“This has to be the party that’s not afraid to say out loud, ‘We’re gonna tax the hell out of the wealthy.’ And when we do that, Donald Trump, right on cue, will call us socialists,” de Blasio said, “Well, here’s what I’ll say to him. Donald, you’re the real socialist. The problem is, it’s socialism for the rich.”
During a June address at George Washington University by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on defining socialism in Washington, D.C., he said, “Now let’s be clear: While President Trump and his fellow oligarchs attack us for our support of democratic socialism, they don’t really oppose all forms of socialism.”
Sanders added, “They may hate democratic socialism because it benefits working people, but they absolutely love corporate socialism that enriches Trump and other billionaires … And that is the difference between Donald Trump and me. He believes in corporate socialism for the rich and powerful.”
Sanders’ speech was also echoed in Pete Buttigieg’s debate dismissal of Republican attacks on progressive policy proposals.
“It is time to stop worrying about what the Republicans will say. Look, if it’s true that if we embrace a far-left agenda, they’re gonna say we’re a bunch of crazy socialists,” the South Bend, Indiana, mayor said. “If we embrace a conservative agenda, you know what they’re going to do? They’re going to say we’re a bunch of crazy socialists.”
During that same speech at George Washington, Sanders went through a litany of examples where Republicans criticized the proposal of broadly popular programs like Social Security and Medicaid as “socialist.”
“But, while he stood up for the working families of our country, we can never forget that President Roosevelt was reviled by the oligarchs of his time, who berated these extremely popular programs as “socialism,” Sanders said.
At the debate, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand cited President John F. Kennedy when defending her endorsement of the “Green New Deal,” saying America needs a bold plan like the NASA program to adequately tackle climate change.
“When John F. Kennedy said I want to put a man on the moon in the next 10 years, not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard, he knew it was going to be a measure of our innovation, our success, our ability to galvanize worldwide competition,” the New York senator said.
If that sounded familiar, it’s because former Vice President Joe Biden has frequently cited Kennedy’s famous 1962 “We Choose to go to the Moon” lines, during nearly every single one of his campaign stump speeches, starting back as early as April when he announced his third White house run.
California Sen. Kamala Harris parroted underdog Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s stump speech on Wednesday’s as well, in an effort to shore up her liberal bona fides on environmental policies.
“I have to agree with Gov. Inslee, and I’m going to just paraphrase what he’s been saying, governor, which is we currently have a president in the White House who obviously does not understand science,” the senator said. “He’s been pushing science fiction, instead science fact. The guy thinks that wind turbines cause cancer, but when in fact they cause jobs.”
Inslee’s been using that line with voters since at least April, when he deployed it in an interview with CNN and then again at a town hall hosted by the network the next day. He also rolled it out during the Miami debates in June, as well as events on the campaign trail.
