Former Maryland Rep. John Delaney’s 2020 campaign team is not happy with how his showdown Tuesday evening against Sen. Elizabeth Warren played out at the first night of the second Democratic primary debate in Detroit.
“Senator Warren doesn’t know anything about John Delaney,” the former congressman’s team said in a statement that was provided to media as the debate still raged. “John’s running on universal health care, creating a carbon tax and dividend that would make the United States the world’s policy leader, a $2 trillion dollar infrastructure plan and big bold plans to rebuild rural America and our cities.”
The statement comes after Warren scored a huge applause line at Delaney’s expense. She went after moderate Democrats, including Delaney, questioning why they are even running for the party’s nomination.
“I don’t understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running for the president of the United States just to talk about what we really can’t do and shouldn’t fight for. I don’t get it,” the Massachusetts senator said to thunderous applause.
“Our biggest problem in Washington is corruption,” she added. “It is giant corporations that have taken our government and that are holding it by the throat, and we need to have the courage to fight back against that and until we’re ready to do that, it’s just more of the same. Well, I’m ready to get in this fight.”
The crowd loved it, awarding Warren with a lengthy applause line as Delaney awaited the chance to respond.
Why would anyone go through all the trouble of running for President just to get up on stage and talk about what’s not possible? @ewarren is ready to fight. pic.twitter.com/fxHTGp78IG
— Team Warren (@TeamWarren) July 31, 2019
Politicos, pundits, Democratic activists, and journalists (but I repeat myself!) cheered the interaction, declaring Warren the decisive victor over the more moderate Delaney.
Talking Points Memo editor Josh Marshal called it “Elizabeth’s moment.”
GQ Magazine’s Joel Pavelski added simply, “KO.”
“BLAOW ,” cheered The Week’s Ryan Cooper.
Crooked Media’s Brian Beutler added, “Please someone with better computer chops than I have do some funny zoom and overdub trick with Delaney’s face as she punches him in it.
New York Daily News contributor Brandon Freidman said of the interaction that Delaney was, “Nuked from orbit.”
It goes on like that for quite a bit. Members of the news and entertainment industries absolutely loved seeing Warren scold Delaney for arguing (correctly) that her platform is a smorgasbord of bad policy that will do absolutely nothing to get the party any closer to defeating President Trump. But whatever. She had a great zinger, and that is apparently all that matters to the left-leaning commentariat, which seems also to be unperturbed entirely by the very reasonable concern that things such as “Medicare for all” and the absurd “Green New Deal” will either fail in practice or keep Trump in office, as Delaney claims.
The former congressman’s statement pushing back on Warren’s viral moment concluded, saying, “It’s not about mushy compromise, it’s about getting the policy details right and not running on just what’s the best slogan.”
