Prepare for raucous debates

‘You need to make a move right now’: Dems prepare for raucous debates

Candidates who attacked made the biggest waves in the June debates. Now every Democrat is prepared to go on offense in Detroit.

By ELENA SCHNEIDER

Democratic presidential candidates took one big lesson from their first debates in June: The contenders who shined brightest attacked other candidates onstage. Now, they are all preparing to trade punches ahead of round two in Detroit.

Across the Democratic presidential field, candidates are reading up on points of contrast with key rivals and preparing attack lines, while some are going a step further and simulating debate-stage cross-talk with staffers, practicing ways to butt into the conversation and create a memorable moment. Campaigns are studying how CNN handled past primary debates, when the hosts teed up opportunities for GOP candidates to criticize each other in 2015.

And publicly, Democratic campaigns are already sharpening their attacks: Former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders slashed Sen. Kamala Harris’ new health care platform on Monday, while Sen. Cory Booker escalated his criticism of Biden on criminal justice last week, anticipating their first in-person matchup after sparring on racial issues for weeks.

The pre-debate preparations are particularly intense for the front-runners, who watched Biden stumble and Harris gain in the polls after their confrontation in Miami. But the moment is just as critical, if not more so, for the lesser-known Democrats running for president, who could be participating in their last debate if they fail to stand out.

“If they’re going to make the [debates] in September, you need to make a move right now,” said Tom McMahon, the former executive director of the DNC. To do so, candidates must decide which opponents are “impeding their path to the nomination and draw a contrast with them that elevates their own candidacy in the minds of those like-minded voters that could be willing to break your way.”

The Democratic National Committee ratcheted up its criteria to appear on the third debate stage in Houston in September. Candidates must register at 2 percent in four approved polls and receive donations from 130,000 individual contributors. Just seven Democrats in the sprawling field — Biden, Harris, Sanders, Booker, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke — have qualified so far, and the other dozen candidates want to change things fast, before the traditional quiet stretch in August. On Monday, businessman Andrew Yang also said that he had qualified for the third debate.

For candidates who haven’t hit the rigorous qualification benchmarks for the September debates, “it’s almost make-or-break time,” said former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat who ran for president in 2008. “You’re going to see a free-for-all on attacking each other.”

Inside those campaigns, “the heat is on, and that’s inescapable,” said one presidential aide, whose candidate has not yet qualified for the third debate. “This is the biggest audience that we will get between now and when the door is shut on getting into the third debate.”

Another presidential campaign adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said their campaign team watched the second Republican primary debate, also aired on CNN, in preparation for this week’s debates in Detroit.

“Maybe 19 of 20 questions were through the lens of: ‘Candidate X’ said this about you, would you like to respond to ‘Candidate X,’ who’s standing next to you on stage?” the adviser said, adding: “We’re expecting this to be more geared toward conflict.”

Several campaigns aides pointed to former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro’s breakout June performance as a “model” they aimed to mimic. Castro, who languished in the bottom of the presidential primary field throughout the spring, took on O’Rourke in a memorable exchange on immigration policy, accusing the former Texas congressman of not doing his homework on the issue.

In the days following the debate, Castro raised more than $1 million. He’s on track to hit the polling and donor thresholds, and he is adding staff to his team.

But Castro isn’t sharing any secrets about who might be in his sights on Wednesday. Last week, when late-night host Stephen Colbert asked Castro who he would go after in the second debate, Castro declined to name names, saying instead: “Can’t tell you that.”

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who proved particularly feisty during the first debate, released a statement from his campaign that he was “honing responses to specific candidates,” highlighting “legitimate contrasts between the candidates and their positions in this battle for the heart and soul of the Democratic Party.” De Blasio’s national press secretary, Jaclyn Rothenberg, added that the mayor is “being fueled by chips and guacamole, mixed nuts and water.”

For at least one candidate, it’ll be his first shot on the national stage. Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, who entered the primary race in April, failed to reach the debate stage in June, but said he plans to bring a “different perspective” of someone “being outside of Washington, D.C.,” to the stage Tuesday night, he said in an interview with POLITICO earlier this month.

"[I’m] the only one that was in this field that won in a Trump state, and the only one that's actually governed at times across party lines,” Bullock said.

But for the dozen or so candidates who haven’t qualified for the third debate, time is running out.

Strategists both inside and outside those campaigns, however, insisted that not reaching the third debate stage won’t necessarily kill off their chances. Rather, it’ll force them to make resource decisions — potentially ceasing the expensive chase for new online donors and stockpiling remaining funds for a late push in Iowa instead.

But the reality is still setting in that donors, support and media attention could quickly evaporate if they don’t qualify for the next DNC debate.

“Voters are automatically going to rule out those candidates who don’t make the debate stage,” said Patti Solis Doyle, who managed Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential run. “There are so many people running and voters are already overwhelmed that I think they’re just going to write you off if you’re not there.”

But anxiety about this week’s debates hasn’t robbed some presidential candidates of their sense of humor. Yang ribbed Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet on Twitter last week, sparking an exchange that included several pictures and short clips of penguins, by posting: “I would like to signal to the press that I will be attacking Michael Bennet at next week’s debate. Sorry @MichaelBennet but you know what you did.”