He came prepared....

Biden absorbs a beating — and reassures anxious supporters

Nearly every candidate on stage attacked the former veep. But in this debate, he came prepared.

By MARC CAPUTO

Joe Biden was mauled in a two-hour pile-on of a debate Wednesday, where a host of Democratic presidential rivals attacked decades’ worth of his votes, statements and policy positions.

Criminal justice, climate change, health care, trade, abortion, women’s rights, the Iraq War, immigration — Biden took hits on all of those issues, from all sides of the stage. In all, he was attacked by seven of the nine other candidates present.

But unlike the debate last month — when California Sen. Kamala Harris ambushed him for his record on segregation and busing, leaving him stammering and unable to answer clear answers — Biden survived with comparatively minimal damage. His survival alone was a moral victory of sorts.

It calmed jittery donors and staff who were worried about a repeat of last month’s debate flop. And the multiple attacks, they said, cemented in the minds of Americans that Biden is the front-runner who won’t be easily knocked off. After all, Biden survived last month’s scare, and this time he was much better in an even tougher situation.

Biden’s deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield, said Biden had a “phenomenal performance” considering the odds he faced from the other candidates who were looking for their “T-shirt moment” to boast about.

“I think our T-shirt for the night — which is fitting because we're here in Detroit — is Biden versus everybody,” she said. “With seven, eight other candidates coming at the vice president, he had no problem fending off those attacks, pushing back dishing back. I think if Donald Trump thinks that he's going to have a leg up on Joe Biden in a debate that was disabused tonight.”

Yet the fire from all sides pointed to the danger ahead for Biden in the upcoming debates. For the highly guarded 76-year-old candidate, there’s great peril in unscripted televised moments where he’s forced to fend off bomb after bomb thrown by younger rivals subtly bringing up his advanced age.

In this debate, the former vice president was far more prepared for what came at him, and even showed flashes of toughness and lucidity that he lacked in June. Yet Biden still sounded uncertain at times. He failed to complete sentences on occasion or even abruptly gave up his time. He flubbed a canned zinger. He ducked questions.

Progressive critics seized on those aspects of his debate performance.

"Joe Biden repeatedly showed that he’s our party’s past, and failed to get the big win he needed to solidify his status as front-runner. He was embattled by many challengers, which led to forced errors that will be difficult to recover from,” said Democracy for America CEO Yvette Simpson in a statement.

On the stage, Biden’s rivals repeatedly sought to highlight the generational distinctions between Biden and the rest of the field, and his aspects of his long record that pose problems in the current Democratic Party.

“One of us has learned the lessons of the past. And one of us hasn’t,” said Julian Castro, the former federal housing secretary, when he took Biden to task over immigration. Castro recognized the issue was a sore spot for the former vice president under President Barack Obama, who was nicknamed the “deporter in chief” by immigration activists prior to the arrival of President Donald Trump.

After the debate, most of the top candidates spoke to reporters. Biden didn't, however. Castro used the opportunity to tell the press that Biden didn't learn from history in dealing with the Republicans and their Senate leader.

“I learned the lessons of the past. One of those lessons is you can’t deport your way to the negotiating table with Mitch McConnell and the Republicans," he said.

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker was another persistent critic, piling on during an exchange over criminal and racial justice.

“There's a saying in my community that you're dipping into the Kool-Aid and you don't even know the flavor,” Booker said, drawing laughs from the crowd.

Biden struck back, however, pointing out racial profiling that happened in Newark when Booker was mayor. He took on Harris and the others who supported what he described as an unrealistic budget-busting “Medicare for All Plan.”

In one of his best moments, Biden swatted away New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for frequently acting as an inquisitor demanding answers of him on immigration and trade. After de Blasio asked a convoluted question about trade and environmental policy, Biden blew him off with a simple “yes” that elicited a chuckle from the crowd.

“I consider that a victory,” de Blasio said.

“Well, I love your affection for me. You spend a lot of time with me,” Biden cracked. The crowd laughed.

There was also a measure of satisfaction from Biden supporters when he zinged Harris for her record as a prosecutor who did too little to stop overzealous police in one instance.

“Along came a federal judge and said enough, enough. And he freed 1,000 of these people. If you doubt me, Google ‘1,000 prisoners freed, Kamala Harris,‘” Biden said.

If the former vice president’s experience from the first debate is any measure, his poll numbers are unlikely to significantly change in the short term. But even top supporters privately admit that the gauntlet of upcoming debates pose a challenge — a winnowed field will leave him on stage with a smaller field of stronger opponents who can train concentrated fire on him.

Biden still hasn’t shared a stage with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has clashed with him for decades over economic justice issues and has been widely heralded as one of the sharpest debaters in the Democratic field.

The front-runner — and most recognizable moderate in a field of more progressive candidates — Biden opposes Warren and others’ support for Medicare for All and backs a public Medicare-like option to add to Obamacare. Biden accused Harris of misrepresenting his position as too soft on insurance companies, scoring applause.

“I have the only plan that limits the ability of insurance companies to charge unreasonable prices, flat out, number one. Number two, we should put some of these insurance executives who totally oppose my plan in jail for the $9 billion opioids they sell out there,” Biden said to applause.

But Biden also got sidetracked in describing prescription drugs and repeatedly stopped cold when the moderators told him his time was up — a rarity since candidates typically insist on completing their sentences while onstage.

While forcefully attacking Harris and de Blasio over the cost of Medicare for all, Biden called their talking points a “bunch of malarkey,” drawing laughter from the audience. Then he tried to launch a prepared attack but failed by mixing up their states of residents.

“I don't know what math you do in New York!” he said, pointing and looking mistakenly at the California senator, Harris. He then turned to where the New York mayor was standing and said, “I don't know what math you do in California!”

De Blasio smiled and shook his head.

It took Colorado Sen. Mike Bennet, who also supports a public option over Medicare for All, to lay out a clear case for defending Obamacare.

Biden’s relationship with Obama’s legacy appeared to strain him at times — especially when it came to their administration’s record of deporting people. Asked if Obama-era deportation rates would resume if Biden were president, Biden distanced himself from his former running mate.

“Absolutely not,” Biden said, turning his attention to Castro by pointing out that the former housing official never mentioned the issue until he became a candidate: “I never heard him talk about any of this when he was the secretary.”

A group of immigration activists in the audience began heckling Biden concerning the deportations.

De Blasio then turned to Biden and demanded to know whether Biden supported or opposed the deportations under Obama. Biden wouldn’t answer, pointing to Obama’s record in advocating for kinder immigration policies.

“I was vice president. I am not the president. I keep my recommendation to him in private,” Biden said before snapping at de Blasio that “I can expect you would go ahead and say whatever was said privately with him. That is not what I do.”

Booker sought to make sure Biden couldn’t parry the attack: “Mr. Vice President, you can’t have it both ways. You invoke President Obama more than anybody in this campaign. You can’t do it when it’s convenient and then dodge it when it’s not.”

In bashing Biden, Booker was joined by New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who dug up a decades-old old op-ed Biden penned in which he said that “when a woman works outside the home it's resulting in quote ‘the deterioration of family.’” She demanded an answer. Biden said he was being taken out of context and that the issue concerned tax credits for wealthy people who did not deserve them.

He said her attitude toward him changed because “you’re running for president.”

In one of the final attacks of the night — and his second on Biden — Washington’s mild-mannered governor, Jay Inslee, brought up Biden’s vote in favor of the Iraq war in 2002. Inslee,a member of Congress at the time, voted against it.

“I did make a bad judgment,” Biden admitted.

For all the tough talk on stage, Harris — who at one point asserted Biden had changed his position on the Hyde Amendment because he’s running for president — told reporters afterward, she and Biden bear no will toward each other.

“It’s a difference of opinion,” she said. “It’s not personal.”