Let's jump straight into it.
-Yup. -The debate just ended.
Uh, what did you make of it, as someone who's just watching it
apart from, like, us who was watching it?
I think we learned two things from this debate. Number one--
Amy Klobuchar really, really loathes Pete Buttigieg.
-That came out very clearly, I think. -Right.
She was waiting for this moment.
She came prepped, uh, with her... you know, her stats.
-She's like, "You lost by 20 points." -Right, right, right.
She came prepared. Certainly unfair to Pete Buttigieg.
He lost by 25 points, uh, in Indiana
-when he ran for statewide office. -Oh, wow. So, she...
-Right. -Um, and the second thing, I think, we learned is
that the Democrats need to run a Muslim for president,
'cause I'll tell you what, Trevor.
You won't find me anywhere near a wine cave.
-I don't even know what a wine cave is. -(laughter)
Right? That's the solution
-to the wine cave issue. -But this was a...
That was an interesting issue
that people were, like, arguing about now.
It was like, "Do you take money from-from rich people?"
-"Do you take money from big corporations?" -Yeah.
"Do you take money from wealthy donors and that class?"
And that was an interesting, you know,
-argument within the party. -Yes.
With Buttigieg saying, "We need everything we can
-to beat Donald Trump." -Yeah.
"He has a lot of money.
He's raised a lot of money from big donors-- we've seen this."
-Yeah. -"And, so, if you don't have enough money,
you can't compete." Elizabeth Warren going, "No.
-That money becomes part of the problem." -Yes.
So where do you think that argument ended on the night?
I think the argument's very clear.
I'm very much Team Warren, Sanders on this.
It's very clear that if you take money from lots of rich people,
they expect stuff in return. That is the history of politics.
History of American politics in particular.
You talked about it earlier on the show.
-Money talks in this country. -Right.
And the problem with Buttigieg...
He had that great comeback to Elizabeth Warren, you know.
"I couldn't be on stage with you. You're all richer than me."
They're all way older than you, as well.
Um, I think the problem is with that argument is,
he won't say what Warren says and Sanders says, which is,
"You can give us as much money as you want.
-We're not gonna give you a job." He won't do that. -Right.
He hasn't ruled out appointing, you know, his rich donors
-to ambassadorships. -Right, right, right.
And we've seen that now. Look at this guy Gordon Sondland
who testified in the impeachment hearing-- ambassador to the EU.
He's not a diplomat. He's a hotel dude
who gave a million dollars
-to Donald Trump's inauguration committee. -Right.
That is not how you should get jobs in government.
And if a Democrat can't say that,
I think that's a problem for the Democratic Party
-and for Pete Buttigieg. -It was an interesting...
(applause and cheering)
It was an interesting debate tonight,
because for the first time, it felt like
we actually heard what people had to say.
-You only had seven people up on stage... -Yes...
as as opposed to the usual 50, right?
And so, you heard from all the people who were up there.
What was interesting is, somebody like Andrew Yang,
who barely gets time to speak normally, came out today.
He came out swinging. He had his stats.
He really made a few great points
-that people hadn't brought up before. -Yeah.
But it still feels like he's an outlier in the race,
even though he's amongst them.
Do you think this was his night or not?
I mean, it's his night in as much
as how far is the campaign gonna go in terms of kind of,
-as you say, attention, speaking. -Right.
He had a couple of good gags for once.
Uh, he still has his, you know... What was it
Joe Biden once said about Rudy Giuliani?
"His entire vocabulary is a noun, a verb and 9/11."
With Yang, it's a noun, a verb,
-and "I'll give you $1,000 a month." -Right.
That's what it always come back to,
even the race conversation, which is fine as far as it goes.
Um, Klobuchar had a good night. She's...
I don't think she's gonna be the candidate,
but she had a good night. She came.
She was strong, she was prepared. She went after...
She... I think tonight we saw, uh, the first crack
in the Pete Buttigieg electability argument.
Till now, we're like, "This is the guy! He's electable!"
And she pointed out, you know, the emperor has no clothes.
-This guy is a mayor from South Bend, Indiana. -Mm-hmm.
Do you know how many votes he won in 2015 to be reelected
-as mayor of...? -What is it? Like, 8,000?
-8,000! -Right.
There's more people than that at an Asian wedding, right?
-An Indian wedding. -(laughter)
I had, like, half that many people at my wedding, right.
-That's his qualification?! -But...
-Okay, but... -I'm gonna win 70 million votes on the basis
-of the 8,000 people in South Bend. -But here's... Okay.
No, no. But now, here's an argument
-many other people might make. -Go on.
They might go, "If you look
"at the Democrats' history in the races..." -Yeah.
"Democratic voters generally like
"to vote for somebody who doesn't have
a long history in politics." -Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-Definitely. -Many people would have said
-that Barack Obama came out of nowhere. -Definitely.
Many people said that Bill Clinton came out of nowhere.
-Yeah. -Many said Kennedy came out of nowhere.
And so, if you look at the history of Democratic voters...
But ultimately, Kennedy was a senator,
-Obama was a senator, Clinton was a governor. -Right.
They weren't mayor of the fourth biggest town in Indiana.
-Right. -(laughter) -And I think that is a problem.
And I do think... Amy Klobuchar's right.
She was just saying on CNN after the debate,
there is a double standard here.
Would we consider a 37-year-old person of color,
-or a 37-year-old woman? -Mm-hmm.
They would be laughed off the stage in a way
that a 37-year-old confident, Harvard grad, white guy isn't.
And I think that is a problem. I think this idea...
I think there's a problem in the Democratic base as a whole,
which is, everyone's trying to play pundit.
Everyone's saying, "Who's the most electable person?"
-Right. -Which is... You can't measure this stuff.
I mean, there's a poll last week that showed
pretty much every major candidate, including Klobuchar,
-can beat Trump nationally. -Mm-hmm.
So I say to people at home watching,
just vote for the person you think is best.
Stop trying to be a pundit. I'm a pundit.
We don't know what the hell we're talking about.
Don't, you know... Who called...?
-Who predicted Trump? Very few of us. -Right.
So stop playing that game. Pick the person
you think would be the best leader who can heal this country
after four years of kind of neofascism
and white nationalism, and stop staying, "Oh, who...?"
Stop obsessing over Joe six-pack and who he's gonna vote for.
-The guy in the diner in rural Pennsylvania. -Right, right.
-Right. -He's probably gonna vote for Trump again.
Sorry to break it to you. Work on mobilizing your base.
Work on mobilizing people of color.
Work on mobilizing women.
Work on mobilizing young people.
And the people who do that, from where I'm sitting,
-are Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. -Oh.
-(cheers and applause) -Vote for the person
-who you think would make the best president. -Shocking.
-Shocking. -That's a bold, bold statement.
Mehdi Hasan, everybody.