Key Quotes From the Second Democratic Presidential Debate

Night [Noche] 2 of the first Democratic debate has concluded.

10 contenders for the 2020 Democratic nomination took the stage in Miami on Thursday, with a combined 153 years of political experience.

Catch up on last night's debates here.

Here are the quotes of the night from Thursday's contenders:

Marianne Williamson, Spiritual guru

“Ladies and gentlemen, we don't have a health care system in the United States. We have a sickness care system in the United States. We wait until somebody gets sick and talk about who is going pay for the treatment and how they will be treated. What we need to talk about is why so many Americans have unnecessary chronic illnesses compared to other countries.”

John Hickenlooper, Former Colorado Governor

"I'm the one person up here who's actually done the big progressive things everyone else is talking about. If we turn towards socialism we run the risk of helping to re-elect the worst president in American history."

Andrew Yang, Entrepreneur

"We need to put the American people in the position to benefit from all these innovations and other parts of the economy. We automated away four million manufacturing jobs and we are about to do the same to millions of retail jobs and call center jobs and fast food and truck driver jobs.”

Pete Buttigieg, Mayor of South Bend, Indiana

Buttigieg, as expected, was asked about a recent shooting in South Bend, and why a police department in a 26% black city has a 6% black police force.

"Until we move policing out from the shadow of systemic racism and whatever this teaches us, there is a wall of mistrust, put up one racist act at a time, not from what happened in the past, but what happened in the present.”

Joe Biden, Former vice president

Biden was asked about his remarks to wealthy donors, in which he said we shouldn’t demonize the rich.

"What I meant is, look. Donald Trump thinks Wall Street built America. Ordinary middle class Americans built America. My dad had an expression. 'Joe, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck.' It's about dignity and respect and looking your kid in the eye and seeing that everything is going to be okay. Too many people at the middle class and fall had the bottom fallout. I am saying we have to be straight forward. We have to make sure we understand that the return of dignity to the middle class, they have to have insurance that is cover and they can afford it. They have to make sure we have a situation where there is continuing education and they are able to pay for it and they center have to make sure they breathe air that is clean and they have water that they can drink.”

Bernie Sanders, Senator from Vermont

“We will have Medicare for All when tens of millions of people are prepared to stand up and tell the insurance companies and the drug companies that their day is gone, that healthcare is a human right, not something to make huge profits on.”

Kamala Harris, Senator from California

"I don't call it climate change, it’s a climate crisis. It is an existential threat to us as a species. The fact that we have a president who embraced science fiction over science fact is to our collective peril."

Bonus quote

Amidst various candidates arguing and talking over one another, Harris cut in:

“We don’t need a food fight, we need to help put food on the tables of average Americans.”

Kirsten Gillibrand, Senator from New York

"Now is not the time to play it safe. Now is not the time to be afraid of firsts. We need a president who will take on the big challenges even if she stands alone."

Michael Bennet, Senator from Colorado

“When I see those kids at the border, I see my mom, because I know she sees herself. Because she was separated from her parents for year during the Holocaust in Poland. And for Donald Trump to be doing what he’s doing to children and their families at the borders…The president has turned the border of the United States into a symbol of nativist hostility that the whole world is looking at, when what we should be represented by is the Stat of Liberty, which is what brought my parents to this country to begin with. We need to make a change.”

Eric Swalwell, Congressman from East Bay, California

“I was six-years-old when a presidential candidate came to the California Democratic convention and said, ‘It's time to pass the torch to a new generation of Americans.’ That candidate was then-senator Joe Biden. Joe Biden was right when he said it was time to pass the torch to a new generation of Americans that years ago. He's still right today. If we're going to solve the issues of the nation, pass the torch. If we're going to solve the issue of climate chaos, pass the torch. If we are going to solve school violence, pass the torch."

—Josh Herman

(Illustration by Lily Chen)