Climate change, health insurance, and illegal immigration dominated the first two Democrat debates, but there were a few notable topics that moderators failed to bring up, despite their glaring presence in media.
Virtually every candidate had the chance to say a piece on their plans to combat climate change, but a few topics went largely ignored, with candidates tap dancing around numerous elephants in the room. Here are a few examples:
Biden’s China ties
Former Vice President Joe Biden (D) ended the debate with more speaking time than any other candidate – nearly 14 minutes. However, he wasn’t once asked about Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings – specifically securing $1.5 billion in investment from China – which coincided with the elder Biden’s “diplomatic work.” It remains a concern, particularly due to Biden’s nonchalant remarks. He completely dismissed China’s threat at a May campaign event where he said:
China is going to eat our lunch? Come on, man. They can’t even figure out how to deal with the fact that they have this great division between the China Sea and the mountains in the East. I mean in the West. They can’t figure out how they are going to deal with the corruption that exists within the system. I mean, you know, they’re not bad folks, folks. But guess what: They’re not competition for us.
Biden later shifted his tone and said, “You bet I’m worried about China,” in a prepared Iowa speech.
Breitbart News Senior Contributor Peter Schweizer laid out Biden’s dealings in his 2018 book, Secret Empires.
Schweizer told Breitbart News Tonight last year:
In December of 2013, Vice President Joe Biden flies to Asia for a trip, and the centerpiece for that trip is a visit to Beijing, China. … To put this into context, in 2013, the Chinese have just exerted air rights over the South Pacific, the South China Sea. They basically have said, ‘If you want to fly in this area, you have to get Chinese approval. We are claiming sovereignty over this territory.’ Highly controversial in Japan, in the Philippines, and in other countries. Joe Biden is supposed to be going there to confront the Chinese. Well, he gets widely criticized on that trip for going soft on China. So basically, no challenging them, and Japan and other countries are quite upset about this.
…
Well, I think the reason he goes soft on China is because with him on that trip, flying on Air Force Two, is his son Hunter Biden, and ten days after they return from China, Hunter Biden — who has this small firm, he has no background in private equity, he has no background in Chinese finance — gets a whopping $1.5 billion deal from the Chinese government. This is the Chinese government giving Joe Biden and a [John] Kerry confidante the management over this money, and they made huge fees off of this money, and it’s an example of this kind of corruption. That’s the first of three major deals that the Chinese government does with people who are either the children — that is the sons — or close aides to Vice President Biden or Secretary of State John Kerry.
It is no surprise that Biden was not questioned, as he has repeatedly dodged related questions on the campaign trail. His campaign sent ABC News a vague statement in June, noting that Biden would issue an executive order on his first day in office, aimed to “address conflicts of interest of any kind.”
Obama-era immigration
Illegal immigration remained a huge point of conversation during the Democrat debate. Candidates – both nights – railed against the Trump administration’s illegal immigration policies. More than one candidate referenced “kids in cages.”
Beto O’Rourke (D): “We would not build walls. We would not put kids in cages. In fact, we would spare no expense to reunite the families that have been separated already.”
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA): “I will also immediately put in place a meaningful process for reviewing the cases for asylum. I will release children from cages. I will get rid of the private detention centers.”
John Hickenlooper (D):
Well, certainly the images we have seen this week just compound the emotional impact that the world is judging us by. If you’d ever told me any time in my life that this country would sanction federal agents to take children from the arms of their parents, put them in cages, actually put them up for adoption — in Colorado, we call that kidnapping — I would have told you.
I would have told you it was unbelievable. And the first thing we have to do is recognize the humanitarian crisis on the border for what it is. We make sure that there are the sufficient facilities in place so that women and children are not separated from their families, that
children are with their families.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg (D):
But we should call out hypocrisy when we see it. And for a party that associates itself with Christianity, to say that it is OK to suggest that God would smile on the division of families at the hands of federal agents, that God would condone putting children in cages has lost all claim to ever use religious language again.
Biden: “And lastly, the idea that he’s in court with his Justice Department saying children in cages do not need a bed, do not need a blanket, do not need a toothbrush, that is outrageous.”
What failed to come up was the Obama administration’s role in putting “kids in cages.” The so-called cages are the same structures used during the Obama administration when Biden served as vice president.
Breitbart News reported:
CBS News, Time Magazine, Business Insider, NBC News, and their counterparts in the Democratic Party have continuously claimed migrant children are being held in cages, specifically pointing to photos from a detention facility in McAllen, Texas. These same barriers, though, were used in that McAllen detention facility under President Obama when the establishment media was silent on the issue.
The child separation policy was, in fact, in action during Obama’s presidency.
In June 2018, President Trump “signed an executive order to end child separation at the border,” Breitbart News reported.
Antisemitism
Freshman Democrats in Congress – Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), specifically – have been stirring the pot over the last few months, making a range of antisemitic statements. Notably, Democrat leadership has been hesitant to adamantly condemn it. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told the Economic Club in Washington, DC, in March that Omar was not an antisemite, chalking up her questionable remarks to a “different experience in the use of words.”
Additionally, Democrats struggled to pass a resolution condemning antisemitism alone, insisting on bringing white supremacy, Islamophobia, and a range of other groups into the mix.
Most recently, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) refused to close the door on having a meeting with raging antisemite and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
Evangelicals and abortion
Some Democrat candidates have been attempting to invoke faith to promote their radical policy ideas. Buttigieg did precisely that during Thursday’s debate, essentially calling evangelicals who support Border Patrol hypocrites.
“But we should call out hypocrisy when we see it,” Buttigieg said.
“And for a party that associates itself with Christianity, to say that it is OK to suggest that God would smile on the division of families at the hands of federal agents, that God would condone putting children in cages has lost all claim to ever use religious language again,” he added.
Interestingly, not one candidate invoked God during their defenses of abortion. Candidates made glowing remarks about “abortion rights,” but failed to acknowledge the existing concerns of evangelicals.
Instead, they doubled down. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) actually used his platform to affirm that his “Medicare for All” plan would guarantee every woman a free abortion.
“It didn’t come up here, but let’s face this, Medicare for All guarantees every woman in this country the right to have an abortion if she wants it,” he said.
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