On Feburary 25th, the giants and the underdogs of the Democratic party took to the debate stage in Charleston to fight for their spot in the election.

One of the most shocking events of the night was Bernie Sanders being booed. The audience booed him, and we saw a wave of shock go over him as he looked confused. He was booed for praising Cuba’s advancements in education. He responded with “Really? Really?”

Joe Biden has kept a relatively low profile in debates lately, but Tuesday he had everyone wincing when he took credit for a bill he did not write. As we heard candidate Amy Klobuchar say “I am the author of the bill to close the boyfriend loophole that says that domestic abusers can’t go out and get an AK-47,” but she was cut-off by Biden. He went on to claim the bill saying, “I wrote that law.” Klobuchar was referring to a bill she proposed in 2017 and reintroduced in 2019, the Protecting Domestic Violence and Stalking Victims Act. Biden was referring to a bill he cosponsored in 1994, Violence Against Women Act. The mistake was like nails on a chalkboard to the audience’s ears.

This debate was extremely important to the candidates because the South Carolina primary is coming up. As we see Biden leading the SC polls, his performance was needed to keep those votes. The debate saw Biden and Tom Steyer fight for African American votes. Biden slammed Steyers private prisons where boys were “hogtied.” Steyer hit back by saying “You wrote the crime bill,” and saying he was working to end the private prison system in California and to address systematic racism system in criminal justice systems in America.

Elizabeth Warren played another hand at Sanders and their shared support for universal health care. She said, “Bernie and I both want to see universal health care, but Bernie’s plan doesn’t explain how to get there. Doesn’t show how we’re going to get enough allies into it and doesn’t show enough about how we’re going to pay for it.” Warren has made cracks at Bernie in almost all debates, but this was her way of saying she is Bernie 2.0. Warren also called out not only Michael Bloomberg’s past sexual comments, she also made a point to talk about his racist policies made while he was mayor that blocked African Americans and Latinos from buying houses. He claimed being misinformed and also said he “never said that,” referring to the derogatory sexual terms telling one of his pregnant employee’s to “kill it.”

Pete Buttigieg also attacked Sanders in almost every commentary. He knows the only way to win the race, is to take Sanders down. He went from bashing Sanders healthcare plan to his campaign fundraising.

This debate had some of the most chaos of any yet. Most candidates spent the evening speaking over one another, and at times, yelling over each other.  These attempts were all harsh and hard to watch. We also saw candidates not answering the questions. The urgency to get points across that sometimes had no relevance was clear through all the shouting and attacks.

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