Katie Glueck

“Some call it the ‘my way or the highway’ approach to politics,” Biden, the former vice president, wrote in a Medium post. “But it’s worse than that. It’s condescending to the millions of Democrats who have a different view. It’s representative of an elitism that working and middle-class people do not share: ‘We know best; you know nothing.’ ‘If you were only as smart as I am you would agree with me.’ This is no way to get anything done.”

Biden repeated similar arguments in a fundraising email and at a fundraiser in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, escalating tensions between the two top-polling contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination. He did not mention his rival by name, but the message was unmistakably aimed at Warren, whose Republican critics have for years sought to paint her as an out-of-touch liberal who worked as a Harvard professor.

Warren’s campaign has emphasized that she grew up in Oklahoma “on the ragged edge of the middle class.” Her campaign declined to comment on Biden’s remarks.

Biden and Warren have clashed repeatedly over health care, especially as Warren has overtaken Biden in some early-state polls. Warren supports “Medicare for All,” an expansive government-run health insurance system that would all but eliminate private health insurance, while Biden wants to add a “public option” to build on the Affordable Care Act but still allow people to choose private insurance.

Last week, after Biden’s campaign criticized Warren’s proposal to pay for Medicare for All, she suggested that Biden was “running in the wrong presidential primary” and “repeating Republican talking points.”

“These kinds of attacks are a serious problem,” Biden wrote. “They reflect an angry unyielding viewpoint that has crept into our politics. If someone doesn’t agree with you — it’s not just that you disagree — that person must be a coward or corrupt or a small thinker.”

Some of Warren’s other opponents, including Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, have also been critical of Warren’s health care proposal, and of her approach to promoting it.

And in several venues Tuesday, Biden repeatedly seized on the fact that Warren was once a registered Republican, though she is now a leading progressive contender for the Democratic nomination and Biden is perceived by many on the left as too moderate and overly focused on striking deals with Republicans.

“I have fought for the Democratic Party my whole career,” Biden wrote. “I know what we stand for, who we stand with and what we believe. And it’s not just policies or issues. It’s in my bones. That’s not something everyone in this primary can say.”

He was more explicit at the fundraiser: “I’ve been a Democrat my whole life. This person has only fairly recently in the mid-’90s become a Democrat.”

Biden and his team often bristle at the suggestion that he is insufficiently progressive for this moment in the Democratic Party, and Biden on Tuesday sought to defend his liberal credentials on issues like health care and taxes.

But his use of personal criticisms to confront Warren, the only woman polling in the top tier of Democratic contenders, carries risk. Attacks on character, including on Biden’s, have often failed to land or have backfired in the primary process so far.

Biden cast his remarks as self-defense.

“Since some have questioned whether I’m running in the wrong primary — let me answer that question,” he continued. “I’m running in the Democratic primary as a proud Democrat.”

This article originally appeared in

Biden Attacks Warren as a 'Condescending' Elitist

Joe Biden unfurled sharply personal new lines of attack against Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday, questioning her contributions to the Democratic Party and seeking to cast her as an elitist who believes people lack courage or wisdom unless they agree with her.

“There’s many more things, but —” he said before trailing off.

Minutes later, Biden interrupted himself again.

“So there’s a, there’s — my time up?” he said, echoing a line he had used when he stumbled in the first presidential debate this year. “I guess not. I guess it is.”

And as he spoke to reporters here last week about President Donald Trump’s freezing of military aid to Ukraine, he briefly fumbled his words.

“People are being killed in western, in eastern Afghan — excuse me, in eastern, uh, Ukraine,” he said.

Six months into his presidential campaign, Biden is still delivering uneven performances on the debate stage and on the campaign trail in ways that can undermine his message. He takes circuitous routes to the ends of sentences, if he finishes them at all. He sometimes says the opposite of what he means (“I would eliminate the capital gains tax — I would raise the capital gains tax” he said in this month’s debate). He has mixed up countries, cities and dates, embarked on off-message asides and sometimes he simply cuts himself off.

That choppy speaking style puts Biden at a disadvantage as his front-runner status erodes and he confronts growing pressure to expand his appeal with voters and donors. He faces intensifying competition for moderate support, a formidable liberal foe in Elizabeth Warren, attacks on his family by Trump and Republicans, and a troubling cash crunch.

At a time when he most needs to convey confidence and forcefulness, some Democrats say, he is instead getting in his own way.

“He does not do well speaking where he isn’t giving a speech,” said Chris Henning, the Democratic chair in Greene County, Iowa, who caucused for Biden when he ran for president in 2008. “He’s not good in debates and he comes across like he’s stumbling around, trying to figure out what he’s going to say.”

Biden’s verbal miscues have long led to challenges. He was forced to withdraw from the 1988 presidential campaign after he presented biographical details from the life of the British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock as his own. His gaffe-prone tendencies made national headlines during his 2008 presidential bid when he referred to Barack Obama as “the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean.”

But Biden can now appear less crisp, and more hesitant, than in the past — and also in comparison to more polished rivals in the crowded Democratic primary. As the early leader in 2020 polls he has spent more time in the spotlight, and he is competing in a fast-moving social media environment in which gaffes are magnified and candidates are rewarded for being quick on their feet.

Biden, 76, still leads many national polls, and he enjoys significant goodwill from many Democratic voters. Some attendees at his events in Iowa last week said Biden, who overcame a childhood stutter, is a relatable raconteur whose decades of experience are comforting amid the chaos of the Trump era. He can be forceful in denouncing the president from the podium, and is at his best in individual conversations with voters.

And of course, if Biden wins the nomination, he will face a president who is an undisciplined speaker in his own right — one who misstated the name of his own Cabinet secretary recently, tortures grammar and spelling in his tweets and, most significantly, routinely makes false claims about matters large and small.

But Biden’s inconsistent performances illustrate why many Democrats remain skeptical of his candidacy: Whatever his strengths in polls — and the data is mixed, especially in the early-voting primary states — on the ground his performances are often plainly shaky.

Nowhere are the stakes higher for Biden than in Iowa, the leadoff caucus state where Biden will return for a four-day swing Wednesday. Warren has tied or moved ahead of Biden in some polls, and party officials on the ground say Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, appears capable of siphoning some of Biden’s centrist support. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a moderate from neighboring Minnesota, also gained attention after the October debate. Last week, she qualified for the fifth debate, scheduled for next month.

While Biden’s campaign has publicly sought to downplay expectations in Iowa, it has also invested heavily in time and resources. In a confidential memo circulated last week, the campaign manager, Greg Schultz, said Biden was positioned to have a “narrow advantage” in the state.

“I plan on winning Iowa. I’m working like hell to win Iowa,” Biden told reporters here, adding, “It could end up being a must-win; it could not make a difference.”

In Iowa and nationally, worries about Biden’s speaking style are often intertwined with concerns about his age — though allies and former staffers say he has long been prone to misspeaking.

Biden has said it is fair to raise his age, and in one of his stronger moments at the last debate, said that “with it comes wisdom.” In a statement over the summer, his doctor said that he was in “excellent physical condition.”

But several public appearances have intensified questions about his ability to connect in this political moment. At the September debate, Biden responded to a question about the legacy of slavery with a rambling answer that included advising the use of a record player to expose underprivileged children to more words. At a CNN forum focused on LGBTQ issues this month, Biden — who was ahead of Obama in voicing support for same-sex marriage — still raised eyebrows for referring to “gay bath houses,” while making a broader point about evolving attitudes.

“It doesn’t necessarily bother me,” said Steve Drahozal, the Democratic chairman in Dubuque County, Iowa, of Biden’s “halting speaking style,” allowing that Biden might simply be thoughtful. “But there are a lot of voters out there who want to be inspired by a candidate. Democrats win when we have an inspiring candidate.”

Concerns about Biden’s style are not confined to members of the political class: Voters often raise the issue, including at his own events.

“I like Joe, but I don’t think Joe’s going to get it because he has not been doing very well with his speaking, with the debates,” said Lisa Kane, 62, of Keokuk, Iowa, as she waited for Biden to speak. “Pete would do a better job. He’s younger, a great speaker, he’s smart, got the military background.”

Debbie Hunter, who stood with Kane, based her assessment on Biden’s debate performances, which many Democrats continue to see as lackluster at best.

“He’s real hard to follow,” Hunter, 57, said. “I have a lot of concern about his ability to concentrate, his attention span, the ability to get the job done.”

But Patty Madden, 69, and Bev Alderson, 60, two former teachers, said Biden’s informal, story-laden speaking style was part of his charm.

“I love it,” Alderson said. “It appeals to the common people, working class, Americans, everybody!”

“I know he falls over some of his words, we all do,” Madden said.

“Oh, big deal!” Alderson interjected. “He speaks from his heart.”

At his two events in Iowa on Oct. 23, Biden spoke, relatively carefully, from teleprompters. There were some apparent tangents, but he also ended with a forceful conclusion about America’s strengths and received a standing ovation.

Biden has also proven capable of speaking crisply and movingly, and he was a fierce competitor at the vice presidential debate in 2012.

This year, too, he has had some electric moments, such as when he eviscerated Trump for fanning “the flames of white supremacy.” And he can be sharper in exchanges with reporters than he is on a debate stage.

“His day after debate press conference have been outstanding,” Jim Messina, Obama’s 2012 campaign manager, wrote in an email. “He shines in that format, as he did in 2012. It also shows he still had a fastball. The mass format debates just aren’t his strong suit. And that’s probably OK.”

Some advisers and allies have said privately that they have little control over Biden’s speaking style, but they also insist his debate performances have improved, and note that a string of controversies and wobbly public appearances have hardly crushed his campaign.

“Not one expert has been right about Joe Biden,” said former Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat and friend of Biden’s. “It goes on and on. ‘He can’t make it, it’s just the name ID.’ Then he’s going to fall out because he’s too affectionate. Now he’s going to fall down because he’s too gaffe prone? Now it’s the money? I just don’t buy it.”

In response to multiple questions for this article, a Biden campaign spokesman, Jamal Brown, pointed to steady poll numbers in head-to-head matchups with Trump, and to surveys that show him growing his support among Democratic voters.

Hunter, of Keokuk, said seeing Biden in person allayed some of her concerns and that she had moved him in her rankings.

“If he wants to win these debates, he needs to speak up, get fired up,” she said. Asked if he had done so at West Point, she replied, “Well, a little. At the end.”

His Unforced Verbal Fumbles Burden Biden on the Stump

WEST POINT, Iowa — Joe Biden was making an impassioned case for protecting immigrants who lack legal status one recent Sunday when he abruptly stopped himself.

“There’s many more things, but —” he said before trailing off at a union forum.

But Biden can now appear less crisp, and more hesitant, than in the past — and also in comparison to more polished rivals in the crowded Democratic primary. As the early leader in 2020 polls he has spent more time in the national spotlight, and he is competing in a fast-moving social media environment in which gaffes are magnified and candidates are rewarded for being quick on their feet.

While Biden’s campaign has publicly sought to downplay expectations in Iowa, it has also invested heavily in both time and resources. In a confidential memo circulated last week, the campaign manager, Greg Schultz, said that Biden was positioned to have a “narrow advantage” in the state.

In Iowa and nationally, worries about Biden’s speaking style are often intertwined with concerns about his age — though his allies and former staffers say he has long been prone to misspeaking.

But several public appearances have intensified questions about his ability to connect in this political moment. At the September debate, Biden responded to a question about the legacy of slavery with a rambling answer that included advising the use of a record player to expose underprivileged children to more words. At a CNN forum focused on LGBTQ issues this month, Biden — who was ahead of Obama in voicing support for same-sex marriage — still raised eyebrows for referencing “gay bath houses,” while making a broader point about evolving attitudes.

At his two events in Iowa on Oct. 23, Biden spoke, relatively carefully, from teleprompters. There were some apparent tangents — one promise to wrap up his address drifted into a digression on illness in China — but he also ended with a forceful conclusion about America’s strengths and received a standing ovation.

“His day after debate press conference have been outstanding,” Jim Messina, Obama’s 2012 campaign manager, wrote in an email. “He shines in that format, as he did in 2012. It also shows he still had a fastball. The mass format debates just aren’t his strong suit. And that’s probably OK. The field is beginning to narrow. He still has time.”

Hunter, of Keokuk, said seeing Biden in person allayed some of her concerns and that she had moved him in her candidate rankings.

“If he wants to win these debates, he needs to speak up, get fired up,” she said. Asked if he had done so in the event at West Point, she replied, “Well, a little. At the end.”

The Many Ways That Biden Trips Over His Own Tongue

WEST POINT, Iowa — Joe Biden was making an impassioned case for protecting immigrants in the country illegally one recent Sunday when he abruptly stopped himself.

“Beto!” someone shouted, addressing this city’s former congressman. “Thank you for being our voice!”

O’Rourke shook hands and paid his respects at the memorial to the victims of the Aug. 3 massacre at a Walmart that had targeted Latinos and left 22 people dead. He then walked several yards away to pose for photographs with admirers. Many praised him for communicating El Paso’s grief and anger as a seemingly constant presence on national television, and some expressed their support for his White House bid.

The moment captured a central tension that has characterized the past week for O’Rourke: A presidential candidate whose campaign had stalled was suddenly back in the spotlight — but only because of a tragedy in a city that is core to his personal and political identity.

O’Rourke spent the week off the campaign trail as many of his competitors descended on Iowa for the state fair and other party activities, and his decision to stay home was widely lauded by party activists. Yet he also received a sharp reminder of the significant challenges he faces in the 2020 race, despite the new outpouring of goodwill at home and online. A new Monmouth University poll, conducted Aug. 1-4, found O’Rourke with less than 1% of support from likely Iowa Democratic caucusgoers. He was at 6% in the Monmouth poll in April.

His poll numbers have also been weak in New Hampshire and South Carolina, as well as nationally, and his July debate performance and his most recent campaign fundraising report both fell short of the heightened expectations for his candidacy among some in the party earlier in the year.

In recent days, Democrats ranging from a former Houston mayor to rank-and-file Iowa voters have urged O’Rourke to deepen his focus on Texas and run against Sen. John Cornyn in the 2020 election, like he did against Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018 — and to shelve his White House ambitions for now.

But O’Rourke’s allies and advisers hope that his impassioned response to the massacre in his hometown, with flashes of raw anger that match the mood of many Democrats, will prompt voters nationally to give him another look. His remarks calling President Donald Trump a white supremacist, and his cussing out of the news media as he urged journalists to “connect the dots” between the El Paso killings and Trump’s anti-immigrant language and exploitation of racism, drew praise from both liberals and moderates.

In an interview at his home Friday afternoon, O’Rourke said in the wake of the shooting, he is even more determined to pursue the Democratic nomination to oppose Trump.

“I’m running for president,” he said firmly, when asked to respond to those pushing a Senate bid. “This community holds so much for the rest of the country. Whether it’s immigration, whether it’s our safety, whether it’s our connection to the rest of the world, whether it’s the fact that we’re on the front line of so many issues that can and will define America.”

El Paso, a friendly, bilingual border community that consistently ranks as one of America’s safest cities, has long been central to O’Rourke’s message. As he puts it, the diverse city is “a powerful example for the way forward for this country” — a point that has taken on a new urgency for O’Rourke, who has had a bigger national platform to make that case in the last week than at any point since launching his campaign.

In a nearly 40-minute interview, O’Rourke described feeling “deep sadness, great anger, overwhelming pride and just a very clear purpose in knowing what’s at stake.” He described how shaken his young children were by the shooting. And he detailed how moved he was by the grace, grit and even grim humor displayed by the many survivors and victims’ families he has met at vigils, funerals and hospitals.

Toward the end of the interview, he suggested that his experience in El Paso at this moment has uniquely prepared him to take on Trump, who has been accused of emboldening white nationalists through nativist and racist rhetoric.

The shooting suspect confessed to targeting Latinos, and his manifesto, which echoed Trump’s language, said the attack was “a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”

“At a time that the president is attacking this community, this part of the world, the U.S.-Mexico border, cities of immigrants, that’s where I am,” O’Rourke said. “That’s where I live. That’s where we’re raising our family. I can meet him on this issue in very personal terms and from a place that no one else can.”

O’Rourke has been careful to stress that his first focus is on El Paso, not his political future, and Democrats close to him swat away any suggestion that his frequent television appearances are designed to help him in 2020. Still, as he prepares to return to the campaign trail, potentially later this week, O’Rourke said he believed more people were now attuned to his message.

“I can tell, from so many people who approached us last night at the memorial and said, ‘You are speaking for us, and you are defending this community and you are connecting the dots and you are helping this country understand how this happened,’” he said.

“I’m sure there’s some way to quantify that, measure that,” he added.

O’Rourke’s campaign pulled ads and fundraising appeals in the wake of the shooting, though the “donate” button still features prominently on his website. But they pointed to other measures when asked about O’Rourke’s assertion that his message is breaking through, including social media metrics such as video views, Facebook users reached, and impressions and engagements on Twitter.

His team said that the Sunday and Monday after the shooting, as O’Rourke spoke out forcefully against Trump, the campaign reached about 10 times more people than on an average day. That Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were the biggest days of engagement across social platforms for the campaign since it began, his aides said.

Former state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh of Texas, who has been a mentor to O’Rourke, expressed disappointment with the trajectory of the race to date.

But O’Rourke’s response in the wake of the shooting, especially to Trump, has “crystallized his message in a way that’s been beneficial.”

“He’s an emotional guy, that’s how he connects with audiences,” Shapleigh said. “I think this tragedy will help him do that around the country.”

Up to this point, connecting has been a struggle for O’Rourke.

He began his campaign as a formidable contender, alarming other candidates with the encouragement he received from alumni of the Obama political operation and the charisma he displayed as a surprisingly competitive, if unsuccessful, Senate candidate in Texas last year.

But soon after joining the race, O’Rourke embarked on an apology tour of sorts: for joking that his wife, Amy, was home raising their children, “sometimes with my help”; for writings dating back to his teen years; for benefiting from white privilege. He struck some observers as indulgent with an angsty precampaign road trip. And he was mocked as entitled after appearing in a Vanity Fair cover story about the campaign and declaring that he was “just born to be in it.”

The second-quarter fundraising haul O’Rourke announced in July, $3.6 million, was closer to what top 2018 House contenders raised than it was to many of his presidential rivals. His two debate performances did not yield breakout moments, either.

“In the first one, he got blindsided,” Shapleigh said, referencing a clash over immigration policy with Julián Castro, a former housing secretary and fellow Texan. “I don’t think he really thought he’d be attacked by Castro. He did better in the second debate, but he didn’t rise to a top-tier candidate. He didn’t take an issue and run with it.”

O’Rourke has presented as a much fiercer figure in recent days, though he insisted that many of his most memorable remarks have been in keeping with messages he has long pressed. The difference is that O’Rourke is now doing so in the glare of a national spotlight that has eluded him for months.

As he attended a funeral Thursday afternoon for a shooting victim, Leonardo Campos, some of Campos’ friends and co-workers asked for photographs. Inside the funeral home’s lobby, O’Rourke obliged, offering a closelipped smile. When he stepped outside, he took questions from Spanish-language reporters, expressing pride in El Paso’s immigrant roots.

Asked how he grapples with the fact that he is receiving newfound attention because of a mass shooting, O’Rourke replied, “Not much for me to grapple with. I am focused on my hometown, the community in which I was raised, the community in which Amy and I are raising our kids, the place that means everything to me.”

“Everything I’ve got is for El Paso,” he added.

Indeed, he skipped several major events in Iowa that drew virtually the entire presidential field.

“That’s where he should be,” said Sandra Stone-Flomo, a retired teacher from Des Moines, of O’Rourke’s decision to remain in El Paso.

But she said O’Rourke would better serve his party by running for the Senate.

As most of the candidates attended a major Democratic dinner in Clear Lake, Iowa, O’Rourke spent Friday evening at his campaign headquarters, an industrial-loft-like space in El Paso. There, he thanked his team for its work on behalf of the local community and shared stories of the survivors he had encountered.

He also emphasized his resolve to run for president.

“We are 100% committed to winning this race, winning the nomination, defeating Donald Trump, serving this country in the White House,” he said. “But as we all know, this is the right place for us to be and the right thing for us to do right now.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/11/us/politics/el-paso-shooting-beto-o-rourke.html" id="8c696910-e2f7-3951-a73c-143a12e990b6">The New York Times</a>.

After El Paso Shooting, Will Voters Revisit Beto O'Rourke?

EL PASO, Texas — As Beto O’Rourke waded through a crowd that had gathered Thursday night to honor victims of the mass shooting in El Paso, the struggling presidential candidate was welcomed as a hometown hero.

In his more than three decades as a senator, Biden was a tough-on-crime Democrat who could be impatient with concerns about the societal dynamics that contribute to crime, and he championed the 1994 crime bill that many experts now associate with mass incarceration.

That history has presented a challenge for Biden as he mounts his third bid for the presidency, with many progressives questioning his commitment to reforming a criminal justice system that disproportionately ensnares people of color.

But Tuesday, Biden, the former vice president, introduced a wide-ranging criminal justice reform proposal that his campaign said sought to reduce incarceration, and the toll it takes on poor communities and communities of color, at every stage, from addressing “underlying factors” that start as early as childhood to calling for the elimination of the death penalty.

The proposal comes before Biden is set to address two events this week focused on racial justice: a gathering of the NAACP in Detroit on Wednesday, and a conference of the National Urban League in Indianapolis on Thursday. On Tuesday, he will also tour a community-based center for underserved youth in New Orleans with his national campaign co-chair, Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., the former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Biden’s proposal seeks to address societal dynamics that affect children and are linked with crime and future incarceration, and to reform the juvenile justice system.

Aiming to reverse the legacies of the 1994 crime bill, Biden called for eliminating discrepancies in sentencing between powder and crack cocaine and for the elimination of mandatory minimum sentencing, repeating and building on points he has made on the campaign trail. He also called for an end to cash bail.

And the plan supports eliminating the death penalty through legislation at the federal level and incentives at the state level, a position that is a sharp departure from the position that Biden vocally embraced in the 1990s and throughout his Senate career.

The plan arrives just over a week before the second round of presidential debates.

In the first round last month, Biden, who continues to enjoy strong support from African American voters, found himself on the defensive as Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., ripped into his record on civil rights. She criticized his opposition to many busing measures dating to the 1970s and his warm recollections last month about his working relationships with segregationists in the Senate. Biden has expressed regret for those remarks but has been unapologetic about many other aspects of his record.

Next week, Biden will again share the debate stage with Harris, and will face off for the first time with Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who has also criticized Biden over his remarks about segregationist senators.

On Tuesday morning, Booker, who, like Harris, is black, highlighted Biden’s role in shaping the very criminal justice system his plan now seeks to reform.

“It’s not enough to tell us what you’re going to do for our communities, show us what you’ve done for the last 40 years,” Booker wrote in a tweet that did not refer to Biden by name. “You created this system. We’ll dismantle it.”

Biden’s proposal calls for empowering the Justice Department to “root out unconstitutional or unlawful policing” and for an independent task force focused on prosecutorial discretion.

For people who are re-entering society after serving prison sentences, Biden sets a goal of “ensuring” that all formerly incarcerated people have housing when they are released. That initiative would start with instructing the Department of Housing and Urban Development to “only contract with entities that are open to housing individuals looking for a second chance,” as well as increasing funding for transitional housing.

Biden is also urging a $20 billion competitive grant program aimed at encouraging investment in preventing incarceration and crime at the state and local level by targeting issues such as “illiteracy and child abuse that are correlated with incarceration.” It comes with the stipulation that “states will have to eliminate mandatory minimums for non-violent crimes, institute earned credit programs and take other steps to reduce incarceration rates without impacting public safety.”

His campaign also calls for the investment of $1 billion a year in juvenile justice reform, as well as more stringent protections of juvenile records and expanded funding for programs and activities for when children are not in school.

And the proposal makes overtures to law enforcement as well: “Black mothers and fathers should feel confident that their children are safe walking the streets of America,” the proposal reads. “And, when a police officer pins on that shield and walks out the door, the officer’s family should know they’ll come home at the end of the day.”

While the issue of criminal justice has been a thorny one for Biden, it has also been challenging for others in the presidential field, from Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, whose city was engulfed in a crisis over a fatal police shooting of a black man, to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who as a congressman in 1994 voted for the crime bill.

In some areas, Biden is not as bold as many of his rivals. While he supports decriminalizing marijuana and expunging prior cannabis use convictions, he continues to stop short of supporting legalizing marijuana across the board in contrast to a number of his opponents. He leaves the issue of legalizing marijuana for recreational use to the states and supports reclassifying “cannabis as a schedule II drug so researchers can study its positive and negative impacts,” his proposal said.

“This plan lacks imagination,” said Michael Collins, director of national affairs at the organization Drug Policy Action, who also objected to Biden’s support for drug courts for what he described as their reliance on the current criminal justice system. “The marijuana reform part of it is a clear example of that.”

Harris, a prosecutor by training who now supports the legalization of marijuana, is expected to introduce legislation in the Senate on Tuesday that would decriminalize marijuana on the federal level and calls for resentencing for and expungement of marijuana-related convictions. It is a comprehensive measure that also aims to help marginalized communities participate in the growing cannabis industry through efforts including grants.

Earlier this year, Booker proposed his own bill that would end the federal prohibition on marijuana. That was co-sponsored by nearly all of the other Democratic senators who are running for president: Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Michael Bennet of Colorado, and Harris.

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/23/us/politics/biden-criminal-justice.html" id="c672dca3-1a03-3732-ad9a-c9b2dd3484a7">The New York Times</a>.

Biden, Scrutinized for Crime Bill, Unveils Plan to Reduce Mass Incarceration

Joe Biden, whose long record on criminal justice matters has cast a shadow over the early months of his presidential campaign, has unveiled a comprehensive plan aimed at combating mass incarceration and reducing “racial, gender and income-based disparities in the system.”

In some areas, Biden is not as bold as many of his rivals. While he supports decriminalizing marijuana and expunging prior cannabis use convictions, he continues to stop short of supporting legalizing marijuana across the board.

Harris is expected to introduce legislation in the Senate on Tuesday that would decriminalize marijuana on the federal level. Earlier this year, Booker proposed his own bill that would end the federal prohibition on marijuana. That was co-sponsored by nearly all of the other Democratic senators who are running for president: Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Michael Bennet of Colorado, and Harris.

Biden’s proposal includes plans to address societal dynamics that affect children and are linked with crime and future incarceration, along with a heavy emphasis on reforming the juvenile justice system.

In proposals that would aim to reverse the legacies of the 1994 crime bill, Biden called for eliminating discrepancies in sentencing between powder and crack cocaine and for the elimination of mandatory minimum sentencing. He also called for an end to cash bail.

The proposal calls for empowering the Justice Department to “root out unconstitutional or unlawful policing” and for an independent task force focused on prosecutorial discretion.

In proposals that would aim to reverse the legacies of the 1994 crime bill, Biden called for eliminating discrepancies in sentencing between powder and crack cocaine and for the elimination of mandatory minimum sentencing, repeating and building on points he has made on the campaign trail. He also called for an end to cash bail.

His plan, which builds in part on several Obama administration initiatives, arrives just over a week before the second presidential debates.

In his first presidential primary debate of the 2020 campaign, Biden, who continues to enjoy strong support from African American voters, found himself on the defensive as Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., ripped into his record on civil rights. She criticized his opposition to many busing measures dating to the 1970s and his warm recollections last month about his working relationships with segregationists in the Senate. Biden has expressed regret for those remarks but has been unapologetic about many other aspects of his record.

At that debate, however, he did note his time spent as a public defender, an experience referred to in his proposal, along with a call to “expand resources for public defenders’ offices.”

Harris is expected to introduce legislation in the Senate on Tuesday that would decriminalize marijuana on the federal level. Next week, Biden will again share the debate stage with Harris and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who earlier this year proposed his own bill that would end the federal prohibition on marijuana.

And Biden’s proposal makes overtures to law enforcement as well: “Black mothers and fathers should feel confident that their children are safe walking the streets of America,” the proposal reads. “And, when a police officer pins on that shield and walks out the door, the officer’s family should know they’ll come home at the end of the day.”

On Tuesday, Booker, who, like Harris, is black, highlighted Biden’s role in shaping the very criminal justice system his plan now seeks to reform. He rebuked Biden for his record and sought to contrast it with his own in a potential preview of clashes to come in the next debate.

“Joe Biden had more than 40 years to get this right,” Booker said in a statement. “The proud architect of a failed system is not the right person to fix it. The 1994 crime bill accelerated mass incarceration and inflicted immeasurable harm on black, brown and low-income communities. While it’s encouraging to see Vice President Biden finally come around to supporting many of the ideas I and others have proposed, his plan falls short of the transformative change our broken criminal justice system needs.”

Biden is also urging a $20 billion competitive grant program aimed at preventing incarceration and crime at the state and local level by addressing issues such as “illiteracy and child abuse that are correlated with incarceration.” It comes with the stipulation that “states will have to eliminate mandatory minimums for nonviolent crimes, institute earned credit programs and take other steps to reduce incarceration rates without impacting public safety.”

In some areas, Biden is not as bold as many of his rivals. While he supports decriminalizing marijuana and expunging prior cannabis use convictions, he continues to stop short of supporting legalizing marijuana across the board in contrast to a number of his opponents. He leaves the issue of legalizing marijuana for recreational use to the states and supports reclassifying “cannabis as a schedule II drug so researchers can study its positive and negative impacts,” his proposal said. Some advocates for marijuana legalization were sharply critical of his ideas on the issue.

“This plan lacks imagination,” said Michael Collins, director of national affairs at the organization Drug Policy Action, who also objected to Biden’s support for drug courts, which he said relied on the current criminal justice system. “The marijuana reform part of it is a clear example of that.”

Erik Altieri, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said in a statement that Biden’s “watered down proposed policies surrounding marijuana are wholly insufficient to address the crisis at hand. Biden is offering the American people crumbs when it comes to drug policy and they are ready and hungry for the whole loaf.”

Harris, a former prosecutor who now supports the legalization of marijuana, was expected to introduce legislation in the Senate on Tuesday that would decriminalize marijuana on the federal level and urges resentencing for and expungement of marijuana-related convictions. It is a comprehensive measure that also aims to help marginalized communities participate in the growing cannabis industry through efforts that include grants.

Earlier this year, Booker proposed his own bill that would end the federal prohibition on marijuana. That bill was co-sponsored by nearly all of the other Democratic senators who are running for president: Harris, Sanders, Michael Bennet of Colorado, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

Yet as the fourth presidential debate arrives, the previous contests offer proof of how challenging it is to translate biting quips into staying power in the polls.

Gillibrand is no longer running for president, Castro is at 1% in recent surveys, and Harris, who enjoyed an initial bounce after the first debate when she laced into Biden’s record on busing — and had T-shirts ready to reinforce her point — now consistently falls behind several other contenders. (Biden, whose early front-runner status made him the target of attacks, has seen his polling advantage ebb amid campaign trail challenges, though he remains in the field’s top tier.)

The goal of breaking out in a way that alters the dynamics of the race is all the more urgent for most of the candidates in Tuesday’s debate, as they fight for oxygen in a campaign now overshadowed by the impeachment inquiry Trump faces in Washington.

“You can see they’re grasping for this one line their staff told them would make them stand out in the crowd,” said former Rep. Dennis E. Eckart, an Ohio Democrat practiced in political debate prep.

Catchy debate lines alone rarely determine the outcome of a race. But there is a skill to landing the perfect zinger, the kind of quick remark that can reinvigorate a campaign, boost fund-raising, allay concerns about a candidate or even sink an opponent.

Ahead of the CNN/New York Times debate, here is a guide to the art of the zinger, from veterans of the practice.

Focus on the moment, not just on memorizing a line

When debate moderator Bret Baier of Fox News urged civility and substance at a Republican primary debate in 2011, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich wrote down his words, on an “instinct they couldn’t get through the whole debate” without asking provocative questions, he recalled in a recent interview.

And when another debate moderator, Chris Wallace, asked Gingrich that night whether his campaign was “a mess,” Gingrich was ready with a reference to Wallace’s colleague.

“I took seriously Bret’s injunction to put aside the talking points,” he admonished. “And I wish you would put aside the gotcha questions.”

The conservative crowd loved the lashing of the news media, and Gingrich’s record of debate-stage zingers helped him survive in the race for longer than some political observers initially had expected.

“You have to think about two audiences,” Gingrich said. “Those who are in the room, and those who are at home. And you’ve somehow got to meet both.”

The ability to capitalize on real-time developments also helped former Gov. Chris Christie paint Sen. Marco Rubio as a scripted creature of Washington during a 2016 primary debate. When Rubio responded by repeating several times a statement he’d made earlier, nearly verbatim, Christie noticed — and called him out sharply.

“One-liners are much better when they come spontaneously than when they’re prepackaged,” he said in an interview over the summer. “Most of those pre-canned lines don’t really go over all that well. I think it’s got to be spontaneous. I think it’s got to be something that comes about in the context of what people are hearing.”

Christie’s campaign was already struggling by that debate, but his lacerating attack helped ensure that Rubio’s campaign never recovered, either.

But punchy quips carry risk

Castro tried a similar approach onstage last month when he suggested that Biden was forgetting remarks he had just made, comments widely perceived as a swipe at the 76-year-old Biden’s age. Castro also argued that Biden was contradicting himself, though it didn’t appear that he had done so.

“If you were watching, you were saying, ‘Oh, Castro’s paying attention, it didn’t look like he struggled to bring it in,’” said Eckart, who helped prepare Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, Michael Dukakis’ running mate, for a memorable vice-presidential debate in 1988.

But just as some Republicans have never forgiven Christie for his savaging of Rubio, some Democrats thought Castro had crossed a line — and an important backer pulled an endorsement, a reminder of the risks of slinging zingers at this stage of the primary, when many Democrats are leery of internecine warfare. (Others defended Castro, arguing that candidates should be able to withstand tough criticism ahead of a possible general election against Trump.)

“If you go headhunting, you better be very careful who you’re hitting,” said Tad Devine, a veteran Democratic strategist who advised Bernie Sanders in 2016 but is currently unaligned.

Noting that many Democrats feel warmly about candidates like Biden, he said, “If somebody hits you, you can hit them back hard — everybody’s going to give you latitude. If you’re going to be that tough, if you’re going to launch, that’s a high hurdle to get over with voters.”

One of the most effective debate retorts in modern history was a light line that got President Ronald Reagan’s opponent, Walter Mondale, laughing.

“I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience,” Reagan said in a 1984 debate, helping ease concerns about his age.

‘Scriptwriters are lousy debate preppers’

Don’t sound overly rehearsed. Do look for opportunities to make a memorable point.

It’s a difficult balance to strike, debate experts acknowledge — and identifying those moments without sounding canned onstage takes practice.

“Most great debate moments are pre-thought-out,” said Karen Dunn, a lawyer and one of the Democratic Party’s most seasoned debate prep experts.

To help prepare Bentsen to face off against Dan Quayle in the vice-presidential debate, Eckart watched extensive video of Quayle. To Eckart, Quayle appeared to be channeling the mannerisms of former President John F. Kennedy, a late colleague of Bentsen’s.

Eckart said he did the same as he played Quayle in debate preparations, convinced the Republican would invoke Kennedy onstage.

“Bentsen just fiercely looked back at me, and he did not want to respond,” he recalled, describing how he goaded the candidate throughout several rounds of debate practice.

But Eckart was right: Quayle did compare himself to Kennedy onstage, and Bentsen, having responded viscerally to the comparison during debate practice, was prepared with an answer.

“Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy,” Bentsen said. “I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy.”

Eckart, who is unaligned in the presidential contest, sometimes still assists with political debate prep — and he continues to show candidates video of their opponents to get them talking.

“Eventually they say something that you just look at and say, ‘Oh my God, that’s perfect,’” he said. “Scriptwriters are lousy debate preppers. You have to let your emotion and your deep-seated personal beliefs out.”

Debate specialists stress that genuine conviction is the most important aspect of landing a strong debate line. But candidates and their teams get no shortage of suggestions from outside allies, too, Dunn said.

“Many people will send in their zingers,” Dunn said. “Sometimes, if it can’t be used in a debate, it might be usable for speeches. If it can’t be used in a speech, at least it will make the debate team laugh.”

How to Prepare a Debate Zinger That Doesn't Sound Prepared

Sen. Kamala Harris compared President Donald Trump to the Wizard of Oz: Behind the curtain, she said on the presidential debate stage, “it’s a really small dude.” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand came prepared to litigate an op-ed Joe Biden had written in the 1980s. And former housing secretary Julián Castro issued a cutting apparent attack on Biden’s age.

But less than two weeks before Labor Day, when presidential campaigns traditionally kick into high gear, there are signs of a disconnect between his relatively rosy poll numbers and excitement for his campaign on the ground here, in the state that begins the presidential nominating process.

In conversations with county chairs, party strategists and dozens of voters this week at Biden’s events, many Democrats in Iowa described a case for Biden, the former vice president, that reflected shades of the one his wife, Jill Biden, bluntly sketched out Monday. “You may like another candidate better, but you have to look at who is going to win,” she said, citing Biden’s consistent lead in early surveys.

The first ad of Biden’s campaign, released this week in Iowa, flashed some of his positive poll results against Trump on screen, and voter after voter cited those numbers in outlining their support for him, saying that defeating the president was their most urgent priority.

That stands in stark contrast to the way voters explain their support for candidates like Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who drew 12,000 people to an event this week in Minnesota, Iowa’s northern neighbor, or Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who also draws large crowds and maintains a core base of die-hard fans.

They and others trail Biden in most polls and face plenty of their own skeptics, but they also have followings rooted in zealous support for their ideas rather than the political calculus that many voters describe in assessing Biden.

The former vice president certainly has devoted fans, in Iowa and around the country, and continues to enjoy goodwill and respect from Democratic voters.

But the risks of a campaign argument that is heavily reliant on strong poll numbers, which can be fickle in a tumultuous election, were on vivid display throughout Biden’s trip to Iowa, as voters repeatedly emphasized that their support for him was closely linked to what they perceived as his strength against Trump.

It’s a case they make even as polls have shown several other candidates, namely Sanders, Warren and Sen. Kamala Harris of California, running strongly against Trump, and as strategists caution that such theoretical matchups are hardly predictive of an election that’s more than a year away. The polls at this early stage are also partly a reflection of a candidate’s name recognition.

“If there would be a horse leading right now for me, it would probably be Biden, because all the polls indicate he would beat Trump handily,” said Rick Spellerberg, 57, as he waited to see Biden address a group of voters gathered in a gazebo in Prole, a small rural town, Tuesday afternoon.

Spellerberg, of Prole, said that he was “still open” to other candidates and that he was planning to see former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas speak afterward.

PROLE, Iowa — Joe Biden is coasting in the national polls. Surveys show him ahead of his Democratic rivals in hypothetical matchups against President Donald Trump. He has maintained a lead in Iowa all summer, despite facing months of controversies over his record and his campaign missteps.

Katie Glueck

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