2020 Dems Spar In Second Night Of Debate.
JOE BIDEN (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Very strongly that we in fact deal with the notion of denying people access to the ballot box, I agree that everybody once they in fact just (ph) -- my time's up.</s>CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: All right look policy matters, style matters, just as much on the debate stage and this is about the persona of persuasion, what did tonight mean for Joe Biden? Let's bring back Cenk Uyger, Jennifer Granholm who helped Biden with debate prep but has not made any endorsements, and Chris Cillizza. Cillizza -- plus, minus for Biden tonight?</s>CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER AND EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Minus, minus. On that point there, I don't understand -- Joe Biden of all people, he's been involved in more debates than probably everybody else on that stage combined he knew -- what are the moderators going to do if you go over your allotted time?</s>CUOMO: Got to be how he was prepped?</s>CILLIZZA: Turn off your mic? I mean, just talk! You know --</s>CUOMO: Look at Granholm -- I'm just kidding.</s>CILLIZZA: I don't get that --</s>JENNIFER GRANHOLM, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR -- (D) FORMER MICHIGAN GOVERNOR: (Inaudible) that was a shot at me, right? That was a shot at me.</s>CILLIZZA: I don't think you get -- I don't think you get -- I don't think voters say, "oh, well he talked 65 seconds, he's only supposed to talk 60." On that minor point -- on the broader point, he just looked rusty. Now that may change, right? He's going to do more of these things, CNN's debates are in a month. But he looked rusty to me. He should be the fulcrum of that debate, and he felt (ph) at times secondary and at times like a punching bag. He very rarely looked like he was in command, at least to me.</s>CUOMO: You know, sometimes as a metaphor Jennifer, sometimes you need to get woken up in a fight. And sometimes you can get your bell rung in a fight and it actually focuses you and you're like, "all right, now I have to be on." Do you think that has potential for Joe Biden or is what we saw tonight basically where he is?</s>GRANHOLM: No, I think that totally has potential for that, I mean like it would for anybody. I mean really he's -- Joe Biden, first of all he's such a great human being and this talk about him not looking empathetic or whatever. I mean, he is so empathetic and so I think you're -- all of this is learning, right? All of this is going to be taken in and injested I'm sure it's going to be watched and all of that. But hey, how about that Kamala Harris? She did have a great night tonight.</s>CUOMO: She did have a great night, look -- and it's good for you guys to have a good field. Go ahead Chris and then we'll get Cenk in.</s>CILLIZZA: I would just very quickly -- look, Barack Obama, I think we'd all agree Barack Obama a pretty skilled debater. Remember the first general election debate of the 2012 campaign.</s>CUOMO: He got pegged.</s>CILLIZZA: Barack Obama slept walked through that, Mitt Romney wiped the floor with him -- everybody worried, "oh no, it is -- has Obama lost it?" He comes back in the second and third general election debates and he's fine. So you know, there's going to be more than three primary debates that Joe Biden's going to be involved in, so he does have time and we have seen this happen to people who are gifted debaters and we would agree on.</s>CUOMO: Cenk?</s>GRANHOLM: Yes, yes.</s>CENK UYGUR, CEO & HOST, THE YOUNG TURKS: Yes, so Chris makes a good point -- I thought about that same first Obama debate. But on the other hand this is not an issue of stylistic problems for Biden, it's not an issue of guests (ph), it's who he is. And he was wrong on a great number of counts, and he got called out on it, so he was wrong about the deportations -- they did deport people who were not -- who did not have a criminal record, and they deported a ton of people under Obama so that just was not correct. Sanders called him out for voting for the Iraq War when he was trying to pretend that he was against wars, so he was wrong on that. Actually Michael Bennett did a fantastic job of pointing out that that deal that he made with McConnell was a terrible deal. It made all the tax cuts permanent, that Bush couldn't even make permanent. I talked to Michael Bennett in the spin room afterwards, he said it was the worst of all deals. So that's pretty devastating. And finally on the bussing issue, no wonder he was against bussing because Kamala Harris just threw him under one.</s>CUOMO: Cenk's been waiting for that -- he's been waiting for that since they put him in the (inaudible).</s>CILLIZZA: He had that one -- he had that one like Kamala Harris had the food on the table, not food (inaudible) --</s>CUOMO: Exactly.</s>GRANHOLM: Exactly.</s>CUOMO: All of this stuff --</s>GRANHOLM: Can I just say though --</s>CUOMO: We know is planned, Jennifer. I mean look, you know Julian Castro was ready to go last night. You've got to believe Harris ready to go tonight -- they had social media going of I am that girl, you know, ready to go right after she said it basically. Go ahead Jennifer, what's your point?</s>GRANHOLM: Of course, and you know -- she was -- that's what you do. You prepare and you know -- you have your takedown before you go in to these debates, you know exactly what you're going to do and she executed that. I will say this though, the bussing issue and we'll see how this plays out, right? But it is over 40 years old and his point at the time was that you've got to build up schools where kids are and live. And even that is reflected in his education plan today, he's tripling the amount of money for Title One schools in his education plan. You know, again -- I'm not a surrogate for Joe Biden. I'm just saying that I'm -- we'll see how a 40 year old, or 45 year old argument plays out when the polls come through. And on the Iraq War, Cenk -- you know, he had apologized for that long ago. I mean he knows that that was a bad vote and he has said that that's a bad vote, and they got that information making that bad vote. So he had --</s>UYGUR: But Jennifer, I just got to jump in --</s>CUOMO: Right, they did get bad information, but yet it's one of the reasons -- and I'm happy it happened Cenk, and I'll tell you why. Because we have lawmakers all the time on my show say, "yeah, we've got to take our power back, this AUMF is no good. We have to have a debate, the president has to come to us." They gave that power away because they don't want moments like Biden had here and Clinton had to have in the last race where they have to own what happens in conflict --</s>CILLIZZA: John Edwards in the last race, Chris.</s>CUOMO: But -- so they've run away from it. Cenk?</s>UYGUR: So Chris, that's absolutely right. It's a cogent point, but overall look at the scene here. What unites all of these votes for Biden, and all of these actions is when he compromises with Republicans whether it's on bussing, whether it's on the Iraq War, or whether it's on tax cuts -- he does not pull them over to the Democratic side. He goes over to their side and compromises in a way that is greatly advandegous to the Republican party. And in today's race when you're going against Donald Trump and you've got Mitch McConnell in the Senate -- we do not want the Democratic nominee going anywhere near Trump or McConnell, we want them fighting for us and that is really the number one problem for Biden.</s>CUOMO: Well look, the best thing that happened for Joe Biden tonight is that the President of the United States once again gave Vladimir Putin a big, wet kiss and literally made a joke out of Russian interference --</s>GRANHOLM: Unbelievable.</s>CUOMO: And made a joke about Angela Merkel hating the United States more than anybody else -- that was the best stuff that happened for Joe Biden tonight, because those will be two of his biggest points of strength. All right, let's leave that there -- I'm going to take a break right now. We're going to have more to discuss, so I ask each and all of you, please stay. So here's the next topic -- some of the more interesting parts of the debate. Those moments didn't necessarily come from the candidates at the top of the polls, but they could wind up being a window in to what will have to be addressed by people who make it to the top, so let's go through those next.