Biden on Ukraine: We did nothing wrong

Biden declined to answer directly a question about why it was OK for his son, Hunter, to serve on the board of a Ukrainian company while Biden was serving as vice president given his recent announcement that no one in his family would be involved in foreign business if he’s elected president next year.

“My son did nothing wrong,” Biden said. “I did nothing wrong.”

Biden instead focused his response on impeaching President Donald Trump, noting that Trump on three separate occasions has invited foreign leaders to get involved in U.S. elections.

“Rudy Giuliani, the president and his thugs have already proven that they, in fact, are flat lying,” he said. “What we have to do now is focus on Donald Trump. He doesn’t want me to be the candidate. He’s going after me because he knows if I get the nomination, I will beat him like a drum.”

Later, in response to another question, Sen. Cory Booker circled back to the issue of Biden and his son, accusing the moderators of doing Trump’s bidding.

“I am having deja vu all over again,” Booker said. “I saw this play in 2016's election. We are literally using Donald Trump's lies and the second issue we cover is elevating a lie and attacking a statesman. That was so offensive. The only person sitting at home that was enjoying that was Donald Trump seeing we are distracting from his malfeasance and selling out of his office.”

One thing Dems can all agree on: impeachment

Biden's answer followed questions on on the biggest issue to grip U.S. politics in more than a decade: the looming impeachment of the president after he may have improperly pressured Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son.

Warren, who first called for Trump’s impeachment this spring after reading Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report about alleged Russian collusion and the obstruction of his inquiry, said she should have been listened to months ago.

“That didn't happen. Look what happened as a result: Donald Trump broke the law again in the summer. Broke it again this fall. You know, we took a constitutional oath. That is that no one is above the law, and that includes the president of the United States,” she said.

Sanders followed up by calling Trump “the most corrupt president in the history of the country. I think that the house will find him guilty ... He is enriching himself while using the oval office.”

Biden echoed those criticisms, while Harris said that Trump has admitted he is guilty.

“He has committed crimes in plain sight. It's shocking but he told us who he was. Maya Angelou told us, listen to somebody when they tell you who they are,” Harris said. “I don't think this impeachment process is going to take very long, because as a former prosecutor, I know a confession when I see it.”

Democrats split on health care — again

The candidates were divided between the more progressive wing that wants Medicare for All and the more moderate candidates who want to build on Obamacare by offering a so-called “public option” that creates a government-run program but also keeps private insurance

And, as in previous debates, Warren steadfastly refused to say if taxes would go up to give everyone government-run insurance, giving Buttigieg an opening.

“A yes or no question that didn't get a yes or no answer. This is why people are so frustrated,” Buttigieg said, looking at Warren. “Your signature is to have a plan for everything, except this.”

Warren countered that “Costs will go up for wealthy, for big corporations. They will not go up for middle class families. I will not sign a bill into law that raises their costs. Because costs are what people care about.”

Sanders, noting (again) that he “wrote the damn bill” on Medicare for all, said that “deductibles are gone. All out-of-pocket expenses are gone ... At the end of the day, the overwhelming majority of people will save money on their health care bills. I do think it is appropriate to acknowledge that taxes will go up. They will go up significantly for the wealthy and for virtually everybody, the tax increase will be substantially less -- substantially less than what they were paying for premiums and out-of-pocket expansions.”

Warren still wouldn’t acknowledge it, leading Sen. Amy Klobuchar to call her out.

“Bernie is being honest. We owe it to the American people to tell them where we will send the invoice. The boldest idea is to not trash Obamacare but to do exactly what Obama wanted to do from the beginning and that's have a public option,” Klobuchar said.

The billionaire talks about whether to tax the wealthy

For most of the first hour of the debate, the top issue was wealth. Who has it and who does it. And few have it the way that Tom Steyer, the billionaire, does.

So it seemed like a perfect time for Sanders, an anti-wealth crusader who has nevertheless become a millionaire himself, to take a shot at Steyer.

“The truth is, we cannot afford to continue this level of income and wealth inequality. We cannot afford a billionaire class whose greed and corruption has been at war with the working families of this country for 45 years,” Sander said.

Steyer, however, didn’t punch back.

“Senator Sanders is right. There have been 40 years where corporations have bought this government and those 40 years have meant a 40-year attack on the rights of working people and specifically on organized labor,” Steyer said, calling the system “absolutely wrong. It's absolutely un-democratic and unfair. I was one of the first people on this stage to propose a wealth tax.”

Quipped Klobuchar: “No one on this stage wants to protect billionaires. Not even the billionaire wants to protect billionaires.”