Everything the Candidates Discussed at the Ohio Debate

By Allison McCartney, Mira Rojanasakul, Paul Murray and Chloe Whiteaker

October 16, 2019, 5:00 AM EDT

President Donald Trump loomed over Tuesday’s debate as an unfolding impeachment inquiry has upended the Democratic primary campaign.

All 12 candidates who qualified for the debate in Ohio agreed that impeachment proceedings in the House of Representatives should go forward. The candidates questioned Trump’s foreign policy decisions—particularly his pullback of U.S. troops in Syria, where Turkey is escalating a military offensive. They even sparred over whether Twitter should shut down the president’s account.

Tuesday’s debate was the first time that health care wasn’t the most-discussed issue, though it was still a major focus of the debate along with foreign policy and economic inequality. Women’s reproductive rights were discussed at length for the first time in the debates. Immigration, which had been a dominant issue in earlier debates, and the environment were barely mentioned.

The issues that dominated each debate

Share of words spoken during the debate

Read the full transcript, tagged by issue

Tuesday’s debate was the most crowded so far, with more rivals on stage than the first two—which were two-night events that split 20 candidates into groups of 10. That created more urgency for candidates to make the most of their speaking time.

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren trails former Vice President Joe Biden in most national polls, but her rivals on stage treated her like the frontrunner. Other candidates routinely lobbed attacks her way—especially over how she’d pay for her “Medicare for All” health care proposal. That ensured Warren received plenty of time to respond, and she spoke far more than any other candidate.

Billionaire activist Tom Steyer, who started his presidential campaign in August and had not appeared in prior debates, spoke the least.

The candidates who spoke the most

Word count by candidate, according to debate transcripts

Source: Bloomberg Government transcripts

With only three candidates polling in the double digits—Biden, Warren and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders—some candidates tried to break out by drawing direct contrasts with other candidates.

Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar said she wanted “to give a reality check” to Warren that opposition to her plan for a wealth tax doesn’t mean she or other candidates are cozy with billionaires.

South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg—who has polled closest to the top tier recently—attacked on many fronts. He pushed Warren to say whether her health care plan would raise taxes. He said Tulsi Gabbard, a U.S. representative from Hawaii, was “dead wrong” when she said violence in Syria is a consequence of U.S. military presence. And Buttigieg shot back at former Representative Beto O’Rourke for suggesting his position on gun buybacks was influenced by polling.

“The problem isn’t the polls. The problem is the policy. And I don’t need lessons from you on courage, political or personal.”

Everything the Candidates Discussed at the Ohio Debate

The issues that dominated each debate

The candidates who spoke the most

The topics discussed during every moment of the debates