democratic debate number three. ten candidates sharing the same stage tonight. and for the first time -- >> i know that the senator says she's for bernie. well, i'm for barack. >> i know what's broken.

i know how to fix it. >> i wrote the damn bill, if i may say so. >> and those fighting for a breakout moment. >> hey, joe. instead of saying no we can't, let's say yes we can. >> let's be constitutional. >> are you forgetting what you said? >> hell, yes, we're going to take your ar-15, your ak-47. we're not going to allow it to be used against our fellow americans anymore. >> msnbc's live coverage of decision 2020 continues right now. welcome to msnbc's special post debate coverage. i'm joy reid. and we have a texas-sized panel. joining us to break down everything that happened at tonight's debate in houston, on the campus of texas southern university. the largest historically black

university in the country. the top ten candidates went head to head in the most anticipated matchup yet, and they didn't pull any punches, starting with that 2 x 4 that former hud secretary julian castro took to former vice president joe biden on health care. >> barack obama's vision was not to leave 10 million people uncovered. he wanted every single person in this country covered. my plan would do that. your plan would not. >> they do not have to buy in. they do not have to buy in. >> you just said that. you said two minutes ago they would have to buy in. you said they would have to buy it. >> if you qualify for medicaid, automatic be in. >> that accusation from castro, that biden said americans would, quote have, to buy in to his health care plan has been fact checked by nbc news, and it does appear to be incorrect. here is what biden actually said. >> my health care plan does significantly cut the cost.

the largest out of pocket payment you'll pay is a thousand dollars. you'll be able to get in. anyone who can't afford it gets automatically enrolled in the medicare type option we have, et cetera. but guess what? of the 160 million people who like their health care now, they can keep it. if they don't linebacker it, they can leave. >> and this is the first debate where front-runner joe biden had come face-to-face with his closest rivals. progressive's bernie sanders and elizabeth warren, and their differences, well, they were on full display. >> let's be clear. i've actually never met anybody who likes their health insurance company. i've met people who like their doctors. i've met people who like their nurses. i met people who like their pharmacists, who like their physical therapists. what they want is access to health care. we just need to be clear about what medicare for all is all about. >> let us be clear, joe. in the united states of america, we are spending twice as much

per capita as the canadian or any other nation on earth. americans don't want the pay twice as much as other countries. and they guarantee health care to all people. >> joining me now is chief public affairs officer from moveon.org karine jean-pierre. director of paid media for hillary joel payne. msnbc analyst john than alter. republican strategist mike murphy, and politics editor at theroot.com and msnbc political contributor, jason johnson. i'm going to start with you, jason. on that julian castro decision to come for joe biden, it was obviously a strategy from your point of view, my political friend, was it effective or did it lay an egg? >> he had to do something, i predicted that cory or beto or

castro were going to do the suicide pack. i'm going to go for the front-runner. i'm going take him down. it's the only way he could bring attention to himself. i thought more critical than him saying joe biden, you're not covering enough people is when he pulled a highlander. there can be only one. i am the legacy of barack obama. i thought that was a really bold statement. but what it does is it tries to get people to focus on what does julian castro represents. we know what joe biden represents. we know what harris represents. he did a good job of putting the focus on him. will it move the numbers? no. i don't think he hurt joe biden enough. but it did show he is still fighting in this race and he is not going to hey lou himself to disappear off into the sunset with the rest of the bottom tier candidates who have been really struggling. >> let's play that moment. this is julian castro talking about which of these two. was really the obama legacy. >> you require this to opt in. and i would not require them to opt in. they would automatically be

enrolled. i am fulfilling the legacy of barack obama and you're not. >> i wonder, everyone figured out they ought to love on the former president rather than criticize him. and everybody did a lot of that. but is that fight over who really represents the obama legacy? is that a relevant fight do you think to democratic base voters? >> it is at this particular point if you're castro, because he has to say he is doing. he is not the most dynamic or interesting. he is not somebody who has a story more compelling than anybody else. he has to say look, i am the guy who can carry this hope and change and diversity moving forward. at the end of the day, you had two sets of requirements going into this debate. you had your cory booker, your pete buttigieg and castros and

betos are hey, i'm still here. pay attention to me. and then your top tier candidates who is joe biden, warren, and bernie sanders, who were look, i can prove i'm electable. and senator harris trying to figure out what she was going to do in the middle which is why she basically said i'm moving past this debate and i'm already going to start rung against donald trump. i thought castro did a good job. whether it's going to move him into harris territory or the top tier, i don't think it's going to happen after this debate. >> i do have a legacy candidate here. i have an obama campaign and obama administration veteran here. obviously president obama is enormously popular throughout the country. should candidates be fighting over his legacy in a democratic debate? >> i think the reason castro did it, he needed something to do.

castro, the name identity is not there. it was an opportunity to say hey, look at me. i was part of the obama administration and here's what i'm doing. i think that's what that was. i don't think so there was anything else except to say you're not the only one. look at me. i'm also part of the obama administration. that was part interesting and i was okay, good for him. but the attack on joe biden, we saw eric swalwell do that and that was not a smart move. the thing about castro, i do think he's brought in some really substantive conversations, immigration, racial, talking about racial issues. but that moment, i think it's going hurt him. . >> let's play what anita dunn. i do remember who anita done is.

i appreciate you joining in with this is her criticism of that moment. >> do you think secretary castro potentially landed a low blow there in terms of raising his forgetfulness? >> i think secretary castro, who likes to talk about learning from history clearly didn't learn from the first two debates that, you know, taking personal cheap shots at vice president biden actually doesn't work out that well for the candidate who throws that shot. and particularly because of it was factually inaccurate. i think many reporters in the course of the debate have already pointed out what castro said simply was not true. >> let me go to joel, who you have worked with the hillary campaign. you to eventually try to combat the front-runner. did that shot seem too cheap? >> it might be a case of good strategy. secretary castro needed to do something. i don't know if that was quite it.

here's the problem. he essentially kind of almost created a shield around joe biden i think for the rest of the debate because he set the parameters so aggressively on what he said about, you know, biden and his forgetfulness that he almost in a way gave biden a pass for the rest of the debate. so i think it kind of protected biden from any other attacks in the debate. in a way it kind of backfired on castro and worked in joe biden's favor. >> let me play mayor pete buttigieg basically saying enough with everybody fighting with each other. here is pete buttigieg. >> this is why presidential debates are becoming unwatchful. this reminds everybody of what they cannot stand about washington. scoring points against each other, poking at each other, and telling each other that my plan, your plan. >> that's called the democratic primary election. that's called an election. that's an election. this is what we're here for. it's an election.

>> but a house divided cannot stand. >> mike, let me go to you. mike is here with us in los angeles. i wonder from the point of view of republicans who are looking at this, potentially never trump republicans who are shopping for a candidate, in a sense, is joe biden helped by having other people attack him and appearing in that sense to be sympathetic as the victim of said attacks? >> no, i don't think it's a calculation for never trump republicans. look, castro made history tonight. he came in with a dying presidential campaign of 1%, not really much of a factor. he managed to do this evel knievel strategy and not only blow that up, i think he blood pressure his vice presidential chances. joe biden is a front-runner. he is a weak front-runner. but he is the most popular single candidate in the democratic, and calling him senile on national tv is a cheap shot. it's the second time castro has done something that actually you can argue helps donald trump. in the first debate he pinned everybody down on

decriminalizing border crossings. all those hands went up, and republicans in the trump campaign were all writing that down, grabbing that video for later. cast throw i think wins the not helping award tonight. he got notoriety, but the wrong kind. my guess is he won't make it until christmas. >> the thing about joe biden is that if you're going to launch an attack against the front-runner, i said earlier when i was on that you have to keep in mind how other people feel about the front-runner. people generally like joe biden. so it's a difficult pincer move you have to make to combat what he is saying or to try to eat into his lead, but still keep in mind that he is generally liked by democratic voters. >> it was just a stupid thing for him to do. and i agree with mike. i think he blew his chance to be vice president. you know, democrats don't want that kind of thing this year. they just don't. and it's almost like the republicans were when ronald reagan said the 11th

commandment, don't attack other republicans. you go after each other on policy. they want a vigorous debate on the future of the country, but once you make it personal, you electrocute yourself. >> and a difficult isn't going there. an attack that seems ageist is more than one person is in joe biden's age group. like he is not alone in that age group. >> it's not just age. it's anything that feels personal. >> yeah. >> democrats want to be united this time. they don't want their differences exploited by the republicans. and if you get out there doing something that everybody is a pundit now. everybody watching is kind of wondering are the republicans going to be able to turn this into a talking point. >> right. >> and they don't want candidates who do that. >> you know who i think was very, very focused on one opponent and one opponent only, that being donald trump was kamala harris. so i think in that sense i think she was fortunate. coming up, the candidates take on gun control, and mitch mcconnell. >> we got to send a message to

mitch mcconnell. we can't wait until one of us gets in the white house. we have to pass those bills right now to get this done, because we cannot spare another innocent life. other innocent life.

i wanted to commend him for how well he has spoken, to the passion and frustration and sadness of what happened in his hometown of el paso. >> beto, god love you for standing so courageously in the midst of that tragedy. >> by the way, the way beto handled, excuse me for saying

beto. congressman -- >> that's all right. beto is good. >> the way he handled what happened in his hometown is meaningful. to look in the eyes of those people, to see those kids, to understand those parents, you understand the heartache. we are ready to do this. >> mr. vice president, thank you. you did bring up assault weapons here. >> the democrats tonight were heavy on praise pour beto o'rourke for his passionate response for his response to the shooting in his hometown of el paso that killed 22 people. the candidates were not shy in taking it on. my panel is back with me. let's play the moment that beto o'rourke talked about, very bluntly what he would like to do on gun reform. take a listen. >> if it's a weapon that was designed to kill people on a battlefield, if the high impact, high velocity round when it hits

your body shreds everything inside of your body because it was designed to do that so you would bleed to death on a battlefield and not be able to get up and kill one of our soldiers. when we see that being used against children, and in odessa, i met the mother of a 15-year-old girl who was shot by an ar-15. and that mother watched her bleed to death over the course of an hour because so many other people were shot by that ar-15 in odessa in midland, there weren't enough ambulances to get to them in time. hell, yes, we're going to take your ar-15, your ak-47. we're note going to allow it to be used against fellow americans anymore. >> our panel is back. i want to put up for you what a texas state representative named briscoe cain tweeted in response to what beto o'rourke said about taking people's ak-47s and ar-15s, essentially saying my ar-15 is waiting for you. a rather threatening sounding tweet. which kind of passion in your view, mike, is going to be

more -- is going to move the public more? the kind of passion that you just heard from beto o'rourke, is really talking about the fear that kids have to go school, to go to the movie, fear that parents have about their kids having to do drills, or some guy that is a state representative tweeting my ar-15 is waiting for you. that doesn't exactly sound -- i don't know. your thoughts. >> well, beto finally found his message tonight because of his connection to the tragedy in odessa. and that's a very passionate issue in the democratic primary universe. the thing is hirstcally, maybe we're in new era. historically, gun politics are very tricky. there's an overwhelming national consensus for some gun legislation like background checks. there is a majority for ideas like banning large magazines or rifles that can shoot a lot of military ammunition. but actually confiscating, having the government take guns back? that's been a huge political loser in the swing states. i'm pretty sure beto is not

going run statewide in texas now in that platform. it was interesting to watch amy klobuchar who had the best of debate of her presidential career tonight. she was careful about it. she was for voluntary buybacks, not confiscation. she always has her eye on the general election. it may not help her in the primary, but beto's position, while it will give them a jolt now, is a very dangerous position to take for a nominee in a general election. >> i think to put a slight twist on that that beto o'rourke has said, i've interviewed him on this before, that he is talking about buybacks. he isn't talking about going to people's homes. >> mandatory buybacks. mandatory is the magic word there. >> go on. >> i think that that moment is what will live from this debate. because what he was doing is he was resetting the goalposts in a very significant way. whatever happens to his campaign, the politics of guns are changing fast in this

country. the reason that for decades the nra got its way is they felt more strongly about it, and their people did, than the liberals. even if the liberals were in the majority on this, there were a lot of issues they cared about more. >> yep. >> and there was no intensity. so now you have this intensity, which is changing the politics. and on the so-called confiscation issue, which it sounds like a third rail, because in the past, it's just been disastrous to go there. and there is a deep love for the gun buried in large parts of american culture. but the bazooka argument, the tank argument, the tommy gun argument is a really convincing one. like it's not legal to own a tommy gun or to drive a tank down your street. so why should it be legal to have these weapons of war? and i think it might be a little bit -- it sounds like a strange comparison. it might be a little bit like gay marriage where the politics

of this can change very, very rapidly. >> and jason, i want to go to you on that. they think is the case. particularly amyoung young people having to do these drills in school. i thought it was very interesting that beto focused very specifically on ak-47s and ar-15s which is the weapon of choice for mass shooters. very difficult to argue to the suburban voting mom that there is a reason why people should have an ak-47 and walk around with it in walmart. >> i got to tell you, joy. gun beto and race beto for the last two months have been fantastic. he has been absolutely candid. here's the thing. what really works in american politics, it works with donald trump, it worked with barack obama. sometimes you say something that is a little extreme. but if you're passionate enough about it, the american people will become attracted to it. i was so happy to hear a democrat, whether or not it's actually my politics, it was so nice to hear a democrat not dance around this issue and say yeah, i'm taking your guns. that's what's going to happen. instead of all the hoop and haw and dancing and we're going to

put together a committee sort of stuff. the people who are dying right now, they want to hear somebody do something. even if they don't think he can get away with it, they want to hear that level of passion. i actually thought that was a very, very smart answer. at the end of the day when we get to a general election, because i don't necessarily think beto is going to be the nominee, the kind of american worried about the government marching into their house and taking their ak-47, it doesn't matter. >> elizabeth warren, i think guts actually count in politics. people like somebody who is strong enough to say what they think and make a short answer to a short question. here is elizabeth warren talking about the other problem, which is the nra controls certain politicians. here she is. >> we have a congress that is beholden to the gun industry. and unless we're willing to address that head-on and roll back the filibuster, we're not going to get anything done on guns. >> joel, this is very rare that i'm starting to see democrats

make the connection between the things they want to do and the person and the way which is the senate majority leader, and the senate itself as a seat of power. >> absolutely. i spent a lot of my career in the senate. and i have some different thoughts on institutionalism. i will say this. democrats certainly have their backup here. i want to go back up to something jonathan said, talk about setting the left link on gun control. you're so right about that. it actually reminds me of the 2008 cycle, and it reminds me of health care in 2008. karine know and i know this carefully. john edwards set a progressive on health care. that pushed barack obama, includie inine ining hillary cl pushed the field to the left for frankly the debate that we're seeing played out on obamacare in the first quarter of this debate. i think it's important what jonathan is talking about. >> later on we have to talk about the one thing that didn't come up. it takes a little guts to talk

what you want to do around impeachment. weird that that did not come up. we'll talk about that later. up next, the topic of race relations and the candidates zeroed in on one person who they held to blame for the declining state of it, and that would be donald trump. >> i plan on focusing on our common issues, our common hopes and desires, and in that way unifying our country, winning this election and turning the page for america and now president trump, you can go back to watching fox news. i have the power to lower my blood sugar and a1c. because i can still make my own insulin. and trulicity activates my body to release it like it's supposed to. trulicity is for people with type 2 diabetes. it's not insulin. i take it once a week. it starts acting in my body from the first dose. trulicity isn't for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. don't take trulicity if you're allergic to it, you or your family have medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2.

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they said well, do you think trump is responsible for what happened? and i said, well, look. obviously, he didn't pull the trigger, but he's certainly been tweeting out the ammunition. >> kamala harris weighing in on the mass shooting in el paso. meanwhile, amid the discussion on race, candidates took on criminal justice issues. kamala harris and amy klobuchar defended their records as prosecutors. >> the power, why didn't you try to effect change then? >> there have been many distortions of my record. let me be very clear. i made a decision to become a prosecutor for two reasons. one, i've always wanted to protect people and keep them safe, and second, i was born knowing about how this criminal justice system in america has worked in a way that has been

informed by racial bias, and i can tell you extensively about the experiences i and my family members have personally had. but i made a decision that if i was going to have the ability to reform the system, i would try to do it from the inside. >> the aclu's legal director in minnesota has said that you showed no interest in racial justice. do you wish now that you had done more? >> that's not my record. i am proud of the work our staff did. 400 people in our office. the cases that came to us, the african american community that came to us, they said there was no justice for their little kids. >> joining me now to discuss, karine jean-pierre and elie mystal. felipe ryan is former deputy secretary of state. and maria teresa kumar, president and ceo of voto latino and an msnbc contributor. and you happy to be, mtk, in

houston. so i want to come to you first. give us the kneeling in the room. >> my code name. what are you doing. >> it's 1:00 in the morning. we won't tell anyone. so in the room, it seemed that beto o'rourke got a huge response when he talked about race the way he is so good at doing. it seems that that moment that we just heard from kamala harris resonated. in the room, who resonated in that section of the debate that was about raising criminal justice? >> beto o'rourke. i have to say when every candidate started to talk about it, they acknowledged about whether they were talking about race or gun reform. they acknowledged his leadership in el paso. and when he -- and he took it humbly. i think he was surprised by the warmth that he was received specifically on that. and it is an acknowledgment, he was the first one to call it what it was. and it wasn't on the debate stage, but it was months ago. and it was a welcome, because you can't treat the source of the cancer if you can't say it out loud.

and he did that. but overall, the whole audience was very attuned to what people were saying. they were very conscious. i was impressed by amy klobuchar, how she was able to unpack her own criminal justice efforts and what she has done and the accomplishments. and i can tell the crowd was also quite interested in it. i think overall most of the candidates did quite well. but beto o'rourke, because of his experience, because it was something that was so visible, so new, so fresh, especially here in texas, it with us something that really hit home. >> yeah, and let me play another moment from beto. because his bluntness has really become a thing. that is a theme with beto. and here is he is talking about donald trump. >> we have a white supremacist in the white house, and he poses a mortal threat to people of color all across this country. >> you know, elie, that is something you normally wouldn't hear from a presidential candidate. particularly a white presidential candidate. >> that was the people in my house, my mom and my wife is when we got off our couches and started to clap. beto talks a great game when it

comes to these issue. he doesn't have the long record that some of these other candidates have. harris has to defend a record, and i thought you saw a very good attempt by her, better than last time to defend that record. and klobuchar got it for the first time. i'm surprised she hasn't gotten it more up to now. she was obviously ready for that attack too. so she had a good answer there. one of the things, though, that i wish that all the candidates had done a better job of, i think maria can talk to this a little bit as well. i thought they all kind of bungled the latino questions, right? they were trying to kind of defend obama and do the whole -- not attack obama. we all realize affidavit that last one, that was bad. but which candidate out there has a vision for latino americans in this country that is something more than we're going to open the locks on the cages. yes, we all know we need to do that. which one has a vision for the future of latino americans who are under attack by this

administration. >> right. >> by the mortal danger that beto talked about. okay. who is going to do something for that community that is bigger than simply refusing to terrorize them in the future? i don't think any candidate really got there. and latino americans, just to quickly, they're the quickest growing minority. if you change the latino vote from about 66%, which is where obama was, where hillary was, if you get latinos to start voting like african americans, trump loses 49 states. i think it will be useful for them to have a more wholistic message. >> including julian castro? i thought julian castro was the one person who look likes the people who are being targeted in a lot of those shootings. let me play that quickly. this is julian castro tonight. >> a shooter drove ten miles inspired -- ten hours inspired by this president to kill people who look like me, and people who look like my family.

white supremacy is a growing threat to this country. wand we have to root it out. i'm proud that i put forward a plan to disarm hate. i'm also proud that i was the first to put forward a police reform plan, because we're not going to have any more laquan mcdonalds or eric gardeners or palm la turner's or walter scots or sandra bland here from the houston area. well need to root out racism, and i believe that we can do that, because that doesn't represent the vast majority of americans who do have a good heart. they also need a leader to match that. >> maria teresa, i guess the question would be was that an opportunity to really highlight black lives matter that could have also been expanded to an opportunity to talk more about his own community? >> i think this is a challenge, and i think that elie is right. what i left with the debate was that we were talking very much about latinos and that their needs were very much tied to lat turner america. to some extent, that's true.

in reality it's a direct threat of what donald trump has done to the latino community. just in the month of august, right after the shooting, we experienced the largest immigration rate in our nation's history that american citizens were caught in that dragnet where they were separated from their children, just because they were brown. he's done 13 policies in the last month of august alone that disproportionately impact not just latinos, but american latinos that is the conversations that we're not having, because we still leave very much in a binary culture. when we talk about race, it's always black and rite. right now the cancer is eating up the latino community because the president started his presidency here. his policies demonstrate that, and he is inspiring a group of individuals to come and basically hunt us down. the reason you have so many texans, it doesn't matter if the republican independent or liberal, the reason that they're so interested in some sort of gun reform is this sense of injustice and the sense of fear that is rising up in the latino community among our friends and

allies is very real. it's very palatable. i think that was a missed opportunity, because it's everything right now when it comes to latino experience in the u.s. it's always caged through this idea and through this lens of immigration, where in fact here in texas you, have you families that have been here for four generations. we work with so many people who say we didn't move. the border moved up. until we have that acknowledgment that we're part of this fabric long before, it's going continue to be difficult to bring people in. >> including the castro family, by the way, who go back multiple generations in texas. rick tyler, let me bring you in here. mayor pete buttigieg also made a very blunt comment on racism i want to play now. take a listen. >> do you think that people who support president trump and his immigration policies are racist? >> anyone who supports this is supporting racism. [ speaking spanish ] >> you know, rick, buttigieg i

would say is a centrist of the candidates up there, and he is a very sober, serious fellow. if even he is acknowledging the racism, not just among trump, but among his supporter, what does that wind up in you view doing to the race? >> for the democratic primary or the general election? >> i think for general election, if he were the nominee. >> look, it depends. i'm glad they're talking about race, and it's amazing that here we are talking about race all these years on, but racism is with us. it may always be with us, but it seems to be worse than ever now. and it does need to be rooted out. and i'm glad they talk about it on the stage. there was a lot of impassioned dialogue about it. look, if -- it all depends, right. so joy, if republicans sort of get the idea that, you know, we're supporting racist and racist policies, i think do people do begin to peel away more from donald trump. that's already happening.

we have see voter segments that are already leaving donald trump. they took a risk on him. they're mostly suburban women who have peeled away, but there are more than that. so we'll see how it develops. >> very quickly, i'm going get my last two members of our panel in, phillipe. for hillary clinton, it was always a puzzle that she had to talk about the republican voters in a certain way that didn't turn them off and then she got caught up in your damning them. if you're supporting what donald trump is doing, it becomes difficult to peel them away idealogically from what they're doing. and if what he is doing is racism, what do you say about the folks who are cheering him on? >> no, it's a great point. you know, in addition to hillary in 2016 making her comment about basket of deplorables, which i wish she had not said at the time, and i think she wishes she hadn't said at the time, it turns out she was dead on. if you go back to 2008, you remember barack obama said people with their guns and bibles -- i might be getting the

quote wrong. here you have a real problem in that, you know, when i disagree with barack obama, it really was only on syria, maybe one or two other things. but i could do that because it wasn't an indictment on me. it was just a policy difference for donald trump's supporters to turn on him or even put some space on him, they have to acknowledge that what they don't like in him, that they have to see it in themselves. so it's very difficult when someone says oh, i don't really like the president because he made this policy decision as opposed to oh, i don't like this president because i voted for him. he is racist, and it turns out he is a racist and keeps saying racist things. i wonder if i am a racist that is a really big problem. and i don't know that those are the voters that the democrats need to win over. i don't think those are the voters that the democrats need to win over in 2018 to take back the house. >> yeah.

and you and i have been talking about what's happening with the bahamas. >> yeah. >> we now have people being denied entry and temporary protected status. if that's okay with you, i don't think you're even a winnable voter, no matter how your economic situation changes under donald trump. >> i think that's right. many of us have been saying is donald trump is a racist, a bigot and all of those other things for some time now. we've been seeing it at least, right, since 2011 when he was doing birtherism, if you didn't know him before that, and people didn't listen. and we saw it in full view in 2015 when he jumped into the race. now we're going into year three of his presidency. if you don't look at the policies and look at the things that he says that he tweets and the people he goes after and what he's doing to the people of the bahamas who can't get tps, which is something we do. we did for the haitians in 2010 after the earthquake, then you've got to really look deep inside yourself, because the guy is a racist, handy does racist

things and has racist policies. and if you're still supporting him, i don't know what to tell you anymore. >> and now you have these candidates, particularly white candidates on the democratic side being very blunt about it. we're going to come back with more. as the democratic candidates are taking aim at donald trump. he was in baltimore, a city infamously referred to as rodent infested. what he had to say at tonight's gop retreat. that's next. at's next. three vis of cybercrime every second. when a criminal has your personal information, they can do all sorts of things in your name. criminals can use ransomware, spyware, or malware to gain access to information like your name, your birthday, and even your social security number. - [announcer] that's why norton and lifelock are now part of one company, providing an all in one membership for your cyber safety that gives you identify theft protection, device security, a vpn for online privacy, and more. and if you have an identity theft problem, we'll work to fix it with our million dollar protection package. - there are new cyber threats out there everyday,

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after the last debate, many of the 2020 dems were criticized for attacking president obama more than trump. but tonight they struck a decidedly different tone. take a look. >> there is enormous, enormous opportunities once we get rid of donald trump. >> it goes without saying that we must and will defeat trump, the most dangerous president in the history of this country. >> we have a white supremacist in the white house, and he poses a mortal threat to people of

color all across this country. >> people asked me in el paso, they said, well, do you think trump is responsible for what happened? and i said, well, look. obviously, he didn't pull the trigger, but he's certainly been tweeting out the ammunition. >> i am the opposite of donald trump. he says build a wall. i'm going to say to immigrants, come to america. >> the president clearly has no strategy. you know, when i first got into this race, i remember president trump scoffed and said he'd like to see me making a deal with xi jinping. i'd like to see him making a deal with xi jinping. is it just me, or was that supposed to happen in like april? >> donald trump in office on trade policy, you know, he reminds me of that guy in the "the wizard of oz," you know, when you pull back the curtain, it's a really small dude. >> really small dude. up next, the thing that did not come up, strangely enough, in tonight's debate, impeachment. impeachment. ♪

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the democratic candidates covered a lot of ground in tonight's debate, but one thing they didn't get to, impeachment. the panel is back with me. elie, is it strange no impeachment talk tonight? >> yeah. one with think these are the people running to be the leaders telephone party. they would have thoughts whether their party should be moving forward since congress seems to finally be taking that step. there are a lot of things that didn't come up that i thought were important. impeachment didn't come up. apparently women are not under attack. gays are not under attack in the federal courts all the time because the courts never came up. merrick garland never came up. what we're going to do about stacking the courts never came up. i thought there was -- i think that at some point this field has to turn and start telling us how they're going to do these things as opposed to just what they're going to do. because right now, except for elizabeth warren who came out

strong with killing the filibuster, like the democratic policy right now seems to be mitch mcconnell will self-deport into the sun, right. and jean-roberts will like get his groove back and do the right thing. and that's not what's going to happen in 2021. >> and phillipe, on the impeachment front, this is -- this is the driving debate right now in the democratic party, is whether or not the leadership in the house is going to take the plunge and go right to impeachment. >> well, look, at 1:00 in the afternoon, i'm not as excitable as elie at one income the morning, but i am as worked up about this as he is, but with one little difference. the candidates brought up, the candidates discussed what was brought up today. the real question is why weren't they asked about it. if someone is asked a question for the 40th time about medicare for all and says look, there is no point to this unless we impeach donald trump, that's a little bit of a stretch. there is a circular argument

where the media are not asking during the debates these question, and then people like speaker pelosi say we're not hearing about it from the voters. what's strange you had ten people on stage. five or six if not seven are sitting members of congress who have come out very strongly for impeachment. so it's very strange. and the other thing, you know, to go on to the point about people are discussing what presbreys up, you know what didn't come up either was the taliban's -- taliban's weekend at bernie -- excuse me, at camp david. and how did that not come up in the foreign policy section when instead they asked cory booker about veganism. there does seem to be some strange stuff here. and that is also, if i can go on a rant for one more second, the thing that i walked away most from tonight is how important it was to see all the candidates on stage together. and it is inexcusable, and just vexing why the dnc set up the qualifications for the fourth

debate to be identical to third debate. because now we're in a situation a month from now we're going to be back to two nights because tom steyer and maybe tulsi gabbard are going to qualify, and we're going to have a night where we maybe don't see them all together, where we don't see the leaders together together. it's maddening. >> it does give you a stark difference between the party. the democrats are overindexing on making over fairness so everybody gets to play, while on the republican side, they've gotten away future a three-hour debate in which corruption was not brought up in any deep extent, the supreme court which could overturn the affordable care act. there is a lot that got left on the table. >> well, look, i think a lot of that was the editorial decision of abc news. it's three hours and a lot of things to cover. i do think phillipe is right, particularly about the taliban being invited to surrender or having donald trump surrender to the taliban on the same week

as 9/11, that was brought up. i do understand why impeachment was not brought up. and i believe that's because like tom perez's decision to let the debates expand, it makes their party look bad. and the party on impeachment right now is in a muddle. and you can be for impeachment or against impeachment. most americans are not for it, but their messaging on impeachment right now is all over the place. and we're arguing between whether it's an inquiry, an investigation. it's working toward impeachment, whether there will be articles of impeachment, what the legal standards are. and by the way, chairman nadler has been subpoenaing witness, and none of them are showing up. handy is letting them get away with that. now he has one witness, corey lewandowski, after three months, and he is not even part of the administration. i'm sorry so they this, it's looking a little like a clown show. >> oh, boy. and the question debate aside, i do want to acknowledge that this was a debate that was tsu, which

is an historically black college. it was only the fourth time that a black woman, an african american woman was the question about. previously you've had suzanne malveaux, gwen ifill and now linsey davis moderating a presidential debate or primary debate. i think that's very important that that happened. >> there might have also been the first time that there was two black candidates on stage together. >> that's lully true. so change is good. at least there was some change on that front. i do want to thank all my guest, karine jean-pierre, joel payne, jonathan alter, jason johnson, mike murphy, elie mystal, maria teresa kumar, phillipe reines. i'm joy reid. thank you so much for watching. our special coverage continues after this break. - in the last year, there were three victims

of cybercrime every second. when a criminal has your personal information, they can do all sorts of things in your name. criminals can use ransomware, spyware, or malware to gain access to information like your name, your birthday, and even your social security number. - [announcer] that's why norton and lifelock are now part of one company, providing an all in one membership for your cyber safety that gives you identify theft protection, device security, a vpn for online privacy, and more. and if you have an identity theft problem, we'll work to fix it with our million dollar protection package. - there are new cyber threats out there everyday, so protecting yourself isn't a one time job, it's an ongoing need. now is the time to make sure that you have the right plan in place. don't wait. - [announcer] norton 360 with lifelock. use promo code get25 to save 25% off your first year and get a free shredder with annual membership. call now to start your membership

or visit lifelock.com/tv welcome back. we are just back. a heads up, the next two candidates on that stage who we'll hear from are julio castro and elizabeth warren. good evening, as we span the top of another hour. top ten candidates all hoping to unseat donald trump, all wrapped up their third debate about an hour and a half ago now. this was the first one with all ten on the same stage. they met in houston on the campus of the historically black texas southern university. also, the first in person face-off for front-runner joe