On Jan. 14, the first Democratic Debate of 2020 occurred in Des Moines, Iowa. With the six candidates, most of the public expected that one of the more dominant points of debate was going to be about the recent conflicts that Trump has fueled with Iran. The topic was not talked about very much, and most of their opinions were generalized and not incredibly specific. Senator Amy Klobuchar stated that if she were to win the election, she would focus on ensuring that Iran will not secure nuclear weapons and that she would focus on better negotiations with the nation. Meanwhile, Mayor Pete Buttigieg used his previous military work in his favor, by critiquing how many troops he recently deployed into the Middle East, and also saying that he wants to keep more military at home with their families.

A very prominent issue in this debate was about if a woman was able to beat President Donald Trump or not, and Senator Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders had a back and forth about it. A highlight of the event, Warren noted how she and the only other woman on the stage, Senator Klobuchar, have one every election they have run in, where as the rest of the men on the stage have collectively lost ten elections. She also stated that she is the only candidate that was on the stage that had beat an “incumbent Republican” in 30 years. Warren stated that it had been confirmed that Sanders had said in a meeting privately that he didn’t think a woman would be able to beat President Trump. Sanders defended himself and immediately said that it was false, and also added how Hillary Clinton had won the popular vote in the election in 2016. 

Overall, while the Warren and Sanders debate may have lessened people’s opinion on Bernie Sanders, my guess is that it genuinely won’t affect much of his voters. The claim isn’t necessarily officially confirmed and so many may not take it seriously when voting. In my mere opinion, it seems as though Senator Elizabeth Warren had the best night. She made strong points about feminism and equality which is something prominent and important to her voters, and she seemed to not have too many slip-ups and was very precise with her words.