Democratic Debate No. 4: Who Is the Current Frontrunner to Beat Trump?

Dave Nemetz

Click here to read the full article.

Live from Ohio, a dozen contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination squared off in their fourth debate on Tuesday. Who emerged as the current frontrunner to go up against President Trump?

Hosted by CNN and the New York Times, the debate was moderated by CNN anchors Anderson Cooper and Erin Burnett along with New York Times national editor Marc Lacey. The 12 candidates that qualified (by having more than 130,000 individual donors and at least two percent support in at least four DNC-approved polls) were Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota senator), Cory Booker (New Jersey senator), Pete Buttigieg (mayor of South Bend, Indiana), Bernie Sanders (Vermont senator), Joe Biden (former vice president), Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts senator), Kamala Harris (California senator), Andrew Yang (former tech exec), Beto O’Rourke (former Texas representative), Julian Castro (former HUD secretary), Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and billionaire executive Tom Steyer (making his DNC-sanctioned presidential primary debate debut).

More from TVLine

The candidates discussed the prospect of impeaching President Trump, the accusations of corruption being lobbed at Biden’s son Hunter — which Cooper pointedly brought up in a question to Biden — health care and how to pay for Medicare for All, compensating for job losses due to automation, raising taxes on the wealthy, the President’s withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, O’Rourke’s controversial proposal of a mandatory buy-back of assault weapons, tackling the opioid epidemic and Sanders’ recovery from his recent heart attack. Several candidates took direct shots at Warren in the process, as recent polls have seen her closing the gap with Biden at the top.

Coming out of the first, two-night debate in late June, Harris led our poll that asked, “Who has the best chance to defeat President Donald Trump in 2020?” (followed by Warren, Biden, Buttigieg and Sanders). In the second round of debates at the end of July, Yang came out on top, followed by Warren, Biden, Sanders and Gabbard. Yang then also led our September poll following Debate No. 3, followed by Warren, Sanders, Biden and Buttigieg.

Who from Monday’s dozen debaters delivered the best ideas, and delivered them well? In the new poll below, choose up to two candidates that have the best chance to defeat Trump in 2020, and then hit the comments to discuss your choices.

The fifth Democratic debate is scheduled for Nov. 20, to be held in Georgia and hosted by MSNBC and the Washington Post.

Best of TVLine

Sign up for TVLine's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.