Brittany Packnett Cunningham & Mehdi Hasan on the Debate

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Did she take any major hits?

BRITTANY PACKNETT CUNNINGHAM, ACTIVIST AND CO-HOST OF PODCAST: I think this is fascinating, because to watch Elizabeth Warren surge, we have to recognize that it has happened without any really significant debate moments. That it’s been a steady climb versus kind of a highlight versus a low light. So, we’ve seen her steadily climb irrespective of a particular performance in a particular debate, and so I think that it’s not just the fact that she’s polling so well, but that she’s doing so well consistently and that there’s a steady rise that is making some other folks nervous. So, we know that when you get on that debate stage, that part of the strategy is to g after the frontrunner. And now that there are multiple frontrunners, they had to share the load there and they had to make sure that if Joe Biden took some hits the last time, that Elizabeth Warren got some confrontation this time. I don’t think that she particularly suffered. I think that she really held her own, especially toward the end. I think that there were some really challenging moments for her, especially the back and forth between her and Vice President Biden around the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But, I think that she held her own. I think that she was steady, and I think that what voters like to see from her is that level of consistency. That she is clear, that she is focused and that her message hasn’t changed. That seems to be what’s resonating with voters. That seems to be what other candidates are worried about and we’ll see how that comes out in the poll numbers here after this last debate.

AMANPOUR: So, let me ask you both, because obviously you both watched, and as obviously so many people did. We said that there seem to be quite a lot of substance, the 12 on stage, and it’s a very big number, it wasn’t so much a total constant game of gotcha and sound bytes and who’s going to get viral and this and that. There was substance and actually by and large, and I think you both pointed out, there was — there was respect amongst the candidates on the stage last night.

MEHDI HASAN, COLUMNIST, THE INTERCEPT: Except one moment, Christiane, which you mentioned at the start and Brittany’s referred to as well, which was the exchange over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the CFPB, which Warren helped create. There was a bizarre moment towards the end where Joe Biden started shouting and jabbing his finger at her saying, I got you the votes for that bureau, which, by the way, isn’t true. Chris Dodd and Barney Frank who were behind that legislation say Biden wasn’t the prime mover of — in that fight. And then it — when she said, I thanked President Obama and didn’t thank Joe Biden, he then said, you did a great job, very patronizingly to the senator to his left and she kind of stopped, paused, and said thank you. And I just think to myself, how can you get away with stuff like that in 2019? Joe Biden, I wonder how his team watched these debates and talked to him afterwards, because he keeps making these gaffes. Last night he confused Iraq with Syria and then with Afghanistan. He said he wanted to abolish capital gains tax before realizing what he meant to say he wanted to raise capital gains tax.