DEMS DEBATE | Swalwell dings Biden’s age

MIAMI (AP)

9:30 p.m.

Generational differences have quickly taken center stage at the second night of the Democratic presidential debate, with a light shown on the age of 76-year-old front-runner Joe Biden.

Thirty-eight-year-old California Rep. Eric Swalwell recalled being only 6 years old when he saw Biden speak, saying the former senator and vice president was “right when he said it was time to pass the torch to a new generation of Americans.”

Biden quickly retorted, “I’m still holding onto that torch.”

Biden’s contemporary, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders argued the issue “is not generational,” insisting the field should be focused on things like “who has the guts to take on Wall Street.”

California Sen. Kamala Harris added her voice to the fray, saying, “Hey guys. You wanna know what America does not want to witness, a food fight. They want to know how they’re going to put food on the table.”

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9:25 p.m.

Three of the senators running for president are calling for health care reform without even waiting for questions about it.

Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado said at Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate that he agreed with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders that “health care is a right” for all Americans. But he questioned Sanders’ “Medicare for All” plan that would extend coverage to everyone in the country, saying the U.S. isn’t ready for it.

Sanders smirked as he listened to Bennet’s answer before defending his plan. Then, unprompted, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand jumped in and said that she wrote the portion of the bill that Sanders had proposed that would transition the country toward Medicare for All plans.

Struggling to restore order, the moderators said repeatedly that they’d “get to” health care questions later.