Democratic debate recap: Joe Biden and Cory Booker go at it, Kamala Harris calls Trump a ‘predator’

Round two of the second Democratic debate was more combative than the first, with former Vice President Joe Biden forced to fend off attacks from New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, California Sen. Kamala Harris, and just about everyone else on the debate stage Wednesday night.

“I think the good news for Joe Biden is this was maybe the best he could do,” said David Axelrod, a CNN commentator and a former senior adviser during the Obama administration. “And the bad news is this is best he can do. ... He had moments where he was uncertain and on the defensive."

Here were some of the most interesting moments during Tuesday night’s debate:

Here’s a recap of highlights from night two:

Harris went after Trump during her closing statement, claiming he is a “predator” and a “coward.”

Gillibrand, in a move that was telegraphed earlier this week, attempted to go after Biden’s record by invoking a decades-old op-ed about women who work outside the home.

“He wrote an op-ed: He believed that women working outside the home would, quote, ‘create the deterioration of family,' " Gillibrand said. "He also said that women who were working outside the home were quote, ‘avoiding responsibility.’”

But the attack fell flat after the former vice president invoked both his late first wife Neilia Hunter and his current wife Jill Biden, both of whom worked. Biden also called out Gillibrand for praising his record on women in the past.

“The situation is, I don’t know what happened, other than you’re now running for president," Biden said.

During a discussion about immigration, Trump weighed in on Twitter with a statement fact-checkers point out is largely false:

Trump is correct when he says the “cages” holding immigrants at the border were built during the Obama administration. But in a court filing on Tuesday, the ACLU claims the Trump administration has separated more than 900 children — “including numerous babies and toddlers” — from their parents after a federal judge ordered it to halt most family separations last year.

“It is shocking that the Trump administration continues to take babies from their parents,” Lee Gelernt, the lead attorney in the family separation lawsuit and deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a statement Tuesday to NBC News.

Trump has repeatedly falsely claimed that child separations were carried out by the Obama administration, which fact-checkers have repeatedly refuted.

Lemon, whom Trump attacked on Twitter over a question asked during Tuesday night’s debate, called the president’s tweets about Baltimore and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D., Md.) “racist” during a question to Castro.

“First of all, the president is a racist, and that was just more example of it,” Castro responded.

Ahead of Wednesday’s debate, the president lashed out at Lemon on Twitter, calling him “the dumbest man on television” for asking Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar about Trump voters who “prioritize the economy over the president’s bigotry.”

The largely Democratic crowd appeared to groan at Tapper for bringing up the busing issue that Biden and Harris fought over during the party’s first debate last month.

Tapper said Biden claims Harris’ position on busing was actually very similar to his, which she dismissed as “simply false.”

“Had those segregationists had their way, I would not be a member of the United States Senate, Cory Booker would not be a member of the United States Senate and Barack Obama would not have been in a position to nominate him to the title he holds,” Harris said.

Biden hit back by claiming that Harris never went after “two of the most segregated school districts in the country” during her eight-year tenure as California’s attorney general.

Booker claimed Biden’s comment that immigrants with Ph.D.’s can come right into the country is the type of policy Republicans support.

“That’s playing into what the Republicans want, is to pit some immigrants against other immigrants. Some are from ‘shithole’ countries, and some are from working countries,” Booker said, referencing Trump’s profane comments about immigrants from certain countries.

“We need to reform this whole immigration system and begin to be the country that says everyone has worth and dignity," Booker added. “Don’t let the Republicans divide this party against itself.”

“We can no longer allow a white nationalist to be in the White House,” Inslee said during the discussion on immigration.

Inslee, the governor of Washington, is among the second-tier candidates attempting to quality for the party’s third and fourth debates.

During a back-and-forth on immigration, Biden claimed Castro has radically changed his beliefs since leaving the Obama administration, criticizing his support for decriminalizing undocumented border crossings.

"We sat together in many cabinet meetings,” Trump said. "I never heard him talk about any of this when he was secretary."

Castro responded swiftly to Biden’s swipe.

“It looks like one of us have learned the lessons of the past — and one of us hasn’t,” Castro said.

Booker, who is in favor of a “Medicare for all” approach, drew applause for criticizing the bickering among Democrats about their respective health care plans.

“This pitting of progressives against moderate, saying one is unrealistic and the other doesn’t care enough, that to me is dividing our party and demoralizing us in the face of the real enemy,” Booker said, pointing out the biggest beneficiary of the infighting was Trump.

It didn’t take long for Biden and Harris to face off, this time about their respective health care plans.

Biden criticized Harris’ plan — which transitions to “Medicare for All” over a 10-year-period — claiming it was "confusing” and would cause middle-class taxes to go up.

Harris shot back, claiming Biden’s more-modest proposal would “leave out 10 million Americans.”

Booker’s opening statement was interrupted by several protesters who shouted “Fire Pantaleo” chants aimed at de Blasio. The protestors were referring to New York City officer Daniel Pantaleo, who was involved in the death of Eric Garner.

The Justice Department recently announced it will not bring charges against Pantaleo.

Here’s more from the protesters, who were escorted out of the Fox Theater.

As he greeted Harris during the introductions of Wednesday night’s debate, Biden could be overheard telling the California senator, “Go easy on me, kid.”

The remark comes a little less than 11 years after the 2008 vice presidential debate between Biden and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, where she asked during the opening, “Can I call you Joe?”

After being mocked for airing a hype trailer ahead of Tuesday night’s debate, CNN rolled out a new trailer focusing on Wednesday night’s candidates.

Here’s what some media pundits and reporters thought of CNN’s movie trailer opening:

During Tuesday night’s debate, Warren delivered one of the most talked-about lines of the night when she questioned why Maryland Rep. John Delaney was running for president.

Nearly 24 hours later, Delaney has delivered his comeback ... via a written statement sent from his campaign:

My colleague Julia Terruso, who is in Detroit covering Wednesday’s debate, reports that Biden advisers say the vice president will respond more forcefully tonight if other candidates go after his record:

Ahead of Wednesday night’s debate, Trump mocked the television ratings CNN garnered for the first round of its Democratic debate Tuesday night.

CNN’s Tuesday debate telecast drew 8.69 million television viewers, a large decline from the 15.26 million viewers who tuned into the the first night of debates last month on NBC, MSNBC, and Telemundo.

Streaming numbers were also way down. CNN announced that 2.8 million viewers watched its livestream of Tuesday night’s debate, a steep decline from the more than 9 million viewers who streamed the first night of last month’s debate on NBC’s various platforms.

Despite the decline, the two-hour debate drew more viewers than America’s Got Talent on NBC (7.9 million viewers) and the season finale of The Bachelorette on ABC (7.4 million viewers).

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the decline is similar to what happened in 2015, when CNN drew 15.46 million viewers in October (the network’s biggest audience for a Democratic primary debate), and CBS drew just 8.5 million viewers in November.

Fox News contributor Geraldo Rivera, a longtime friend and backer of Trump, defended Lemon Wednesday afternoon on Twitter and said the president’s language was more evidence he wanted to “provoke” African Americans.

This isn’t the first time Trump has gone after Lemon. Just about a year ago, the president called Lemon “the dumbest man on television” after he interviewed NBA superstar LeBron James, who among other things claimed Trump was dividing the country over race.

"Referring to African Americans as dumb is one of the oldest canards of America’s racist past and present — that black people are of inferior intelligence,” Lemon said at the time in response to Trump’s attack.

Biden has invited eight guests to watch Wednesday’s debate, including several prominent black politicians:

Here is Biden’s full guest list, courtesy of CBS News:

Wednesday will likely be the last chance for most of the lesser-known candidate to garner time on the debate stage, as the Democratic National Committee has tightened the barrier for entry for the party’s third and forth debates, loosely scheduled for September and October.

In order to qualify, candidates need to reach 2 percent in four polls from a list of DNC-approved pollsters. They’ll also have to have 130,000 unique donors to their campaign, which is why your Facebook feed may be flooded with video pitches from hopeful candidates.

So far, seven candidates have qualified to participate in those debates: Biden, Sanders, Warren, Harris, Buttigieg, O’Rourke, and Booker.

Ahead of Wednesday’s debate, President Donald Trump lashed out at CNN host Don Lemon, who will once again moderate alongside chief political correspondent Dana Bash and The Lead anchor and Philadelphia native Jake Tapper.

The president called Lemon “the dumbest man on television” following the CNN host’s question to Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar on night one about Trump voters who “prioritize the economy over the president’s bigotry.”

Among who took issue with Trump’s attack was Brian Stelter, the host of CNN’s Reliable Sources, who wrote on Twitter, “The president’s hateful tweets make journalists less safe.”