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Former US VP Joe Biden Clashes with Democratic Presidential Rivals

Ken Bredemeier

   Updated Aug. 1, 2019, 12:36 a.m.

   WASHINGTON -- Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden clashed with
   Democratic presidential rivals Wednesday night on health care,
   immigration, crime and race as his challengers attempted to knock him
   off his perch as the leading Democrat to oppose President Donald Trump
   in the 2020 election.

   "I'm running for president to restore the soul of the country," Biden
   declared at the opening of a second night of Democratic candidate
   debates on a theater stage in the Midwest industrial hub of Detroit,
   Michigan.

   But as soon as Biden said he thought a health care plan offered this
   week by California Sen. Kamala Harris was "confusing," Harris, standing
   alongside Biden, retorted, "He's probably confused because he hasn't
   read it."

   Biden objected to variations of a national government-run health care
   system favored by Harris and some other leading Democratic contenders,
   instead supporting improvements in the Affordable Care Act, also known
   as Obamacare, the country's health care system approved in 2010 while
   he served as former President Barack Obama's second in command.

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