Analysis: AAPI POTUS candidates will be more aggressive in second Democratic debate

Could this be the last debate for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard?

ANALYSIS

Fireworks are expected at the debate tonight and tomorrow by the Democratic Party's presidential hopefuls. It looks like the 20 or so candidates are ready to take off the gloves in order for some of them to score points and distinguish themselves from their rivals.

The second of the Democratic party's 2020 primary presidential primary debates are at 8 p.m. ET July 30-31 in Detroit. The July debates will be hosted by CNN and CNN en Español. CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash, "The Lead" anchor and chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper and "CNN Tonight" anchor Don Lemon will moderate both debate nights.

The first debate in the two-night event, will be on Tuesday, July 30, where Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren wil be the focus because they are drawing their support from the same pool of progressive voters.

Joining them on the debate stage that has been dubbed White Night, will be Marianne Williamson Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren Former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper Former Maryland Rep. John Delaney Montana Gov. Steve Bullock.

The second night of the debate will likely produce the most fireworks. The candidates appearing on July 31 will feature all the candidates of color. However, much of the focus will be on a potential rematch between former Vice President Joe Biden and California Sen. Kamala Harris.

The other candidates of color are:

Former HUD Secretary Julián Castro New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, Andrew Yang and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. They will be joined by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

After scoring points in the first debate, Sen. Kamala Harris will have to watch for attacks from other candidates.

Harris will likely continue try to position herself as the most aggressive and most able to confront Donald Trump by contesting Biden, who according to various polls, is the frontrunner among the Democrat hopefuls. However Biden will be better prepared in this round of debates because if he unable to counter any attacks from Harris or the other candidates, it would weaken his position as the frontrunner.

But Harris, who most pundits say won the debate on the second night of the June debate, temporarily rose to second in some polls. However, in the past week, her poll numbers have gone down. She needs to land some more haymakers to regain her momentum. 

At the same time, Harris must watch her flank for possible attacks from Gabbard, who since the first set of debates, has attacked Harris as being unfit to be commander-in-chief.

"Kamala Harris is not qualified to serve as commander in chief and I can say this from a personal perspective as a soldier," Gabbard said on Fox Sports Radio. "She has no background or experience in foreign policy and she lacks the temperament that is necessary for commander in chief."

Gabbard said that Harris' lack of military experience would continue a "dangerous" cycle that would exacerbate the US "military industrial complex."

"I have seen the cost of war first hand and experienced the consequences of what happens when we have presidents from both political parties in the White House who lack experience and lack that foreign policy understanding," said Gabbard, who has emphasized her military service throughout her campaign, "who therefore fall under the influence of the foreign policy establishments and military industrial complex."

The stakes are high for Gabbard, who has nothing to lose by attacking her rival for the Indian American and Hindu American vote. Although she performed well in the Miami debate, the Hawaii congresswoman has been unable to rise out of single digits in the polls and suffered several strategic setbacks in her campaign.

Gabbard filed a $50 million lawsuit on  against Google, accusing the platform of “silencing” her by suspending her Google Ads account shortly after the first Democratic debate.

Gabbard last week filed the suit in federal court in Los Angeles, accusing Google of violating her First Amendment rights and her free speech rights under the California constitution. 

According to the complaint, Gabbard’s Google Ads account was suspended for several hours on June 28, as people were searching for her name after the first debate in June. She also claims that Gmail designates her campaign’s emails as spam at a higher rate than other candidates’ communications, according to Variety.

The same day Gabbard filed suit, Google issued a statement saying that Gabbard’s acccount was briefly suspended due to “unusual activity,” and denied that it had anything to do with Gabbard’s political views.

While Gabbard's presidential campaign has been attracting donations, her committee for her Congressional seat is essentially penniless. Her congressional committee raised just $11 in the second quarter of 2019. That number does not factor in a $31 contribution refund, which means her campaign committee ended in the red during that three month period. 

If Gabbard doesn't do well Wednesday night, she will have to decide whether her long-shot campaign will be sustainable. The door to decide whether or not to run for her Congressional seat is rapidly closing. If Gabbard should decide to drop her presidential ambitions, she would find it difficult to mount a campaign to regain her seat.

In addition, as a guest on The View, cohost Joy Behar questioned why she is an attractive candidate the extreme right. "They like you," Behar told Gabbard. "David Duke, the klans-guy, he likes you."

“I think that first of all, we shouldn't give David Duke any oxygen at all,” Gabbard replied, before pointing out that her message appeals to a wide swath of voters that just happens to include unapologetic racists. 

“What I have seen and what I have heard as we have been going through this campaign both in big cities and in small towns is we have got Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, people from across the political spectrum, coming together, coming to our town halls, coming to our events,” Gabbard said before pivoting back to her military service.

“We can disagree on a number of issues, but this issue of the cost of war and the experience that I bring to this most important responsibility that the president has as commander in chief and ending these wasteful regime change wars.”

Andrew Yang's sartorial choice of no-tie got more write-ups than what he was saying in the first Democratic debate.

Yang, meanwhile, continues to surprise everyone beyond his decision not to wear a tie in Miami. He announced to his supporters, the Yang Gang, that he's in the race for the long haul. Early Tuesday, he also said he had qualified for the September debate but an email from the Democratic National Committee told him that one of the polls that Yang cited that gave him 2% of the polled could not be counted. He needs four polls to give him 2% and has until the end of August to get another poll to qualify him for the debate.

Yang vows to perform better than the first debate where he had the fewest minutes of air time, answering only two questions and ignored by moderators when the candidates began speaking over each other. Yang claims the reason he was unheard was because his microphone was off during part of the debate.

In a Fox News interview, Yang said: "In terms of making the big jump to catch up to Joe Biden and the other leaders, most Americans are just tuning in to who's running in 2020. I'm still introducing myself to the American people. It's going to be a very, very fluid race over the weeks and months to come. I'm very confident I'm just going to keep on climbing the polls and start catching up to the leaders very soon."

The second Democratic Party's debate starts at 5 p.m. EDT, July 30 and 31 on CNN.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Earlier version sof this report said that Yang had already qualified for the September Democratic debate.

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