December 19, 2019 - PBS NewsHour full episode

Since it was first created during the Obama administration, there has been no end to the fight over the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. The battle continues to play out on the campaign trail and in the courts, where a recent federal appeals decision struck down the law’s individual mandate. William Brangham reports and talks to Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News for analysis.

The PBS NewsHour/POLITICO Democratic debate airs Thursday night from Los Angeles. Lisa Desjardins reports from Loyola Marymount University with a roundtable of guests eagerly anticipating the event: NewsHour West anchor Stephanie Sy, Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report and Ryan Lizza and Laura Barron-Lopez from POLITICO. They join John Yang to share a debate preview.

The PBS NewsHour/POLITICO Democratic debate airs Thursday night from Los Angeles. Three of the debate’s moderators, Judy Woodruff, Amna Nawaz and Yamiche Alcindor, join John Yang to discuss controversies around the debate qualifications and candidate diversity, how they have prepared for the big event and what recent polling says about the likely Democratic voters who will be watching.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren was asked about her tax plan during the sixth Democratic debate. She was asked to respond to economists who say that tax hikes, including the ones she has in her proposed tax plan, would stifle growth and investment. The senator’s response was simple: “Oh, they’re just wrong.” After a brief applause, she explained why tax hikes would have an economic impact.

On whether he’d support a federal program to relocate people and business away from areas especially vulnerable to climate change like Miami or Paradise, Calif., businessman and activist Tom Steyer did not directly answer the question, but said that he’s the only candidate on stage who can say unequivocally that climate change is his number one priority.

The U.S. is not on a collision course with China, but we have to stop them, Vice President Joe Biden said about China’s unprecedented military build-up and disturbing signs of an espionage campaign. "A million Uighurs are in concentration camps," Biden said, adding that the U.S. doesn’t have to go to war, but we need to build alliances, send sea power to that area of the world, and be clear.

To debate moderator Amna Nawaz’s question, what message does it send that the Democratic presidential field is overwhelmingly white, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., began speaking about climate change. When Nawaz pressed him to respond to the original question on race, he said, “People of color are going to be the ones suffering the most if we do not deal with climate change.”

Democratic debate moderators noted that entrepreneur Andrew Yang is the only candidate of color on the stage tonight. When asked what message this sends to voters of color, Yang said it was both “an honor and disappointment” to be the lone candidate of color in this Democratic debate.

In the sixth Democratic debate, Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., traded jabs over fundraising. Warren accuses Buttigieg of selling access to his time by holding closed-door fundraisers in wine caves full of crystals with $900 bottles of wine. Buttigieg said that he is the only person on stage who is not a millionaire or billionaire.

After a bout between Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Mayor Pete Buttigieg over fundraising -- Warren criticised Buttigieg for high-dollar fundraisers, including one apparently in a wine cave -- Sen. Amy Klobuchar said she did not come to listen to their argument. “I came here to make a case for progress -- and I have never even been to a wine cave,” she said. “I’ve been to the wind cave in South Dakota.

Entrepreneur Andrew Yang said the U.S. needs to “make it a federal priority and not a local one” to help integrate young people with special needs into the workforce and community. “We have to stop confusing economic value and human value,” he said. “We have to be able to say to our kids [with special needs] that ‘You have intrinsic value because you’re an American and you’re a human being.’”

When asked how he would shape the federal bench, Mayor Pete Buttigieg said the issue “is very personal for me because my marriage exists by the grace of a single vote on that body.” The Democratic presidential candidate said it is “critical” that Supreme Court justices have an understanding of the importance of reproductive rights, voting rights and reforming the bench itself, “so it is not one mo