Last Thursday, over 50 people joined LID at Fulton Ale House in Bed-Stuy to watch round 2 of the 2020 Democratic Presidential Debates.

The night started with LID members and non-members mingling and discussing the previous night’s debate and making predictions about what was to come. As the debate began, the chatter subsided and all eyes and ears focused on the TVs located throughout the bar.

As predicted, Biden was the target of criticism from other candidates looking to break his lead in the polling. Kamala Harris made waves by attacking Biden for defending local control over school bussing in the 70s – allowing segregation to continue in the south. And she was not the only one to take a swing at the former Vice President. Eric Swalwell, a congressman from the East Bay Area suburbs, brought up that 32 years ago at the California state Democratic Party conventions Biden called for a passing of the torch to younger generations, Swalwell was 6 years old at the time.

The crowd was excited to see the debate premiere of Pete Buttigieg. He was thorough, thoughtful, and empathetic. On the heels of the biggest crisis of his campaign, the deadly police shooting of a black man in South Bend, Buttigieg was well prepared for criticism. In a show of humility, when asked why black representation on South Bend’s police force has not improved he simply replied “Because I couldn’t get it done”.

Another crowd favorite, Senator of New York Kristen Gillibrand, secured her position as the feminist candidate by talking about the history of the Hyde Amendment and declaring that she is the fiercest advocate of Roe v. Wade.

During commercial breaks LID President Jaren Arader entertained the bar with trivia questions such as “which candidate has the nickname Tina?”

To qualify for the next round of debates the DNC requires participants to hit 2% in multiple polls and have 130,000 individual donors.

Join LID on July 30 and 31 for another two-night back-to-back debate watching party!