Recapping Democratic debate night two: Biden and Harris spar over health care plans

Oh, you thought the candidates were done with Detroit?

That after the Democratic party's two-night debate, the 20 candidates would just up and leave the motor city? Well, you were wrong.

The campaign trail runs through the Motor City, and candidates former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) who sparred for the second time on Wednesday made sure to leave their mark.

Rewinding a little bit, Harris drilled Biden on his civil rights record and desegregating schools during the first debate in Miami. The divide between the party's better-known candidates further played out when Harris took jabs at Biden's health care plan.

"Under our plan, we will ensure that everyone has access to health care," Harris said. "Your plan by contrast leaves out 10 million Americans."

Biden retorted, saying Harris's plan was too costly.

"The plan, no matter how you cut it will cost $3 trillion when it is in fact employed," said Biden.

While it's easy to get bogged down in the specifics of each plan, the main theme conveyed in this interaction, as well as across the entirety of both debates was an increasingly revealing schism between the progressive wing and the party's more moderate candidates. Harris, representing the former of those two positions offered a plan similar to a Single Payer System.

Meanwhile, Biden's plan grows upon the current Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. However, Biden rejected the notion that he was a blanket moderate in a follow-up interview on Thursday.

"No, it is not more moderate. For my entire career in the Senate, I was listed never below one to 25 most liberal people in the United States Senate," he said. "I wish you guys would have called me a moderate when I was running for reelection back in Delaware. I would have won by 80 percent."

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Harris later said the parts she disagrees with in Biden's health care package because they don't go far enough. 

Biden is currently the front runner in the 2020 presidential race, polling at 32 percent. In fourth place, Harris has 11 percent, per a RealClearPolitics survey. One of the reasons is her lack of support among African Americans.

"There is a lot of ground to cover and I intend to cover that ground," Harris said. "We are running a smart campaign; we've got folks that are organizing on the ground in all the states. It's going to take work and I'm prepared to do that work."