I don’t believe that Castro has a shot at becoming our next president. I also don’t particularly care about the distinction he was trying to make between his health care plan and that of Joe Biden.
What does bother me is a false narrative about Castro’s confrontation with Biden regarding health care policy. Immediately after the debate, MSNBC debunked Castro’s claim that Biden said that under his plan people who became unemployed would have to “buy in” to his plan. MSNBC played a clip from a different section of the debate in which Biden did not make the statement Castro claimed he made. Here is a link to the MSNBC “fact check”:
www.msnbc.com/…
“The accusation from Castro practically calls out for a fact check. It appears that Biden did not say that Americans would quote ‘have to buy in to his health care policy’ here is what he did say.”
The clip then includes a clip from Biden discussing his health care plan that does not include the “buy in” quote.
However, this “fact check” was factually false.
At a different point in the debate, Biden did in fact say exactly what Castro accused him of.
In a CBS Interview after the debate, Castro clarifies:
Unlike the MSNBC “fact check” the entire transcript is pulled and it becomes clear that MSNBC was incorrect.
Daily Kos member Ugmo deserves credit for finding footage of the comment beginning at 15:15 below:
Castro also clarified with Chris Matthews. Matthews seems so unwilling to give up on the initial MSNBC “fact check” that he was initially unwilling to even check the transcript. He eventually had to concede that Castro was correct. Here is a link:
www.msnbc.com/...
There is room for disagreement about whether or not Castro should have gone after Biden and whether or not his attack was too harsh, but let’s not repeat and support a narrative that incorrectly attacks a candidate as being wrong or dishonest.
Additionally, Castro brings up a couple of important issues in these interviews. Our candidate needs to be able to face off against Trump. We do ourselves no favors by assuming that our front runners should not be called out for what they say. Biden couldn’t keep his story straight on this. Castro caught him in that misstatement, and he had every right to go after him for it. I don’t believe Castro is a viable candidate for the presidency in 2020, but given the accuracy of his statements, I appreciate his willingness to help screen our front runner. Biden needs to sharpen his response to attack and to be more careful with his words.
Furthermore, Castro brought up a number of arguments that were lacking from other candidates. His perspective on immigration is more nuanced and demonstrates more understanding of the perspectives of many Latinos than the rest of the field. He spoke about efforts China has made to make inroads with Latin American countries and argued that we should do a better job of partnering with our neighbors. He was not afraid to call Maduro a dictator. He was not afraid to say that charter schools are no more successful than public schools. He is speaking authentically about issues that matter and specifically, about issues that matter to Latinos. Latinos are incredibly diverse and have differing perspectives and experiences. What he brings to the debate stage is bigger than what I think many pundits and commenters perceive. They are ideas that are important for our party to consider, and I hope that people do not write him off based on bad fact checking by major media outlets.
Edit:
I said that I was not as concerned with the argument regarding healthcare plans as I was with the false “fact check” and that is still true. I think it is worthwhile to note, however, that Biden’s healthcare plan does not clarify what he said. There seems to be automatic enrollment for people who enroll in SNAP benefits, but enrolling in SNAP is not automatic for low income people. There is also no reason to believe that people who lose their jobs will necessarily apply for SNAP benefits, so enrollment would not be automatic as some have suggested. It would make them automatically eligible to apply, which may have been what Biden meant. Biden’s main plan requires individuals to buy in to receive it, but provides tax breaks to some recipients. Given that his plan is unclear, it would have been helpful if he could have been more precise in explaining it on the debate stage. Here is a link to his plan:
joebiden.com/...