 Towards the end of the first night of the first Democratic Party debate of 2020 Chuck Todd posed a question to the candidates that I found pretty curious He asked them who they thought was the biggest geopolitical threat to the United States now I take issue with the framing of this question because it assumes that we have threats that are Comparable in any way to the threat that we posed to other countries and it assumes that you know Maybe the United States military industrial complex is justified in occupying numerous countries at once and having 900 military bases So the connotations of this are They're negative I don't like it and I don't like that Chuck Todd asked this question However, what that being said if you're savvy you can retool this question in a way that is not Militaristic or inherently hawkish some candidates did this other candidates Not so much. So in my view I'm saying one of two things if you ask me what the biggest geopolitical threat or national security threat is to the United States I'm either saying nuclear proliferation or climate change or both now since you can't Choose two things since they said pick one. I probably would have said climate change But saying nuclear proliferation that will also suffice some of them though Wow, horrible horrible responses. Take a look. What is the biggest threat to me? What is who is the geopolitical threat to the United States? Just give me a one-word answer congressman Delaney Can you repeat the greatest geopolitical threat to the United States right now congressman Delaney? Well, the biggest geopolitical challenge is China, but the biggest geopolitical threat. Yes remains nuclear weapons Okay, so those are you know, that's a different question. Totally get it. Go ahead Governor Inslee The biggest threat to the security of the United States is Donald Trump The greatest threat that we face is the fact that we are at a greater risk of nuclear war today than ever before in history Senator threats economic threat China But our our major threat right now is what's going on in the Mideast with Iran if we don't get Okay, try to keep it a water slimmer slimmer than what we've been going here one or two words our existential threat is climate change We have to confront it before it's too late Yeah, senator Booker nuclear proliferation and climate change secretary Castro say China and climate change Congressman Ryan China without a question. They're wiping us around the world economically and mr. Mayor Russia because they're trying to undermine our democracy and they've been doing a pretty damn good job of it We need to stop them. All right. Well Thank you for that wide variety of answers and I mean that no I mean that in a that's what this debate is about Okay, so I have my notes with me First of all, I said this in the overall debate breakdown video, but if you are Jay Inslee The answer is climate change. I expected him to say climate change He said Donald Trump now you definitely can make the case that Donald Trump is the United States's Biggest geopolitical threat just because he is so belligerent, but if I'm the climate change guy, I'm not saying Donald Trump I'm saying climate change So I expected better from him. Here's the people who got it right Tulsi Gabbard answered nuclear war. That's correct Beto says climate change correct Elizabeth Warren says climate change Cory Booker says climate change and nuclear proliferation Okay, you can only pick one and you stole that from the other candidates from Tulsi and Warren But regardless I'll let it pass Here's where we start getting into iffy territory the first person who responded John Delaney and he said China Really you think China is a geopolitical threat to the United States Tim Ryan also said China They're gonna pass us economically and you can make the argument that you know, whenever a country amasses Wealth economically and they become an international powerhouse Sure, that means that they're also probably going to simultaneously build up their military But to say China It's just tone deaf. Now. Here's the worst answer the person who I thought won the debate overall bill de Blasio Gave the worst answer. He said Russia he said Russia That is the worst answer By a mile and a half And if you're gonna give that answer because we know that he doesn't believe that he's just pandering As I think Natalie shore said on Twitter You're pandering the people who are completely unreasonable within the Democratic Party like the Rachel Maddow supporters and whatnot, but look if you're gonna say that then Why haven't you proposed a plan that stops Russia from interfering in our elections? You can opt for paper ballots You can opt for Increasing cybersecurity you can have an election integrity act Tulsi Gabbard has been a leader here Elizabeth Warren, I believe just proposed her own plan But if you're not coming up with that then we know you're just pandering when you say Russia So by and large the question itself was troubling But as I stated earlier you can kind of rework this to make it fit your progressive narrative You don't have to you know, take the hawkish implications and build off of that You can kind of make it your own I think Tulsi Beto and Warren and Booker to be fair they did that the others No, they bought into this notion that you know, there are really Large geopolitical threats to the United States when that's just not true International US hegemony is a thing. Nobody's a threat to us. We're a threat to everyone else If there's going to be a threat to international peace and stability, it's going to be the United States So as president what I want to hear is that you're going to rein that in and some of these candidates Tim Ryan John Delaney didn't give us that And that's incredibly disappointing because if you're running to be the Democratic Party nominee and you're not Explicitly anti-war. What are you doing? What are you doing? So that's all I got to say about this Bill de Blasio the winner But that was a very bad moment for him in spite of an overall very strong performance