DETROIT– Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden and rival Kamala Harris battled over healthcare and came under attack from other candidates on their criminal justice records in a contentious and sometimes angry debate yesterday.

On the second of back-to-back nights of debates among Democrats seeking the chance to face Republi-can President Donald Trump in the November 2020 election, Biden and Harris were at the center of a growing fight over healthcare that has split the Democratic Party and dominated the first candidate encounter in Detroit on Tuesday.

Biden, who struck a sharper and more aggressive tone than in the first debate, ridiculed Harris’ contention that her recently unveiled healthcare plan would not require a middle-class tax increase or eliminate private insurance plans. “You can’t beat President Trump with double-talk on this plan,” Biden told Harris. “The plan no matter how you cut it costs $3 trillion. It will require middle-class taxes to go up, not down. Thirdly, it will eliminate employer-based insurance.”

Harris rejected Biden’s description as “simply inaccurate” and ripped into his proposal to build on former President Barack Obama’s healthcare plan, popularly known as Obama-care, and include a government-run option, saying it would leave millions uninsured.(Reuters)…[+]