'You're Wrong!' Moderates and Progressives Battle for Direction of Democratic Party in Detroit Debate

Night one of the Democratic debates in Detroit highlighted the internal struggle for the direction of the Democratic Party as moderates and progressives squared off.

Progressive candidates pushing for radical change met blowback from moderates urging a more cautious approach.

Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), leaders of the progressive pack, boldly put forth their ambitious ideas.

Sanders defended his Medicare-for-All plan, which former Maryland Rep. John Delaney attacked.

CNN anchor and debate moderator Jake Tapper asked Sanders, "Congressman Delaney just referred to it as bad policy and previously he's called the idea political suicide that will just get President Trump re-elected. What do you say to Congressman Delaney?"

"You're wrong," Sanders responded.

"We don't have to go around and be the party of subtraction and telling half the country with private health insurance their health insurance is illegal," said Delaney.

Sanders got a little testy when challenged on the details of his healthcare plan.
 
"For senior citizens it will finally include dental care, hearing aids and eyeglasses," he said. 

"You don't know that, Bernie," interjected Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan.

Sanders shot back saying, "I do know it, I wrote the @*!# bill."

For her part, Warren called out moderates for not being ambitious enough.

"I genuinely do not understand why anyone would go to all the trouble of running for president just to get up on this stage and talk about what's not possible," said Warren.

She also sparred with Montana Gov. Steve Bullock over immigration policy, specifically decriminalizing illegal immigration.

"So the problem is that right now the criminalization statute is what gives Donald Trump the ability to take children away from their parents," said Warren. "It's what gives him the ability to lock up people at our borders."

"We can actually get to the point where we have both safe borders, where we have a path to citizenship, where we have opportunities for dreamers, and you don't have to decriminalize everything," said Bullock.

On the topic of race, the candidates took the opportunity to bash President Trump, but Texas Democrat Beto O'Rourke came out with a bold statement of his own, saying if elected president, he would embrace reparations for black Americans.

"I will also sign into law Sheila Jackson Lee's reparations bill so that we could have the national conversation we have waited too long in this country to have," said O'Rourke.

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg referenced the Bible as he took yet another shot at conservative Christians, this time blasting the Senate for not supporting a minimum wage bill.

"So called conservative Christian senators right now in the Senate are blocking a bill to raise the minimum wage when scripture says that whoever oppresses the poor taunts their maker," Buttigieg asserted.

And the internet is abuzz over Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio not putting his hand over his heart during the national anthem.  Many question if it was it an oversight or a statement?

Meanwhile, the second half of the debate comes Wednesday night, pairing up Sen. Kamala Harris and former Vice President Joe Biden, the significant front runner right now.