Gov. Jay Inslee is preparing for his second nationally televised Democratic presidential debate this week in Detroit. It will be held tonight and tomorrow night. Inslee will appear on Wednesday night, sharing the stage with candidates such as former Vice President Joe Biden and Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory Booker. Olympia correspondent Austin Jenkins talked about what to expect with Morning Edition host Kirsten Kendrick.
Jenkins said Inslee got the least speaking time and didn’t move the poll numbers in his first debate, so this next one is an “important second chance.”
“(Debate experts are) saying he needs a breakout moment,” Jenkins said. It could be a planned moment, or one that lands in his lap.
Inslee has done the latter before, Jenkins noted. In February of last year, the governor stood up at the White House and directly challenged President Donald Trump on the issue of arming teachers, and admonished him to "do a little less tweeting and a little more listening."
“He got a lot of attention for that,” Jenkins recalled. Inslee also got a lot of applause in the last debate for saying the president is the biggest challenge facing the United States.
Listen to the full conversation above to hear more about a super PAC-funded campaign ad attacking Inslee’s opponents, his latest campaign travel schedule, a CNN town hall centered on climate change, and more.
