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Democrats don’t shy away from guns: A topic many Democrats steered clear of for decades was front and center in the second hour of the debate, highlighting how attitudes have changed in recent years amid rising anger in the party over mass shootings. The candidates spoke about guns in personal terms. Swalwell decried the fact that parents now have to remember what their children are wearing when they set off for school, in case they have to identify their bodies later. Buttigieg, a military veteran, said his life experience informs his decisions. “As somebody who trained on weapons of war, I can tell you there are weapons that have absolutely no place in American cities,” he said. Sanders, whom critics accused in 2016 of being too conservative on guns, faced scrutiny over his past comments as well as a direct challenge from Swalwell, who has sought to position himself as the field’s staunchest advocate of gun restrictions. (6/28)

California Congressman Eric Swalwell passionately advocated for his proposal to buy back every assault weapon in the United States during the second night of the first Democratic primary debates, invoking recent mass shootings and how his role as a parent influences his views on gun control. "Keep your pistols, keep your rifles, keep your shotguns, but we can take the most dangerous weapons from the most dangerous people," Swalwell said. (Scanlan, 6/27)

During Thursday night’s Democratic debates, former Vice President Joe Biden pitched his “smart gun” policy on the national stage when asked how he would work to combat gun violence. “We should have smart guns,” Biden said. “No gun should be able to be sold unless your biometric measure could pull that trigger. It’s within our right to do that. We can do that. Our enemy is the gun manufacturers, not the NRA. The gun manufacturers.” (Kelly, 6/27)

Mr. Buttigieg also faced questions over his handling of a fatal shooting of a black man by a white police officer, including why the racial makeup of his police department didn’t match the community it served. “Because I couldn’t get it done. My community is in anguish right now,” Mr. Buttigieg said. He added that he wouldn’t take sides on whether the officer acted improperly until an investigation is finished. “It’s a mess. And we’re hurting.” (Thomas, Day and Jamerson, 6/28)

Democrats, living under Trump, are mad as hell, and they are frustrated. The past few presidential elections have had even more extreme pendulum swings than the last — George W. Bush resulted in Barack Obama, who was followed by Trump. So it might make sense then that Democrats are proposing policies that are very liberal and make them feel good. Here's some of what they are proposing (with who said they support them), based on two nights of debates. (Montanaro, 6/28)

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont frequently assails the cost of prescription drugs, citing the statistic that one in five Americans cannot afford them. He has called for prices to be cut in half. (Stevens, 6/27)

Sen. Bernie Sanders chafed at generational attacks against the older Democratic candidates on the debate stage on Thursday night, saying the digs struck him as "ageism." “I think that's kind of ageism to tell you the truth,” Sanders, who is 77, responded when a journalist asked about the "generational argument being made by one of your younger rivals." (Deshpande, 6/28)

[Here] is the full transcript of the debate. (6/28)

About a half-hour into Wednesday night’s Democratic debate, Julián Castro was asked whether his health care plan would cover abortion. “Yes, it would,” Castro said. “I don’t believe only in reproductive freedom. I believe in reproductive justice.” Standard fare for a Democratic candidate. But then he continued. “And, you know, what that means is that just because a woman — or let’s also not forget someone in the trans community, a trans female — is poor, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have the right to exercise that right to choose. And so I absolutely would cover the right to have an abortion.” (McCaskill, 6/27)

Sure, Julián Castro mixed up transgender women with transgender men in the first Democratic presidential debate. But to many in the transgender community, the moment was monumental: Here, on a national debate stage, a candidate for president brought up the transgender community in a conversation about reproductive health care. (Schmidt, 6/27)

Beaten-down health-care stocks saw some relief Thursday, a day after most Democratic presidential candidates shied away from forcefully endorsing plans to nationalize the U.S. health-insurance industry. The moves come after such stocks have lagged behind the broader market in 2019. Insurance stocks in particular fell sharply in April, when Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced a bill that would extend government-run health insurance to every American, dubbed Medicare for All. (Osipovich, 6/27)