In his opening statement at tonight’s debate, the former Maryland governor discussed visiting a mosque earlier this month and took not-so-subtle digs at the Republican field—particularly frontrunner Donald Trump. Democracies are in trouble, O’Malley said, when “unscrupulous leaders try to turn us against each other.”
And O’Malley seems to have moved on from his previous favorite laugh-line—calling Trump a “carnival barker.” Now, he’s taking him a bit more seriously, saying, “We must never surrender [our values] to the fascist pleas of billionaires with big mouths.” Overall, the message was simple: tonight’s debate will not be characterized by the kind of fear-mongering we saw at the Republican debate on Wednesday. “The symbol of America is not a barbed wire fence,” O’Malley said, “it is the Statue of Liberty.”
In the last few debates, O’Malley has come out like he got hit with a blow dart sleeping pill before the curtains raised. He’s running super hot tonight—calling for increasing “the battle-tempo,” whatever that means—and is so energetic that Bernie Sanders just told him to “calm down.”