WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic candidate Joe Biden was among the most likely to face a series of attacks on Monday, in a debate with his rivals, who have touched on all his positions since he entered politics nearly half a century ago.

Biden, former US Vice President Barack Obama, made a poor performance in the previous debate last June, but showed greater vigor this time in the face of attacks by rivals.

"Let's be frank, you can not beat Donald Trump with your double rhetoric," said Camala Harris, one of his most prominent rivals.

The black senator responded to his attack by returning to the theme that formed the focus of their last confrontation in the previous debate: his relations decades ago with members of Congress calling for apartheid.

"If these apartheid advocates could impose their views on what became the senator today," she said, "and Barack Obama could not name you" as his deputy.

Biden leads the race so far, far ahead of his rivals, with 32 percent support for Democratic voters. Progressive Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are second with 15 percent support, making it a legitimate target for rivals. But the tone became more acute on Wednesday, especially in relation to his conduct in criminal justice, immigration and women's rights.

Responsibility of criminal laws

Sen. Curry Booker, Biden, who has served as a 36-year senator for his involvement in "all criminal laws" since the 1970s, is responsible for detaining millions of Americans.

"In prison today people are sentenced to life for these laws," he said. "We do not talk about the past, we talk about the present."

Booker and Harris are the two most important black candidates for Biden, 76, in the Democratic primary.

Differences

Biden was also attacked for refusing to stop the prosecution of those who illegally enter the country across the Mexican border. Biden responded: "We must be able to expel those who enter illegally, it is a crime." But he admitted that he had "made a mistake" in supporting the US military intervention in Iraq in 2003. Upon his arrival at the debate theater Bider Biden, Kamala Harris, 54, said, "Be nice to me, girl." But the candidate did not meet his request. He attacked him for supporting, until the recent past, a law banning the use of federal funds to finance abortions.

But the senator, who is ranked fourth in the polls, has not shed criticism. She was criticized by Rep. Tulsi Gabard for imprisoning, as a California attorney general, 1,500 people for marijuana offenses and maintaining a bailout system that the poorest can not pay.

At the opening of their interventions, the candidates unanimously emphasized the values ​​of unity in order to overcome Trump and restore the "spirit" of America.

But Booker considered Trump would be "more than debatable now."

sleepy

Trump often calls Biden "Joe the Nessim" and considers his fitness to be "down", but the US president expects the former vice president to win the Democratic presidential nomination. Biden considered the questions related to his age to be "legitimate" and his critics gave a new article at the end of the debate when he called on his supporters to enter Joe 30330 instead of asking them to send a text message to support his campaign. Each participated in 10 candidates, as in the previous debate. The debate highlighted the divisions within the party, but the discussions were more ideological and strategic. The leftist wing, Sanders and Warren, vehemently defended their plans for radical reforms, while the central candidates called for "no independent voters to flee." The next debate will take place in mid-September, and the conditions for participation will be stricter. Only 10 candidates will qualify, and the first Iowa primaries will be held on February 3, 2020.

Biden was attacked for refusing to stop the prosecution of those who illegally enter the country across the Mexican border. "We must be able to expel those who enter illegally, it is a crime," Biden said.