Houston: Frontrunner Joe Biden went on the offensive in the third Democratic debate of the 2020 White House race, clashing with top rivals on the fraught issue of health care in America and brushing off attacks from lesser challengers. Under pressure to appear in command — and dispel doubts over his stamina — the 76-year-old Biden pushed hard on Thursday against liberals Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in an almost three-hour showdown in Houston.

Biden accused Sanders and Warren of pushing pipe dreams without a plan to fund them. "I lay out how I can pay for it, how I can get it done, and why it’s better," he said of his plan, which maintains and builds on the Affordable Care Act known as Obamacare.