Montana Gov. Steve Bullock Steve BullockMcConnell locks down key GOP votes in Supreme Court fight Senate Democrats demand White House fire controversial head of public lands agency Pence seeks to boost Daines in critical Montana Senate race MORE (D) on Tuesday accused Sen. Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth WarrenHillicon Valley: Subpoenas for Facebook, Google and Twitter on the cards | Wray rebuffs mail-in voting conspiracies | Reps. raise mass surveillance concerns On The Money: Anxious Democrats push for vote on COVID-19 aid | Pelosi, Mnuchin ready to restart talks | Weekly jobless claims increase | Senate treads close to shutdown deadline Democratic senators ask inspector general to investigate IRS use of location tracking service MORE (D-Mass.) of playing into President Trump Donald John TrumpSteele Dossier sub-source was subject of FBI counterintelligence probe Pelosi slams Trump executive order on pre-existing conditions: It 'isn't worth the paper it's signed on' Trump 'no longer angry' at Romney because of Supreme Court stance MORE’s hands on immigration by calling to decriminalize illegal border crossings.

In a heated exchange during Tuesday night's Democratic presidential debate, Warren argued that the law criminalizing border crossings allowed Trump to separate families and jail children.

“We need to fix the crisis at the border, and a big part of how we do that is we do not play into Donald Trump’s hands, but he wants to stir up the crisis at the border, because that’s his overall message,” Warren said.

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Bullock shot back: “But you are playing into Donald Trump’s hands. The challenge isn’t that it’s a criminal offense to cross the border. The challenge is that Donald Trump is president and using this to rip families apart.

“A sane immigration system needs a sane leader,” he said.

Warren responded that the law, not just the leader, was the problem.

“What you’re saying is ignore the law, and laws matter,” she said.

The exchange mirrored a similar face-off in the first Democratic debate last month between former Housing Secretary Julián Castro and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), in which Castro slammed O’Rourke for not supporting decriminalization.