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Joan E Greve in New York

'Nothing I'm saying is radical': Sanders brushes off attacks in chaotic debate – as it happened

Debate summary

That’s it from me tonight after the 10th Democratic debate, the last debate before Saturday’s South Carolina primary and Super Tuesday.

Here are some key takeaways from the night:

  • Early in the night, Bernie Sanders was the main target of his opponents’ attacks, but the frontrunner then seemed to fade into the background as the debate repeatedly devolved into bickering. The Vermont senator’s status as the one to beat in the nominating contest appears to be unchanged.
  • The CBS News moderators were sharply criticized for their inability to maintain control of the debate as candidates tried to wrest control of the discussion by shouting over each other. A number of commentators also bemoaned the lack of questions on key issues like climate change and immigration.
  • Republicans reveled in the “chaos” of the night, dismissing all the Democratic candidates as unworthy of ascending to the Oval Office.
  • Coming off his disastrous first debate performance last week, Mike Bloomberg faced the lowest expectations of any candidate but still managed to inflict some damage upon himself. For example, Bloomberg said in response to criticism from Elizabeth Warren that he was “probably wrong” to make sexist jokes about his employees.
  • The candidates repeatedly tried to address racial issues in light of Saturday’s primary in South Carolina, where more than half the Democratic electorate is African American. Most notably, Joe Biden promised to nominate an African-American women to the Supreme Court. But the direct appeals to black voters from the seven white candidates on stage struck some critics as blatant pandering.

Thanks for following along with our debate coverage, and tune back in tomorrow morning for more of the Guardian’s live analysis of the 2020 election.

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews pushed Elizabeth Warren on her accusation that Mike Bloomberg told an employee to “kill it” when he learned of her pregnancy.

But as previously noted, the woman’s accusation, which Bloomberg denied, is well documented:

Updated

Wondering why Bloomberg didn’t do so badly this time?

It may be due to his debate prep (although it didn’t seem to help too much):

An aide to Pete Buttigieg said the presidential candidate had canceled a planned trip to Florida because he is sick.

During tonight’s debate, the former Indiana mayor could be heard coughing and sneezing as other candidates delivered their answers.

Speaking to the Guardian’s Oliver Laughland in Charleston, Tom Steyer defended his record on private prisons.

“I worked to get rid of any use of private prisons,” Steyer said of his activism in his home state of California. “We successfully did it.”

During the debate, Joe Biden attacked Steyer, who is rising in the South Carolina polls, for previously investing in a private prison system.

“That’s something I’ve thought for 15 years, long before other people were talking about it,” Steyer said on his opposition to private prisons. “I made the right decision, and I’ve been working on it ever since.”

Asked by another reporter whether he would reconsider his candidacy if he fell short in Saturday’s South Carolina primary, Steyer would not give a clear answer.

The billionaire activist predicted the primary in South Carolina, where more than half of Democratic voters are African-American, would provide a “course correction” in the race.

During the debate, Pete Buttigieg condemned the “revolutionary politics of the 1960s”, in an implicit dig at Bernie Sanders.

The former Indiana mayor also tweeted and then deleted a tweet in which he said the US “can’t afford a scenario where it comes down to Donald Trump with his nostalgia for the social order of the 1950’s and Bernie Sanders with his nostalgia for the revolutionary politics of the 1960’s.” Buttigieg repeated the line again when he spoke to reporters in the debate spin room.

But the “revolutionary politics” of the 60s include the civil rights movement and the Stonewall riots. In South Carolina, during Black history month, the comments came off as tone deaf.

The Sanders campaign picked up on Buttigieg’s point, as well. Nina Turner, a top Sanders surrogate, addressed the former South Bend mayor in a tweet: “Check your history!”

Buttigieg has previously been criticized by LBGTQ+ activists. As The Guardian’s Vivian Ho reported earlier this month, “Buttigieg may be the first openly gay candidate to sweep the national stage and perform as well as he has in Iowa and New Hampshire, but more and more young queer voters say they feel he is not representative of them or their experiences.”

Updated

Pete Buttigieg has canceled a planned trip to Florida, which will hold its primary on 17 March.

Buttigieg’s campaign sent a memo to donors earlier today that seemed to downplay expectations for Super Tuesday, which appears to be very favorable for frontrunner Bernie Sanders.

The Buttigieg campaign said its strategy was to “minimize Sanders’ margins on Super Tuesday”, but that may not be enough to halt Sanders’ march toward the nomination.

Updated

Even while Joe Biden’s campaign celebrated his debate performance tonight, the former vice president’s advisers were struggling to explain his outlandish claim about being arrested trying to see Nelson Mandela.

Biden has repeatedly claimed in the past month that he was arrested while trying to visit the late South African leader in prison.

The New York Times reported last week:

But if Mr. Biden, then a United States senator from Delaware, was in fact arrested while trying to visit Mr. Mandela, he did not mention it in his 2007 memoir when writing about a 1970s trip to South Africa, and he has not spoken of it prominently on the 2020 campaign trail. A check of available news accounts by The New York Times turned up no references to an arrest. South African arrest records are not readily available in the United States.

Andrew Young, a former congressman and mayor of Atlanta who was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 1977 to 1979, said that he had traveled with Mr. Biden over the years, including to South Africa. But Mr. Young said that he had never been arrested in South Africa and expressed skepticism that members of Congress would have faced arrest there.

Now Biden’s campaign is claiming the former vice president was referring to how he was separated from fellow Congress members during the trip:

There wasn’t a single question from the CBS moderators on climate change tonight, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed. Most notably, Bernie Sanders has quote retweeted Alexandria Ocasio Cortez after she called its absence from the debate “horrifying”.

However, Tom Steyer has been acknowledged for bringing it up nonetheless:

Steyer also seems to have a good source of information for his latest climate crisis coverage

Elizabeth Warren ended the debate by invoking Matthew 25 — as she’s done many times before. “In as much as ye have done to one of these, the least of my brethren, ye have done it unto me,” she quoted, when asked what she considers her motto.

Warren has evoked the Gospel of Matthew many times, but she’s far from the only Democratic candidate to do so. As the Associated Press’ Elana Schor reported last week, the biblical passage is a favorite for Dems.

Pete Buttigieg evoked Matthew in a political ad, saying in a voice over: “Whatever happened to, ‘I was hungry and you fed me? I was a stranger and you welcomed me?’” Cory Booker referenced it when he was still in the running.

Barack Obama, back in 2008, referenced Matthew. And a political action committee that helped Obama’s campaign that year was dubbed the Matthew 25 Network.

The gospel’s message is a way to speak to Democrats’ progressive ideas of building up the social safety net while trying to connect with and appeal to a solid bloc of Christian voters.

Joe Biden’s campaign said it saw its best online fundraising day since the former vice president launched his White House bid.

Biden is counting on a win in South Carolina to reinvigorate his campaign after dismal performances in Iowa and New Hampshire and a distant second-place finish in Nevada.

Biden predicted during tonight’s debate that he would win Saturday’s South Carolina primary. If he does, the money he raises today will help him try to compete against frontrunner Bernie Sanders on Super Tuesday next week.

Here are the final speaking times for each candidate now the debate is over, via the New York Times’ live tracker.

What’s most noticeable is how much less time Elizabeth Warren spoke for this time. As the final table for last week shows, she was down by four minutes tonight, putting her in fourth place.

Viewers may have noticed the boisterous cheers and applause for Mike Bloomberg. The debate audience clapped enthusiastically when Bloomberg mentioned a gun control group he founded. They also booed Bernie Sanders — Bloomberg’s biggest competition.

The display prompted some viewers to wonder if the billionaire candidate had stacked the audience. After all, the Bloomberg has paid Instagram influencers to promote his candidacy and paid people to text their friends to drum up support.

But the Democratic National Committee’s communications director clarified that each candidate is allocated the same number of tickets.

“No one is packing the debate hall,” said the DNC’s Xochitl Hinojosa. “This is how conspiracy theories get started.”

But Bloomberg was able to boost his message outside the debate hall: by running campaign ads during the commercial breaks.

In a post-debate interview, Bernie Sanders repeated his final debate answer, arguing his policy proposals are not radical because other countries have already adopted them.

“The truth is, nothing I am saying is radical,” Sanders said.

The Vermont Senator also once again stood by his flattering comments on Fidel Castro’s literacy programs, while condemning the “authoritarian” leader’s regime.

But Sanders’ comments have attracted some criticism from fellow Democrats, including this freshman House member who was born in Poland during the Cold War:

Biden praised for pledging to nominate a black woman to supreme court

Joe Biden used his final debate answer to pledge that he would nominate an African American woman to the Supreme Court.

The unexpected promise -- which is likely meant to win over voters before Saturday’s South Carolina primary, where more than half of the 2016 electorate was African American -- was quickly praised over Twitter:

But far-right commentator Ann Coulter seized on Biden’s promise to try to dissuade white male Democrats from supporting the former vice president:

Updated

Here’s how some viewers have been responding to tonight’s debate on Twitter, starting with Andrew Yang, who until recently was on the stage. Like many, he wasn’t happy with CBS’ moderation:

Republicans revel in 'chaos' of Democratic debate

Republicans are celebrating the chaotic nature of tonight’s debate, which featured many moments of Democratic candidates yelling over each other to be heard.

The Trump campaign called the debate a “hot mess,” and the chairwoman of the Republican National Commitee said the night proved none of the candidates deserve to be president.

Debate concludes

The 10th Democratic debate has concluded, but the blog will have more updates and analysis coming up, so stay tuned.

Sanders defends 'radical' proposals

Bernie Sanders’ supporters praised his final answer on the biggest misconception about himself.

The Vermont senator, who has been criticized by some of his opponents for being too far left for the Democratic Party, pushed back against the notion that his ideas are “radical.”

Sanders said his proposals exist “in one form or another” all around the world.

The moderators’ last question is a bizarre two-parter: what is the biggest misconception about you, and what is your motto?

There have been some funny answers, such as when Amy Klobuchar said the biggest misconception about her was that she is “boring.”

But most candidates have used the odd question to deliver an unofficial closing statement.

Most notably, Joe Biden pledged to put an African American woman on the Supreme Court, prompting loud applause from the South Carolina audience.

Elizabeth Warren has remained focused on bringing down Mike Bloomberg — and has largely avoided bringing down frontrunner Bernie Sanders, whose support she needs to chip away at if her campaign is to remain viable.

The question is: Why?

So far, Bloomberg has served as a good foil to Warren, who has been equating him with the New York businessman currently occupying the White House. But strategically, it’s unlikely that she’ll sway moderates who support Bloomberg. It’s almost as if Warren is more worried about stopping the billionaire former mayor than stealing the progressive vote.

It could be that Warren’s campaign doesn’t want to risk directly taking on Sanders again. The last time the two progressive senators clashed, progressives were left feeling betrayed and confused.

Updated

Earlier tonight, Mike Bloomberg criticized Elizabeth Warren after she called on him to release more employees from non-discloure agreements.

“With this senator, enough is never enough,” Bloomberg said.

Some of Warren’s fans celebrated the flippant comment over Twitter, and it has now been turned into campaign merch.

Responding to a question on Middle East policy, Bernie Sanders called Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu “a reactionary racist.”

The Vermont senator added that he would consider moving the US embassy in Israel back to Tel Aviv after Trump moved it to Jerusalem.

Sanders argued the United States’ Middle East policy should focus on “protecting the independence and security of Israel, but you cannot ignore the suffering of the Palestinian people.”

Updated

Trump appears to tweet in response to debate

As the debate moderators questioned Democratic presidential candidates about the proper response to coronavirus, Trump weighed in over Twitter.

According to the White House pool report, the Democratic debate is similarly being played on the televisions on Air Force One as the president returns from India.

Here are the latest speaking times for each candidate via the New York Times:

Speaking times for each candidate so far

Sanders booed for comments on Fidel Castro

The moderators questioned Bernie Sanders about his flattering comments on the late Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Sanders once again said Castro supported some positive policies, such as literacy programs, which prompted boos from the audience.

“Really? Literacy programs are bad?” Sanders said.

Pete Buttigieg tried to pick up the criticism by saying Democrats would not win by spotlighting the “bright side of the Castro regime,” but the attack was largely lost in a flurry of crosstalk with Sanders.

Elizabeth Warren used a question on whether to allow Chinese firms to build parts of American technological infrastructute to bash Michael Bloomberg for not releasing his tax returns.

“We know that Mayor Bloomberg has been doing business with China for a long time, and he is the only one on this stage who has not released his taxes,” Warren said. “He plans to release them after Super Tuesday. It is not enough to say just trust me on this.”

Bloomberg responded by saying he would release his tax returns “in a couple of weeks,” but that would mean they are not available until after Super Tuesday.

Chaos is still one of the main themes of tonight’s Democratic debate, although the bickering has died down slightly since it first erupted earlier tonight.

But candidates are still going over time on their answers, being abruptly cut off, and speaking over one another.

Some former Obama administration officials are praising Joe Biden’s debate performance, but they have one suggestion: stop yelling.

Moderators ask first question about coronavirus

CBS News’ Gayle King has asked the night’s first question about the coronavirus after two days of stock market losses because of the health threat.

King asked senator Amy Klobuchar whether she would close borders to Americans who have been exposed to the virus.

Klobuchar responded by saying that the focus needs to be on helping infected Americans. “I’m not gonna give you my website, I’m going to give the CDC’s site, it’s cdc.gov,” the Minnesota senator said.

Updated

Some viewers have spotted quite an overstatement from Joe Biden:

Mike Bloomberg was the first candidate to bring up the coronavirus after two days of steep stock market losses due to fears about the spreading health threat.

But the CBS News moderators have not yet asked any questions about coronvirus, which has not escaped the attention of Twitter commentators.

Meanwhile, the virus has now reached into the ranks of the US military:

The debate so far

Here’s where tonight’s Democratic debate stands so far:

  • It’s looking like a good night for Bernie Sanders, who has often faded into the background as his opponents bicker and yell over each other. The Vermont senator’s frontrunner status currently appears safe.
  • The CBS News moderators have been criticized for failing to keep the debate on track as candidates try to seize the stage by launching into answers when they have not been addressed.
  • Elizabeth Warren once again criticized Mike Bloomberg for his reported history of making sexist comments, so the billionaire has not escaped scrutiny after his widely panned debate performance last week.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

While the last debate was defined by the heavy blows the candidates were landing on each other, this one has so far been defined by its disorderly chaos.

Ironically, it’s also the first debate to be sponsored by Twitter which, as some have noted, it is increasingly starting to resemble.

Asked about his anti-junk food campaign as mayor of New York, Mike Bloomberg said the policy may not work well for the entire country.

Bloomberg noted New York “isn’t like all other cities, otherwise you would have a Naked Cowboy in every city.”

The billionaire candidate’s obviously pre-written jokes are attracting some mockery on Twitter:

The moderators appear to be trying to take back control of the debate after candidates spent the first hour cutting each other off and yelling to deliver answers.

As Pete Buttigieg tried to interject himself into the discussion, CBS News’ Margaret Brennan told him to “honor the rules of the debate.”

Questions are being asked about how tickets were made available for tonight’s debate. Some reports suggest that certain tickets were priced between $1,750 - $3,200.

Some are saying that might account for the unexpected enthusiasm being shown for billionaire candidate Bloomberg ...

Mike Bloomberg tried to make a joke about his widely panned debate performance last week by suggesting he actually did a great job pushing back against his opponents.

But the joke was poorly timed and did not appear to land with the Charleston audience:

Did Mike Bloomberg fall prey to an unfortunate Freudian slip earlier, and say he bought 21 Democratic seats in 2018?

Donald Trump Jr has already jumped on the moment, but watch the clip and decide for yourself (it happens just towards the end):

There is a sense of desperation to tonight’s debate, as candidates repeatedly cut each other off to launch attacks at each other.

Here’s how much each candidate has spoken tonight, via the New York Times’ live tracker:

How long each candidate has spoken for so far
How long each candidate has spoken for so far (via New York Times) Photograph: New York Times

Once again turning their attention to frontrunner Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg criticized the frontrunner for not supporting an elimination of the Senate filibuster.

“How are we going to deliver a revolution if you won’t even support a rule change?” Buttigieg asked.

Eliminating the Senate filibuster would lower the threshold required to pass legislation, and the proposal has another high-profile supporter -- Donald Trump.

The debate moderators are coming in for a lot of heat tonight. Viewers’ criticisms have included the lack of control over the bickering candidates, and the fact no-one has yet been asked about the global panic over coronavirus.

Sanders questioned on his gun control record

Bernie Sanders was asked why he voted to protect gun manufacturers from legal liability, which other candidates have criticized him for.

Sanders initially tried to pivot to criticizing Joe Biden for his record on trade deals, which prompted boos from the Charleston audience.

“I have cast thousands of votes, including bad votes,” Sanders then said. “That was a bad vote.”

Elizabeth Warren has so far directed more criticism at Mike Bloomberg than Bernie Sanders, the frontrunner in the primary race.

As another progressive senator, Warren will likely need to pick off some of Sanders’ supporters to have any chance of the nomination.

But Warren cannot criticize Sanders’ agenda too harshly -- because it aligns so closely with her own -- so she has decided to continue slamming the billionaire former mayor of New York.

While tonight’s debate hasn’t been quite as fierce as last week’s, it has featured the most cross-talk, shouting and overall bickering. At one point the candidates spoke over one another for about 20 seconds as they argued over the cost of Bernie Sanders’ healthcare plans.

And it’s not just the candidates on stage – the audience is also far more vocal and unruly than before:

Biden targets Steyer on private prisons

Joe Biden just went after Tom Steyer for his past support for private prisons, a clear effort to stop the billionaire activist’s rise in the South Carolina polls.

Biden pointed to Steyer’s past investment in a private prison system to argue he was not in sync with Democratic voters on criminal justice.

Steyer responded by saying he no longer supports private prisons, which prompted Biden to give him a new nickname: “Tommy come lately!”

It’s round two of Warren v Bloomberg, and this time it’s just as personal as it was last week.

Similar to her first attack on the billionaire media mogul in the previous debate, Warren started off by highlighting one of the disturbing remarks Bloomberg allegedly made to a female employee in 1995 (which he denies):

Warren has also gone after Bloomberg over his electability with Democratic voters, and whether they can trust him:

Elizabeth Warren was asked for evidence to back up her accusation that Mike Bloomberg responded to news of an employee’s pregnancy by telling her to “kill it.”

But the claim has been thoroughly reported:

Asked about reports of his sexist comments, Mike Bloomberg said he was “probably” wrong to make jokes that sparked complaints against him.

Warren targets Bloomberg, mirroring last debate

Elizabeth Warren used her first answer to criticize Bernie Sanders, but she has now turned her attention to Mike Bloomberg, who she targeted in the last debate.

“I don’t care how much money Mayor Bloomberg has,” Warren said. “The core of the Democratic Party will never trust him. He has not earned their trust. I will.”

Warren then resurrected reports of Bloomberg’s history of sexist remarks, specifically an allegation that the billionaire responded to news of an employee’s pregnancy by telling her to “kill it.”

Bloomberg denied the claim and criticized the senator for once again raising the issue of his company’s non-disclosure agreements, accusing Warren of continually moving the goalposts.

Amy Klobuchar was just been asked her first question of the night. But while the other candidates have been going back and forth over the last eighteen minutes, it’s the first chance she’s had to speak.

Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar both agreed “stop and frisk,” the controversial policy supported by Mike Bloomberg while he was New York’s mayor, was racist.

“I’m conscious of the fact that there are seven white people on this stage talking about racial justice,” Buttigieg added.

“Stop and frisk” has been repeatedly criticized for unfairly targeting young men of color. Bloomberg has apologized for supporting the policy, but his controversial record on race could be an issue in the South Carolina primary, where more than half of voters were African American in 2016.

Biden: 'I will win South Carolina'

Asked about his declining support among African American voters, Joe Biden expressed confidence he would win Saturday’s South Carolina primary.

Biden noted polls indicate he still leads the Democratic field with black voters. “I’ve worked like the devil to earn the vote of the African American community,” Biden said.

The former vice president then unequivocally predicted he would be victorious on Saturday. “I will win South Carolina,” Biden said.

Elizabeth Warren has taken aim at Bernie Sanders tonight. It’s not the first time she’s tried to contrast herself with him, but it’s definitely her sharpest rebuke of the senator yet. And it hasn’t gone unnoticed:

Warren tries to distinguish herself from Sanders

Everyone is clearly focusing their attacks on Bernie Sanders tonight after his landslide victory in Nevada.

Elizabeth Warren used her first debate answer to try to distinguish herself from her fellow progressive senator.

“Bernie and I agree on a lot of things, but I think I’d be a better president,” Warren said, arguing she would be the best option to implement a progressive agenda.

“Progressives have one shot, and we need to spend it on a leader who will get something done,” Warren said.

Bloomberg cites Russian interference to criticize Sanders

Mike Bloomberg used his first debate answer to criticize Bernie Sanders over recent reports that Russia is interfering in the 2020 election to help his campaign.

Trying to recover from his disastrous first debate performance, Bloomberg said Russia’s efforts showed Sanders is the weakest candidate Democrats could put up against Trump.

“That’s why Russia is helping you get elected so you’ll lose to [Trump],” Bloomberg said.

First question is to Sanders on the economy

Moderators Norah O’Donnell and Gayle King kicked off the debate by explaining the rules and underscoring the signficance of tonight’s event.

King called the debate the “last, best chance for candidates to make their case” to South Carolina and Super Tuesday voters.

The first question went to Bernie Sanders, who was asked how he would reassure voters concerned the democratic socialist would halt the country’s economic growth.

Sanders said the economy was working well for “Mr Bloomberg and other billionaires” but not everyday Americans, lamenting the country’s stagnant wage growth.

Sanders pledged to create an economy that works for American families and not just the wealthy few.

If you want to see for yourself how much trouble Joe Biden is in at the moment – and how much Bernie Sanders is surging – then you can take a look at this graph from Real Clear Politics, which aggregates all the reliable primary polls (Sanders is in blue and Biden is green). Going back to the December 2018 it shows just how spectacular and how sudden Biden’s fall has been.

The RealClearPolitics poll average since December 2018
RealClearPolitics poll average since December 2018 Photograph: RCP

You can see the full interactive graph for yourself here.

Updated

Tenth Democratic debate begins

The tenth Democratic debate, the last debate before the South Carolina primary and Super Tuesday, is now under way.

With minutes to go before things kick off here in Charleston, the spin room is in a mild degree of panic as the WiFi, provided by the DNC, has been down for over an hour.

As such, I’m now in a grand ballroom behind the debate stage, with a few hundred panicking journalists, scrambling to figure out how they’ll file stories.

Luckily, here at the Guardian, we’re supported by a crack team in Washington and New York who are taking my words straight off my phone.

We’ll see what happens when things kick off, but this is already seeming like a bit of a logistical meltdown as crews of DNC tech support people continue to swarm around their a single laptop to get it fixed.

In a new memo to donors, Pete Buttigieg’s campaign appears to be lowering expectations for Super Tuesday.

If Sanders’ opponents cannot sufficiently slow his momentum between Saturday’s South Carolina primary and next week’s Super Tuesday contests, the Vermont senator could be unstoppable.

After all, winning generally begets more winning in presidential primaries, and Sanders’ opponents need to start landing victories if they want to stop him from running away with the nomination.

Here’s how to watch tonight’s debate

The 10th Democratic debate is about 10 minutes away, so here is how you can watch the candidates face off for the last time before the South Carolina primary and Super Tuesday.

Tonight’s debate is hosted by CBS News and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute, so it can be watched on CBS stations and streamed on CBSN, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

The moderators of the debate are CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell and CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King, and three other CBS correspondents – Margaret Brennan, Major Garrett and Bill Whitaker – will join them in questioning the candidates.

The debate is scheduled to run for two hours and will kick off shortly, so stay tuned.

Tonight’s debate, at the Galliard Center in downtown Charleston, is taking place just a few dozen feet from the Mother Emanuel AME church.

This historic building, built in the early nineteenth century, is the oldest African Methodist Episcopal church in the southern United States and has long been a centre for resistance against white supremacy and racism in South Carolina.

In 1822, its founder Denmark Vesey was a lead organizer in a planned slave revolt, and the church was a hub of activity during the civil rights era.

It was also the site of the 2015 church massacre, when a white supremacist terrorist murdered nine black churchgoers in a mass shooting that shook the nation and led to the then Republican governor Nikki Haley to remove the confederate battle flag from the grounds of the South Carolina statehouse.

As such, it’s likely the legacy of that horrific terror attack will be referenced at a number of policy junctures at tonight’s debate -- namely the candidates’ plans for gun control and what they hope to do to combat the rise in white nationalist terror in the US.

A few candidates are going into tonight’s debate still bruised from last Wednesday’s clash in Las Vegas.

Elizabeth Warren managed to land two of the night’s biggest blows on Mike Bloomberg, who was roundly attacked by everyone on stage. Her first attack came right at the start of the night, when she highlighted his previous remarks about women:

Warren later rounded on Bloomberg once again, and called on him to release all the women who had signed NDAs with him:

But these weren’t the only big clashes of the night. Biden also went after Bloomberg over his stop and frisk policy while mayor of New York. Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar repeatedly went up against each other. Warren went after everyone over their healthcare plans. Bernie Sanders suggested Bloomberg shouldn’t exist. And Bloomberg slammed Sanders for owning three homes while also being a socialist.

In 2016, Bernie Sanders rolled into South Carolina with the wind at his back. He’d fought Hillary Clinton to a virtual tie in Iowa - no small feat for a little-known senator running a longshot presidential campaign. Then he trounced Clinton in New Hampshire, which neighbors Vermont. There was chaos at the Nevada caucuses, which Clinton won by a narrower-than expected margin.

But then came South Carolina. Defeat was resounding. The margin –74% to 26% – was so wide that there would be no spinning the result. Sanders won only 14% of the black vote there, compared to Clinton’s 86%, according to exit polls.

Hillary Clinton addresses supporters after winning the 2016 South Carolina primary.
Hillary Clinton addresses supporters after winning the 2016 South Carolina primary. Photograph: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

It was a KO from which Sanders never recovered. Even though the race dragged on for several more months, South Carolina was Clinton’s “firewall.”

But Clinton lost to Trump and Sanders effectively never stopped running for president. And in the intervening years, he spent much more time in the south, investing in the community there and making efforts to strengthen his ties with the black community.

He’s tweaked his famously consistent message to specifically address race and racial justice. Even in his landslide defeat, Sanders showed signs of strength with young black voters, and he has continued to cultivate his support with this constituency, organizing on historically black colleges around his plans for free-college tuition and a Green New Deal.

All of these efforts will face their first real test in South Carolina, the first primary contest featuring a majority black electorate.

Recent polling shows Sanders within striking distance of Joe Biden, who has portrayed the state as his “firewall”.

Biden is still favored to win the Palmetto State , but if Sanders can breach his “firewall” it may be the beginning of his march to the nomination.

Here’s the format of tonight’s debate

The format of tonight’s debate is very similar to past debates, with candidates receiving time for responses to direct questions and rebuttals to opponents’ answers.

Candidates will have one minute and 15 seconds to answer direct questions, and moderators will decide when to award candidates 45 seconds for rebuttals.

CBS News has said candidates will not make opening or closing statements, but all the debate participants will get a closing question, which will likely be used as a sort of final pitch to voters.

We are about 20 minutes away from the first question, so stay tuned.

Bernie Sanders’ allies are pushing back against an Atlantic report that the Vermont senator considered a primary challenge against Barack Obama in 2012.

According to the Atlantic, Sanders was seriously considering launching a White House bid against the Democratic president and had to be talked out of it by then-Senate majority leader Harry Reid.

Sanders himself dismissed the story last night, saying it was “not true at all.” But Joe Biden’s campaign is already out with an ad highlighting the report:

Patrick Leahy, a fellow Vermont senator who reportedly spoke with Sanders about his plans in the summer of 2011, said he did not “recall” discussing the subject:

Here’s who will be on stage tonight

The 10th Democratic debate is just 30 minutes away. Here is a refresher on who will be on stage tonight:

  • Bernie Sanders, the definitive frontrunner in the presidential primary who will likely be the top target for his opponents tonight after his landslide victory in Nevada last week.
  • Joe Biden, the former vice president who is counting on a victory in South Carolina to reinvigorate his campaign after disappointing performances in Iowa and New Hampshire.
  • Mike Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York mayor who suffered a disastrous debate performance last week and will need to improve tonight before Super Tuesday, on which his candidacy depends.
  • Pete Buttigieg, the former Indiana mayor who performed well in Iowa and New Hampshire but needs to prove he can win in more racially diverse states.
  • Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator who was widely praised for her debate performance last week but needs to start turning those plaudits into votes as soon as possible.
  • Amy Klobuchar, the Minnesota senator who exceeded expectations in New Hampshire but finished in single digits in Nevada last week as she struggles to attract voters of color.
  • Tom Steyer, the billionaire activist who is returning to the stage tonight after failing to qualify for the Nevada debate and has been climbing in the South Carolina polls.

Those seven candidates will soon take the stage, so stay tuned.

Updated

For weeks, billionaire Tom Steyer has been pouring campaign resources into South Carolina, hoping to rally conservative Democrats and African American voters away from former vice-president Joe Biden and toward him.

Tom Steyer shakes hands at a campaign event in Yemassee, South Carolina.
Tom Steyer shakes hands at a campaign event in Yemassee, South Carolina. Photograph: Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters

And now he has one more big opportunity to contrast himself not only with Senator Bernie Sanders, the new frontrunner in the 2020 Democratic primary, but also Biden.

Steyer did not qualify for the last Democratic debate but Tuesday night he will rejoin his rivals on the stage in South Carolina. The stakes are high for him. He’s generally polled further behind his rivals in national polls, and his campaign struggled through the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.

But recent polling has shown Steyer faring better in South Carolina. He’s averaging in third place going into Tuesday’s debate.

Steyer has been directing his recent attacks at both Sanders and Biden. One ad warns Sanders’ “socialist plans won’t beat Trump” and that nothing would change in a Biden administration. The ad then pivots to Steyer’s work helping “black and brown communities”.

In essence, the ad is an encapsulation of how the former hedge fund manager has approached South Carolina: pick at Biden’s base while also contrasting himself with Sanders. He’s likely to go after both candidates during Tuesday’s debate.

Steyer is hoping it will do more than place him behind two other candidates on election night. In an interview with NBC Nightly News set to air Tuesday night, Steyer said, “I don’t want to get third place in South Carolina. I want to win South Carolina.”

“I am pushing as hard as I can to see as many people and push as hard as I can to move forward in South Carolina because I think it’s really important,” Steyer added.

“It’s a diverse state. There are a lot of black people here, there are a lot of Latinos here. I think I’m talking directly to them about the issues that matter and that’s what I’m trying to do and that’s what I’m going to keep trying to do.”

Candidates debate for last time before crucial Super Tuesday contests

The candidates are gathered in Charleston tonight in advance of Saturday’s South Carolina primary, but a much more crucial test awaits them on Tuesday.

California voters cast early ballots for the Super Tuesday primary.
California voters cast early ballots for the Super Tuesday primary. Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters

Next week, 16 states and territories will hold contests for Super Tuesday, when more than 1,300 delegates will be awarded to the presidential candidates. (As a reminder, candidates need 1,991 delegates to clinch the nomination.)

Although nearly five months remain until the Democratic convention, more than 60% of all delegates will be awarded by 17 March, so the next few weeks will be critical in determining the eventual nominee.

That tight timeline has led many establishment Democrats to express panic that Bernie Sanders may soon gain an insurmountable delegate lead.

Tonight is the last debate before Super Tuesday, so it may be the final opportunity for Sanders’ opponents to throw some roadblocks in his path to the nomination.

Joe Biden has long portrayed South Carolina as his “firewall,” fortified by his support among black voters and particularly older black voters.

Supporters of Joe Biden demonstrate outside of the Charleston Gaillard Center.
Supporters of Joe Biden demonstrate outside of the Charleston Gaillard Center. Photograph: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

But after disastrous performances in Iowa and New Hampshire – overwhelmingly white electorates that Biden said did not reflect the diversity of his support – and a distant second-place in Nevada, South Carolina has emerged as a must-win for the former vice president who was recently overtaken by Bernie Sanders as the frontrunner.

According to several recent surveys, Biden has been bleeding support in South Carolina, so much so that he’s started to say that the state is not his campaign’s “firewall.” An NBC News/Marist poll released yesterday showed Biden leading Sanders by just 4 points in South Carolina.

Tom Steyer, the billionaire from California, has gained ground on Biden in recent weeks by spending heavily on advertising in the state. After missing a debate, Steyer qualified on Tuesday.

“What’s happening is you have Steyer spending hundreds of millions, tens of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars, out campaigning there,” Biden said in an interview on CBS News’s Face the Nation on Sunday. “And so I think a lot is happening in terms of the amount of money being spent by the billionaires to try to cut into the African American vote. I think that has a lot to do with it.”

In the interview, Biden refused to “pontificate” on whether a second- or first-place finish is necessary for his campaign, though many Democrats believe a win is essential to his survival at this point.

Firewall or no firewall, Biden was defiant: “I’m going to go all the way through this thing.”

Of the seven candidates on stage tonight, no one needs a strong showing more than Mike Bloomberg.

Mike Bloomberg and Joe Biden cover their microphones as they chat during the ninth debate.
Mike Bloomberg and Joe Biden cover their microphones as they chat during the ninth debate. Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters

The billionaire former New York mayor suffered a disastrous performance in last week’s debate, his first appearance on stage since launching his campaign in late November. Bloomberg fumbled his responses to obvious lines of attack, such as his past support for “stop-and-frisk” and his reported history of making sexist comments.

“It’s hard to imagine a worse showing for a presidential candidate appearing in his first debate than the one Mr Bloomberg had last week,” the New York Times wrote.

Bloomberg is not actually competing in the South Carolina primary, instead focusing on the 16 states and territories that will hold contests on Super Tuesday next week.

However, if Bloomberg cannot improve upon his last debate performance, it may cost him votes in crucial states like California and Texas, which will each award hundreds of delegates on Tuesday.

Bloomberg has previewed his strategy in recent days, releasing a digital ad criticizing Bernie Sanders’ record on gun control and accusing the frontrunners’ supporters of deploying divisive rhetoric.

The billionaire is hoping those attack lines will land tonight. Otherwise, his campaign may turn out to be a $500m mistake.

Bernie Sanders’ opponents look to slow his momentum in debate

Good evening, live blog readers!

The tenth Democratic debate has arrived, marking the third debate this month and the second in a week. However, the dynamics of the race have shifted since the candidates faced off last week in the most contentious debate of the election cycle yet.

The stage is set for the Democratic debate in Charleston, S.C.
The stage is set for the Democratic debate in Charleston, S.C. Photograph: Matt Rourke/AP

Bernie Sanders has cemented his status as the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination after a landslide victory in Nevada, where he defeated second-place Joe Biden by 27 points.

A number of commentators have said Sanders could gain an insurmountable delegate lead on Super Tuesday next week, meaning this may be the last chance for the Vermont senator’s opponents to slow his momentum.

Sanders will likely find himself on the receiving end of a number of attacks, and his effectiveness at responding could determine his success in Saturday’s South Carolina primary and beyond.

The candidates will take the stage in Charleston at 8 pm ET, so stay tuned.

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