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The Guardian - US
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Joan E Greve in Des Moines

Democratic debate: Warren appears to reject handshake with Sanders after clash – as it happened

Key takeaways from tonight's debate

That’s it from me tonight. Here are some of the biggest takeaways from the seventh Democratic debate, the final debate before the Iowa caucuses:

  • Elizbaeth Warren and Bernie Sanders clashed over reports that Sanders told Warren a woman could not be elected president, which the Vermont senator denied. After the debate ended, Warren appeared to reject a handshake from Sanders, and the pair engaged in a seemingly contentious exchange that was not picked up by a microphone.
  • Despite the post-debate drama, the night was largely notable for the lack of explosive moments. The candidates were mostly civil toward each other as they laid out their policy differences.
  • The beginning of the debate was dominated by a foreign-policy discussion, as US-Iranian tensions escalate. The candidates outlined their visions for America’s future in the Middle East while largely warning against engaging in “endless wars”, but Sanders made a point to criticize Joe Biden for his 2002 vote in support of the Iraq war.
  • The debate was notable for who was not on stage. Tonight’s event featured the smallest and whitest stage yet, a trend that has sparked criticism against the Democratic National Committee.

The US politics live blog will be back tomorrow to cover the latest on the Senate impeachment trial. Thanks for following our live debate coverage from Iowa.

Updated

Bernie Sanders’ campaign said the Vermont senator brought in $1.7m tonight, marking his strongest fundraising performance during a presidential debate yet.

Sanders has outpaced his rivals in terms of fundraising, bringing in $34.5m during the final quarter of 2019 thanks to the strength of his grassroots support.

The second-largest Democratic haul during that quarter belonged to Pete Buttigieg, who raised $24.7m. But Trump outraised all of the Democratic candidates with his $46m total for the quarter.

Updated

Speaking to CBS News after the debate, Amy Klobuchar said she was opposed to proposed press limitations on Capitol Hill as the Senate advances toward an impeachment trial.

Roll Call reported earlier today:

The Senate sergeant-at-arms and Capitol Police are launching an unprecedented crackdown on the Capitol press corps for the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, following a standoff between the Capitol’s chief security officials, Senate Rules Chairman Roy Blunt and the standing committees of correspondents.

Capitol Police Chief Steven A Sund and Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael C. Stenger will enact a plan that intends to protect senators and the chamber, but it also suggests that credentialed reporters and photographers whom senators interact with on a daily basis are considered a threat.

Additional security screening and limited movement within the Capitol for reporters are two issues that are drawing criticism from Capitol Hill media.

The Standing Committee of Correspondents, which represents journalists credentialed in the daily press galleries in the House and Senate, has come out forcefully against the planned restrictions that it says rejected every suggestion made by the correspondents ‘without an explanation of how the restrictions contribute to safety rather than simply limit coverage of the trial.’

Updated

Pressed again about what he overheard between Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders after the debate, Tom Steyer said he tried to quickly move away from the contentious-looking exchange.

“I felt like, OK, there’s something going on here. Goodnight, I’m out of here,” the billinoaire activist said. “It was one of those awkward moments where I felt like, OK, I need to move on as fast as possible.”

The two progressive senators appeared to share tense words after Warren rejected Sanders’ handshake.

Updated

Speaking to the Guardian’s Daniel Strauss in Des Moines, Jeff Weaver, a senior adviser to Bernie Sanders, pleaded ignorance on the words the Vermont senator exchanged with Elizabeth Warren after the debate concluded.

Daniel Strauss: You don’t know what the two said? Because it looked like a heated exchange.
Jeff Weaver: I don’t. I don’t. I saw what you saw.
DS: I’ve watched a lot of debates, man. I’ve never seen that.
JW: I watched what you watched.
DS: What are you going to ask Senator Sanders about that?
JW: “Hey Bernie, what was going on in that moment?”

Weaver, who served as Sanders’ campagin manager in 2016, added, “Look, they’re friends, they respect each other. They’ve obviously had – it’s a political campaign and when you run in a political campaign, there’s disagreements, so that’s it.”

Updated

For some, Warren’s refusal to shake hands with Sanders has delivered the most compelling moment of the night.

It’s now one of the biggest topics of conversation around the debate happening online, with many calling on experts to decode the exchange:

And already the jokes have started to roll in:

Updated

Trump lashes out against Steyer after debate

After the conclusion of the seventh Democratic debate, Trump took to Twitter to criticize (perhaps surprisingly) Tom Steyer.

The president reshared a tweet from the Republican National Committee highlighting the billionaire activist’s past financial ties to the fossil-fuel industry, echoing a question moderators posed earlier tonight about whether Steyer was the right messenger for combatting climate change.

Steyer has spent nearly $20m on campaign ads so far, an investment that has helped catapult him into the top tier of candidates in the early-voting states of Nevada and South Carolina.

But it’s perplexing why Trump lashed out against Steyer, when he spoke the least out of all the Democratic candidates on stage tonight.

Updated

An AP photographer captured the awkward moment as Tom Steyer appeared to walk into a tense conversation between Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

The moment when Elizabeth Warren appeared to reject a handshake from Bernie Sanders at the end of the debate may have been the most contentious moment of the night.

Depsite many commentators’ predictions that the candidates were headed for the most tense debate yet as they vied for Iowa voters’ affections, the night was generally calm as candidates laid out their policy differences.

Amy Klobuchar, whose campaign rests on her performance in Iowa, attributed the candidates’ civility to the kind disposition of the state’s residents.

After Elizabeth Warren was seen rejecting Bernie Sanders’ handshake after the debate, much of Twitter erupted with the same question: what did Tom Steyer hear?

As the two progressive senators were seemingly engaged in a tense conversation, Steyer walked over to shake their hands and likely overheard some of their exchange.

But it appears the billionaire activist is not going to be very forthcoming with any details on what he heard.

Former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick, the only African-American candidate left in the Democratic presidential primary, criticized the debate’s moderators for not asking the six white participants on stage tonight about racism.

“Tonight, six Democrats were on the debate stage for over two hours,” Patrick said in a statement. “There were many good ideas from strong candidates, but there was not one question about racism in tonight’s debate. Not one.

“Let’s face reality. Racism is not all there is to talk about, but when millions of Americans deal with it daily, encouraged by our president, when do we face their truths?”

Despite his tension with Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders had the best hour of fundraising during any debate so far, according to the Vermont senator’s campaign.

Here’s how long each candidate spoke for during tonight’s debate, according to the Washington Post:

Here is the moment when Elizabeth Warren appeared to reject a handshake from Bernie Sanders after the debate concluded:

Warren appears to reject Sanders' handshake after debate concludes

As the candidates moved off stage following the conclusion of the debate, Elizabeth Warren appeared to reject a handshake from Bernie Sanders. The two then engaged in conversation before exiting the stage.

The most tense moment of the night came when Sanders denied he told Warren a women could not be elected president, even though Warren substantiated reports indicating he had.

Warren addressed the controversy by pointing out that she and the only other woman on stage, Amy Klobuchar, have a better record of electoral success than the male candidates participating tonight.

Updated

Seventh Democratic debate concludes

Running about 10 minutes over, the seventh Democratic presidential debate has concluded in Des Moines, Iowa. The Guardian team will have more analysis and updates coming, so stay tuned.

Pete Buttigieg said this election represented a unique opportunity to change the direction of the country and ensure average families can enjoy in the country’s economic success.

Elizabeth Warren began her closing statement by listing some of the issues that were not discussed tonight, such as student-loan forgiveness and disability rights. But the Massachusetts senator said she came to the stage with “a heart filled with hope” for the future of the country.

Bernie Sanders urged Democrats that this was their moment to “think big, not small” and “have the courage to take on the 1%”.

Joe Biden began his closing statement by saying, “Character is on the ballot.” The former vice-president also warned another four years of Trump’s presidency would cause irreversible damage to the country.

Updated

Debate moves on to closing statements

The debate has now moved on to closing statements, with each candidate getting one minute to deliver a final pitch for their campaign.

Senator Amy Klobuchar went first, arguing her moderate message would help to bring the country together and end “the noise and the nonsense”.

“It is easy to hurl insults,” Klobuchar said. “What is hard is bringing people together and finding common ground instead of scorched earth.”

Tom Steyer asked Iowa caucusgoers to support his candidacy in order to “take back the country” and “save the world”.

Updated

What’s happening over on Michael Bloomberg’s Twitter account at the moment? It’s been posting dozens of tweets over the last few hours, including gems such as this:

Has his account been hacked? Is his team trying to get attention?

Alarmingly, the answer seems to be that it’s all intentional, and that Bloomberg’s team are the ones behind it all:

And shockingly, not everyone is into it:

The debate was scheduled to end about two minutes ago, but CNN has now gone to a commercial break, guaranteeing the event will run long.

Asked about how he would fare in a debate against Trump, Joe Biden said he was prepared to go toe-to-toe with the president.

“I’ve been the object of his affection now more than anyone else on this stage,” the former vice-president said, prompting laughs from the debate audience.

Biden argued average families were struggling under Trump’s administration while the wealthiest Americans flourished, and he pledged to press the president on those issues.

Updated

Who’s winning the debate so far? Here’s a take from the New York Times’ Farhad Manjoo that’s hard to argue with:

The debate moderators have repeatedly pressed billionaire activist Tom Steyer on his background, citing his past financial connections to fossil fuels and lack of government experience.

After the moderators noted Steyer made his fortune in part thanks to fossil fuels, the presidential candidate responded by pointing out he has since become a harsh critic of the industry and made bold promises on the climate.

On the issue of his lack of government experience, Steyer insisted his decades of international business experience had prepared him for the Oval Office.

Updated

Pete Buttigieg was pressed on his lack of support among black voters, as the former Indiana mayor languishes near 0% in polls of African-Americans.

Buttigieg has argued his support among black voters is low because they are not familiar with him, but CNN moderator Abby Phillip pushed back against that, noting Buttigieg has been running for president for a year now.

Buttigieg insisted African-American leaders who know him best have backed him, citing his recent endorsement from congressman Anthony Brown. However, Brown is currently the only member of the Congressional Black Caucus to endorse Buttigieg.

Over on Twitter some commentators aren’t happy with how uninspired the debate has been so far. The author and Guardian US contributor Matt Stoller has suggested the candidates take matters into their own hands:

Meanwhile, others are keen to move on to the really key questions...

Ukraine prosecutor appears to have offered information on Biden

As the Democratic debate continues in Iowa, revelations are still emerging from the new impeachment evidence that House Democrats released hours ago.

The Washington Post reports:

New materials released by House Democrats appear to show Ukraine’s top prosecutor offering an associate of President Trump’s personal attorney, Rudolph W Giuliani, damaging information related to former vice president Joe Biden if the Trump administration recalled the US ambassador to Ukraine.

The text messages and documents provided to Congress by former Giuliani associate Lev Parnas also show that before the ambassador, Marie Yovanovitch, was removed from her post, a Parnas associate now running for Congress sent menacing text messages suggesting that he had Yovanovitch under surveillance in Ukraine. A lawyer for Yovanovitch said Tuesday that the episode should be investigated.

The cache of materials released by House investigators late Tuesday exposed a number of previously unknown details about efforts by Giuliani and his associates to obtain material in Ukraine that would undermine Trump’s Democratic opponents.

Updated

Senator Elizabeth Warren, who will serve as a juror in Trump’s impeachment trial, was asked about how the trial would affect her ability to campaign in the final weeks before the Iowa caucuses.

“Some things are more important than politics,” Warren said, adding that it was her “responsibility” to serve as a juror in the trial.

The impeachment trial will likely keep Warren, as well as her Senate colleagues Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar, off the campaign trial during a key phase of the primary.

Debate turns to impeachment

The debate has turned to impeachment, with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asking Joe Biden whether he is worried Trump will be able to claim “vindication” if he is acquitted by the Senate.

Biden asserted House speaker Nancy Pelosi had “no choice” but to transmit the articles of impeachment because Trump committed impeachable offenses, adding it was up to the Senate to decide whether to remove the president from office.

Biden then slammed Trump for the “lies” he has told about his son Hunter’s business activities in Ukraine, while conceding it would be more difficult to unite the country in the wake of the impeachment trial.

Amy Klobuchar, who will serve as a juror in the Senate trial, said Trump’s impeachment was serving as a “decency check” on the president.

Updated

Laura Kelly, the governor of Kansas, has reacted to Amy Klobuchar’s shoutout from the debate stage. Earlier tonight, Klobuchar cited Kelly as an example of how women can win in traditionally red states.

But there was an awkward moment when Klobuchar cited Kelly’s 2018 victory, as the Minnesota senator appeared to briefly blank on the Kansas governor’s name.

Similar to previous debates, the questions from the moderators have been coming under heavy criticism.

One of the most common complaints has been about the approach CNN has taken to questions about the cost of healthcare v the cost of war:

Asked about the costs of childcare, Joe Biden recounted caring for his two sons after the deaths of his wife and daughter shortly after he was first elected as a senator in 1972.

Biden said he understood the pain of not being able to afford childcare, and the former vice president vowed his administration would vastly increase funds for early education.

Biden concluded his answer by lightly mocking his opponents: “My time is up, I know, but I’m not going to go over like everybody.”

The debate has turned to the issue of childcare, as moderators took a question from an Iowa resident who was forced to exit the workforce because of high childcare costs.

Pete Buttigieg said the costs of childcare pushing Americans out of the workforce made “no sense.” The former Indiana mayor pledged that, under his administration, childcare would not cost more than 7% of a family’s income.

Meanwhile the Washington Post has been tracking who has talked the most so far in the debate:

Joe Biden got in a jab against Pete Buttigieg after the former Indiana mayor claimed his healthcare plan represented “biggest thing we’ve achieved on healthcare in the last half century”.

Biden argued the largest healthcare achievement in recent decades was the passage of the Affordable Care Act, again drawing attention back to his service as Barack Obama’s vice-president.

Updated

Here’s the moment when all the tensions that have been building between Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders this week came to a head.

Warren was asked about media reports that Sanders had told her that a woman candidate couldn’t defeat Trump. Her reply? She pointed out a key difference between the men and women on stage:

So far, so mild – but Warren then directly challenged Bernie in this awkward exchange:

Divide emerges over Medicare for All

Echoing past debates, a divide developed on stage between those candidates supporting Medicare for All and those advocating for only an expansion of the Affordable Care Act.

Amy Klobuchar criticized her Senate colleague, Bernie Sanders, for allegedly being evasive about how much his Medicare for All plan will cost the country. “I think you should show how you’re going to pay for something, Bernie,” Klobuchar said.

Elizabeth Warren, who supports Medicare for All, then ackowledged that the healthcare plans proposed by Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg were “an improvement over where we are right now,” but she said their plans were only a “small improvement”.

Buttigieg shot back, “It’s just not true that the plan I’m proposing is small.” The former Indiana mayor argued a proposal’s boldness should not be measured by its pricetag.

Updated

After the first commercial break of the debate, Bernie Sanders had spoken more than any other candidate, taking up about twice as much time as Tom Steyer.

Steyer was the last candidate to qualify for the debate with a pair of impressive polls from the early-voting states of Nevada and South Carolina, but the billionaire activist has largely drifted into the background so far.

The Democratic debate has returned from a commercial break, and the conversation has turned to healthcare.

Bernie Sanders defended his Medicare for All proposal, which he has centered his presidential campaign around.

The moderators then turned to Joe Biden, who argued that Sanders and other candidates in favor of Medicare for All were underestimating the costs of switching to a single-payer system.

“I think we need to be candid with voters,” Biden said. “I think we need to tell them what we’re going to do and what it’s going to cost.”

Just before the Democratic debate went to a commercial break, Joe Biden echoed other candidates’ belief that a woman can win a presidential race.

However, earlier this month, the former vice-president seemed to indicate he would outperform Hillary Clinton’s 2016 results because he would not be subjected to sexism.

Biden said Clinton had been the victim of “unfair” sexist attacks before adding, “That’s not going to happen with me.”

Updated

Warren takes a shot at men on stage for losing elections

After Bernie Sanders denied he ever said that a woman cannot be elected president, CNN moderator Abby Phillip then cheekily asked Elizabeth Warren what she thought when Sanders expressed that view.

“I disagreed,” Warren said. “Bernie is my friend, and I’m not here to fight with Bernie.” But the Massachusetts senator then noted she was the only person on stage who has beaten an incumbent Republican in 30 years.

“Look at the men on this stage,” Warren said. “Collectively, they have lost 10 elections. The only people on this stage who have won every single election that they’ve been in are the women. Amy and me,” referring to senator Amy Klobuchar.

Updated

Sanders denies saying a woman could not win the White House

Responding to a report that he said a woman could not win the White House, Bernie Sanders denied ever expressing that view.

“Well, as a matter of fact, I didn’t say it,” Sanders said. According to a CNN report, the Vermont senator told Elizabeth Warren that a woman could not win a presidential race during a private 2018 meeting.

Sanders said it was “incomprehensible” that he would hold such a view, referring the debate audience to 30-year-old YouTube videos contradicting that opinion.

Bernie Sanders stood by his opposition to the renegotiated North American trade deal, even though the agreement has been endorsed by the union federation AFL-CIO.

Sanders argued the deal was opposed by many other labor groups and a number of environmental groups, indicating the agreement was still not good enough to support.

Another senator on stage who supports the deal, Amy Klobuchar, then jumped in to say, “I want to hit reality here.” The Minnesota senator argued real Americans had been hurt by Trump’s trade wars and that they would be helped by this deal.

Tonight’s debate kicked off with a wide-ranging discussion on foreign policy, amid rising tensions between the US and Iran.

Here’s what some notable viewers have made of it so far, starting with the Guardian US columnist and former labor secretary Robert Reich:

And here’s Rich Lowry, the editor of the National Review, with a jibe at Biden’s record during the Obama years:

Although not everyone has been taking everything so seriously; here’s the Financial Times’ chief US commentator:

Debate starts out civil while focusing on foreign policy

Democrats expected this debate to be a bare-knuckle brawl centered on the newly tense rivalry between the senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

Healthcare and whether a woman could beat Donald Trump seemed like the most likely debate topics.

Instead the first half an hour of the debate was a fairly civil discussion on foreign policy and the Middle East.

At times Sanders tried to contrast his opposition to the war in Iraq with Biden’s past support, but neither candidate engaged in the kind of heated exchanges that marked major moments in previous debates.

Senator Amy Klobuchar refrained from bashing the former South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg on his foreign policy credentials. And Warren didn’t try to bash Sanders.

The candidates seemed more willing to articulate their positions than really bicker with each other.

Updated

Joe Biden and Tom Steyer have both said they would not meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un without preconditions, criticizing Trump’s approach to Pyongyang.

Biden noted that Kim once called him a “rabid dog” who should be “beaten to death”. That prompted Bernie Sanders to jump in with a joke: “But other than that, you like him?”

Updated

Asked about preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons, Pete Buttigieg said his administration would make that goal “a priority” in order to keep Americans safe.

“Our security depends on ensuring that Iran does not become nuclear,” the Afghanistan war veteran said.

Buttigieg accused the Trump administration of increasing the likelihood that Iran becomes a nuclear power by abanding the 2015 nuclear deal.

Pete Buttigieg said the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) that has allowed presidential administrations to carry out military actions in the Middle East needs to be replaced.

Joe Biden quickly echoed Buttigieg’s argument, but prominent Democrats – including the House speaker Nancy Pelosi – have warned that passing a new AUMF will require extensive debate on the timing, geography and scope of the measure.

Updated

Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren said she would pull “combat” troops out of the Middle East, but that distinction could leave her some wiggle room to keep some US forces in the region.

Pete Buttigieg, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, addressed the issue of leaving troops in the region by recounting the sacrifices made by his fellow service members.

Biden says Trump 'flat-out lied' about Suleimani threat

Asked about America’s continued presence in the Middle East, Joe Biden said he would keep “small numbers of troops” in the region with the goal of “patrolling the Gulf” and confronting the Islamic State.

The former vice-president then said he believed that Trump had “flat-out lied” about the threat posed by the Iranian general Qassem Suleimani.

The president has claimed Iranians were planning attacks on four US embassies when he ordered the drone strike that killed Suleimani, but he has provided no evidence to support that.

Updated

Addressing how he was prepared to serve as commander-in-chief, Pete Buttigieg, who is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, argued his generation was suffering the consequences of votes cast more than 15 years ago.

“There are enlisted people I served with barely old enough to remember those votes,” Buttigieg said.

Updated

Bernie Sanders, who has criticized Joe Biden for voting in favor of the Iraq war in 2002, was pressed by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on his initial support for the war in Afghanistan.

But the Vermont senator dismissed that question, arguing the war in Iraq was a much more significant blunder than the conflict in Afghanistan.

Updated

Addressing why he was best prepared to serve as commander-in-chief, Joe Biden said his oft-repeated line about coming to oppose the Iraq war, even though the former senator originally voted in favor of the war.

Biden defended his foreign-policy record by pointing to his service as Barack Obama’s vice-president. “The man who also argued against that war, Barack Obama, picked me to be his vice-president,” Biden said.

Biden ultimately said he was overall the most experienced candidate when it came to foreign policy. “I’m prepared to compare [my record] to anybody’s on this stage,” Biden said.

Updated

First question is on Iran

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer posed the first question of the debate, unsurprisingly asking the candidates why they were best prepared to serve as commander-in-chief while US-Iranian tensions escalate.

“I think my record speaks to that,” Bernie Sanders said, pivoting to his 2002 vote as a House member against the Iraq war, saying he predicted the war would lead to “unprecedented levels of chaos in the region”.

“I not only voted against the war; I helped lead the effort against that war,” the Vermont senator said.

Updated

Iowa debate begins

The seventh Democratic presidential debate, the final debate before the first caucuses take place in Iowa on 3 February, has begun.

Updated

The six Democratic presidential candidates participating in tonight’s debate – former vice-president Joe Biden, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg, Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar and billionaire activist Tom Steyer – have taken the stage.

Democratic presidential candidates take the debate stage in Des Moines, Iowa.
Democratic presidential candidates take the debate stage in Des Moines, Iowa. Photograph: Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images

The candidates’ podium order on stage was determined by polling in recent weeks, giving Biden and Sanders center-stage placement for tonight’s event.

Meanwhile, Klobuchar and Steyer’s podiums are on the ends of the debate stage because of their lower polling numbers.

Updated

Candidates take the stage

The six Democratic presidential candidates participating in tonight’s debate have taken the stage, and the event will begin in just a few moments.

How to watch tonight's debate

The seventh Democratic debate is set to begin in less than 10 minutes here in Des Moines, Iowa. The event is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. local time and should wrap up around 10 p.m.

Tonight’s debate will be hosted by CNN, in partnership with the Des Moines Register, and it will be held at Drake University. It can be streamed on CNN, CNN en Español and CNN International, as well as the Des Moines Register’s homepage.

The three moderators for tonight’s event are CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and Abby Phillip and the Des Moines Register’s Brianne Pfannenstiel.

The live blog will be providing updates and analysis from the debate site, so stay tuned.

Six candidates will soon take the debate stage at Drake University here in Iowa, making it the smallest debate yet of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.

Those six candidates represent half of the field. The requirements for the debate were the highest yet of this cycle, preventing six contenders from making the debate stage.

Deval Patrick talks to patrons at The Works Cafe in Concord, New Hampshire.
Deval Patrick talks to patrons at The Works Cafe in Concord, New Hampshire. Photograph: Cheryl Senter/AP

The debate is also the least diverse so far, with no people of color on the stage and only two women.

That’s a point that hasn’t been lost on some of the candidates who didn’t make the stage. Former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick, who is the only African-American remaining in the race, released a lengthy statement earlier in the day urging candidates who qualified for the debate to address topics germane to people of color.

“The remaining candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for president, and in particular, those who have the privilege of being on the debate stage tonight must keep the issues facing people of color in the forefront as we address the future of our country,” Patrick said.

“Racism, environmental justice, economic opportunity, gun safety, health disparities, and mass incarceration cannot be issues reserved for politically comfortable places. We cannot win in November without voters of color, nor should we. More importantly, America cannot win without fully and fairly addressing the unfinished business of race.”

The campaign for Tulsi Gabbard, another candidate who didn’t make the debate, sent an email to supporters from Cody Two Bears, who has backed the Hawaii congresswoman, saying none of the candidates represent her base.

“Not one of those candidates on the stage tonight speak for me. Most don’t speak for you,” Two Bears wrote in the email. “Billionaires and millionaires, people who bought their way onto the stage, establishment mouthpieces, a candidate who appropriated my culture — they don’t represent our diverse American voices.”

Here's who will be on the debate stage tonight

The debate is set to begin in about 30 minutes, so here is a refresher on the candidates who will be on stage tonight.

  • Joe Biden, the former vice-president who has proven to be a very durable frontrunner as he continues to lead in national polls, despite a number of gaffes on the campaign trail and the debate stage.
  • Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator who has surged into second place and attracted the support of a number of progressive groups in recent weeks.
  • Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator who has seen her polling numbers slump recently, while Sanders has overtaken her as the top-polling progressive candidate.
  • Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who continues to poll well in the first caucus state of Iowa but has had trouble recreating that success elsewhere as he struggles to win over voters of color.
  • Amy Klobuchar, the Minnesota senator who has pitched herself as the candidate best-suited to winning over Midwestern voters but has languished in single digits in polls.
  • Tom Steyer, the billionaire activist who has spent nearly $20m on ads and become one of the top-polling candidates in the early voting states of Nevada and South Carolina.

Those six candidates will soon face off in Des Moines, Iowa, so stay tuned to the blog.

Updated

As the Democratic presidential candidates prepare to debate in Des Moines, Iowa, Trump has taken the stage at his campaign rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

The president defended ordering the drone strike against the Iranian general Qassem Suleimani, again repeating his unfounded claim that Iranians were planning an attack on several US embassies.

“If I didn’t kill him, and let’s say we lost three, four, five embassies,” Trump said, calling Suleimani a “son of a bitch”.

The president also weighed in on reports that Bernie Sanders told Elizabeth Warren during a private meeting in 2018 that a woman could not win the White House.

“I don’t believe that Bernie said that, I really don’t,” Trump said.

Updated

One question certain to come up tonight will be what America’s future in the Middle East looks like, as tensions between Washington and Tehran escalate.

After the Iranian general Qassem Suleimani was killed in a US drone strike approved by Trump, several Democratic presidential candidates rushed to warn against America becoming involved in another “endless war”.

The president and a number of senior administration officials initially claimed the Suleimani strike was carried out to prevent an “imminent” attack on Americans, but the White House declined to provide specifics on the threat.

Then, Trump said that the Iranians were planning attacks on four US embassies, a claim that the Washington Post called “at best an unfounded theory and at worst a falsehood”.

The Democratic presidential candidates will likely be quick to criticize Trump for his handling of the Suleimani strike, but it will be interesting to see how they differ on their visions for America’s future in the Middle East.

Updated

Each of the six Democratic presidential candidates participating tonight will have guests cheering them on at the debate, but it’s safe to say that only one of them will have a television star in their corner.

Actor Mandy Moore, one of the stars of This Is Us, is attending the Des Moines debate as a guest of former Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Moore also attended a town hall alongisde the predential candidate in Ames, Iowa, yesterday, drawing a crowd of about 800.

“He’s truly an original, and that’s what this country need right now,” Moore said in Ames. “This is not a TV show, this is reality, this country needs a leader right now, a leader who knows how to bring people together.”

Updated

Warren and Sanders trade barbs ahead of tonight's debate

The yearlong truce between Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders – the field’s leading progressives – appears to be broken after an escalating war of words leaves both of them politically vulnerable.

Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren speak during the Democratic debate in Detroit, Michigan.
Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren speak during the Democratic debate in Detroit, Michigan. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

On Monday, Warren confirmed a CNN report that Sanders told Warren he believed a woman could not win the presidency during a private meeting in 2018. Sanders vehemently denies this account.

“I thought a woman could win; he disagreed,” she said.

“It is ludicrous to believe that at the same meeting where Elizabeth Warren told me she was going to run for president, I would tell her that a woman couldn’t win,” Sanders said in an earlier statement.

Tensions have been simmering between the two campaigns for weeks as Sanders began to consolidate support in the early states. Over the weekend, Politico reported that the Sanders campaign had urged volunteers to describe Warren as the preferred candidate of affluent voters.

Sanders distanced himself from the talking points, saying that his campaign employs hundreds of people who “sometimes say things that they shouldn’t.”

He added: “I have never said a negative word about Elizabeth Warren, who is a friend of mine.”

Still Warren told reporters that she was “disappointed to hear that Bernie is sending his volunteers out to trash me.”

Both candidates seem eager to avoid an epic clash during the debate, but they will surely be asked to clarify their different recollections of the 2018 discussion.

The political repercussions of this breach are still unknown but many progressive activists are starting to worry this internecine fight will undermine their cause and take the pressure off of Biden, the frontrunner and leading moderate in the race.

As the Democratic presidential candidates prepare to debate in Iowa, the most recent polling shows a close, four-way race in the first caucus state.

According to the latest poll from CNN and the Des Moines Register, the two outlets hosting tonight’s debate, Bernie Sanders narrowly leads in Iowa. The Vermont senator hit 20% in the widely respected survey – putting him 3 points ahead of Elizabeth Warren, 4 points ahead of Pete Buttigieg and 5 points ahead of Joe Biden.

But another poll from the Hawkeye State, released by Monmouth University yesterday, showed Biden leading the pack with 24%. According to that survey, the former vice-president leads Sanders by 6 points, Buttigieg by 7 points and Warren by 9 points.

There are still almost three weeks left before the 3 February caucuses, leaving plenty of time for those numbers to shift. Many Iowans attending campaign events in recent days have also said they could change their minds up until the day of the caucuses, so tonight’s debate could go a long way in convincing the state’s undecided voters.

Updated

House Democrats release new impeachment evidence hours before debate

The final Democratic debate before the Iowa caucuses is about an hour away, but the biggest news is currently coming from Capitol Hill, where House Democrats just released new information to be used in the Senate impeachment trial.

The new information includes documents from Lev Parnas, a former associate of Rudy Giuliani’s who has been indicted on campaign-finance charges.

According to one document, Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, sent a letter to Ukrainian president-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy in May 2019. In the letter, Giuliani requests a meeting with Zelenskiy, claiming he was acting with Trump’s “knowledge and consent.”

“In my capacity as personal counsel to President Trump and with his knowledge and consent, I request a meeting with you ... I will need no more than a half-hour of your time,” Guiliani’s wrote in the letter.

Trump has previously claimed that he did not direct Giuliani to try to pressure Kyiv to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s business activities in Ukraine.

Democratic debate clashes with Trump's impeachment trial

Hours before the debate on Tuesday, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, announced that the House would vote to send its impeachment charges against Donald Trump to the Senate the following day.

Nancy Pelosi leaves a House Democratic caucus meeting Tuesday.
Nancy Pelosi leaves a House Democratic caucus meeting Tuesday. Photograph: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

This clash of news cycles was inevitable albeit less disruptive than initially feared. (The Democratic National Committee was prepared to move the debate if a Senate trial was already underway.)

Still, according to the timeline offered by Pelosi and the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, on Tuesday, the ensuing impeachment trial is likely to play out at a critical moment as the candidates make their closing arguments before voting begins on 3 February.

The upcoming Senate trial, expected to begin next Tuesday, creates uncertainty for the senators running for president. Three of the candidates on stage – senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar – will be pulled off the campaign trail for days or possibly weeks to sit for the Senate’s impeachment trial. They are not allowed to speak during the trial, eliminating the chance for a courtroom showdown between a presidential hopeful and the president’s team.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden, the field’s frontrunner, has been a central figure in the impeachment scandal. The charges against Trump stem from his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate Biden and his son, Hunter, who worked on the board of a Ukrainian gas company while his father was vice-president. Despite no evidence of wrongdoing, Republicans are demanding Hunter Biden testify before the Senate.

Compounding the situation, the New York Times reported that the Ukrainian gas company, Burisma, was “successfully” hacked by Russia, an effort that mirrors the Kremlin’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. Biden has said these efforts are an indication that not only Trump but Russia, too, is afraid to run against him.

Updated

Even though six Democratic presidential candidates failed to meet the polling requirement for tonight’s debate, one candidate who did manage to cross that threshold will not be onstage tonight: Michael Bloomberg.

Michael Bloomberg visits San Marcos, Texas, while on a five-stop presidential campaign tour the state.
Michael Bloomberg visits San Marcos, Texas, while on a five-stop presidential campaign tour the state. Photograph: Bob Daemmrich/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock

The former New York mayor has surged into fifth place in national polls. According to the RealClearPolitics average, Bloomberg is polling at 6.2% nationally, putting him only one point behind Pete Buttigieg.

But Bloomberg did not qualify for tonight’s debate stage because the self-funded billionaire candidate has pledged to not accept supporter contributions, leaving him unable to meet the Democratic National Committee’s donor requirement.

Despite his absence from the debate stage, Bloomberg is building a formidable campaign operation. The candidate, who only jumped into the race in late November, has already spent more than $200m on ads and has hired more than 1,000 staffers spread out across 33 states.

Campaigning in the Super Tuesday state of Texas this past weekend, Bloomberg did not rule out the possibility of spending up to $1bn on the election. He added that he would make the most of his time spent off the debate stage.

“If I wanted to complain, I could make a good case that it wasn’t fair,” Bloomberg said of being excluded from tonight’s event. “In the meantime, while they’re debating, I’m out visiting a whole lot of people. I’m not wasting the time.”

Updated

All-white debate stage is set

Six Democrats qualified for the debate in Des Moines, Iowa, on Tuesday. All are white.

What began as the largest and most diverse presidential primary field in history has winnowed to an all-white top-tier that does not reflect the demographic diversity of the Democratic party.

Cory Booker addresses voters at a campaign stop in Lebanon, New Hampshire.
Cory Booker addresses voters at a campaign stop in Lebanon, New Hampshire. Photograph: Cj Gunther/EPA

Now the party’s candidates and voters are grappling with their lack of diversity, which was underscored on Monday by the departure of senator Cory Booker, who is black. Earlier this month, Julián Castro, the only Latino candidate to run in 2020, ended his campaign. Businessman Andrew Yang was the sole candidate of color on stage during the last debate in Los Angeles but did not qualify for this round.

“No one on that stage has ever been questioned about their citizenship or if they’re a ‘real’ American or been followed by store security when shopping,” said former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick, who is the only black candidate still in the race. “No one has ever asked themselves whether a rejection for a job or an apartment or a loan was because of their race — though millions of Americans still do. Racism is the most consequential unfinished business of America. An election without those issues addressed by all the candidates is not consequential enough.”

In an interview on CBS, Booker said the party has to “do a better job” of addressing the structural barriers that still exist for candidates of color and women running for office.

Part of that problem is that Iowa and New Hampshire, two of the whitest states in the country, play an outsized role in selecting the presidential nominee. Polling in these early states helps qualify candidates for the debates.

But there is also a heightened focus on “electability” this cycle among a Democratic electorate that still carries scar tissue from losing to Trump in 2016. Electability is an ill-defined concept that often works against candidates of color and women.

To be sure, there is still opportunities to break barriers: senators Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar would be the first female president; Bernie Sanders would be the first Jewish president and Pete Buttigieg would be the first openly gay president and the youngest.

Democratic presidential candidates debate for final time before voting starts

Greetings from Iowa, live blog readers!

The seventh Democratic debate is set to kick off in about two hours, as presidential candidates face off for one last time before Iowa holds the first caucuses in 20 days.

The CNN logo is seen on the stage before the seventh Democratic debate.
The CNN logo is seen on the stage before the seventh Democratic debate. Photograph: Charlie Neibergall/AP

Tonight’s debate is taking place at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and it will feature the smallest (and whitest) field yet. Only six candidates qualified for tonight’s event: the former vice-president Joe Biden, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg, Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar and billionaire activist Tom Steyer.

With less than three weeks to go until the Iowa caucuses, tonight’s debate could quickly turn contentious quickly as candidates seek to win over still-undecided voters. We’ll soon find out.

The blog will have more updates and analysis as we prepare for the debate to begin, so stay tuned.

Updated

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