Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Adam Gabbatt in Adrienne Arsht Center, Miami

Democratic debate: Biden defends his record on race after Harris attack – as it happened

That’s it from me, thanks for reading.

It was great debate for Kamala Harris, a bad debate for Joe Biden, and I doubt anyone else on stage will come away thinking they either nailed it, or flunked it. The polls conducted after these two debates will be very interesting reading. If the last two nights don’t boost Cory Booker and Harris, in particular, then it’s hard to see what will.

Here’s the Guardian’s news story on the debate:

If Google searches are anything to go by, then Kamala Harris had a great night. She’s the most searched Democratic candidate in at least 40 states after her performance. Pete Buttigieg has had an uptick as well, and for some reason Michigan is now fascinated by Marianne Williamson.

The New York Times has this transcript of Kamala Harris’ direct address to Joe Biden.

Harris:

And I’m going to now direct this at Vice President Biden. I do not believe you are a racist. And I agree with you when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground, but I also believe — and it is personal, and it was actually very hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputation and career on the segregation of race in this country.

And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing. And you know, there was a little girl in California who was a part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me.

So I will tell you that, on this subject, it cannot be an intellectual debate among Democrats. We have to take it seriously. We have to act swiftly. As attorney general of California, I was very proud to put in place a requirement that all my special agents wear body cameras and keep those cameras on.

Some pics from tonight

Biden, Sanders, Harris.
Biden, Sanders, Harris. Photograph: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Williamson, Hickenlooper, Yang.
Williamson, Hickenlooper, Yang. Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters
Gillibrand, Bennet, Swalwell.
Gillibrand, Bennet, Swalwell. Photograph: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

The time difference between how much the candidates is remarkable. Joe Biden spoke longest, for 11.5 minutes, and I personally can’t remember him saying anything of note. Kamala Harris spoke for 10.8 minutes, and Andrew Yang got just 2.4 minutes. That’s an even bigger disparity than last night, when Cory Booker spoke for 10.9 minutes, and the person who spoke least got five.

Some snap takes from Twitter:

Summary

•Kamala Harris was the star. She went after Biden passionately and – as you’d expect from a former prosecutor – precisely. Her criticism of Biden’s track record on race was by far and away the best bit of the night. When she slated Biden’s past opposition to busing, then said she knew an African-American girl who benefited from being bused to a better school before adding: “And that little girl was me,” she created the moment of the debates – and maybe even the moment of the primaries so far.

•Biden was subdued, and the lingering memory will likely be Harris’ taking down of his record. He didn’t have many applause lines, he didn’t really manage to talk about his vision for the country. The former vice-president got stuck in a rut of touting a) the fact he was vice-president to Obama, and b) he can negotiate with opponents. The problem is that Republicans and Democrats are so entrenched now, some believe that those days of negotiation are gone.

•Pete Buttigieg did ok, but was ultimately outshone by Harris. The South Bend mayor has been the star of the early part of the primary race so far, but he might have hoped for more of a breakout moment infront of this new crowd. Meanwhile Bernie Sanders stuck to his script, passionately and loudly. His large core of supporters will have loved it, but will he have convinced viewers?

Updated

Closing statements

Williamson: I’m going to harness love for political purposes. That will beat Trump.

Bennet: I’m going to harness the power of America, and reunite it.

Hickenlooper: As Colorado governor, I brought in progressive policies. Socialism is bad, and will relect Trump.

Gillibrand: women in America are on fire, but our rights are under attack. I will take on the fights no one else will. Now is not the time to be afraid of first.

Yang: the right candidate to beat Trump will have a vision of a trickle-up economy. I am that candidate, I can build a broad coalition.

Harris: this election is about you. Your hopes, your dreams, your fears. I will lead with dignity, honesty. Go to my website.

Buttigieg: politics isn’t theoretical for me. I’m in a marriage that exists by a single vote on the Supreme Court, I fought in Iraq.

Sanders: these are good people, but nothing changes. Wages are stagnant, people have debt. I am angry. We need to take on Wall Street and other big industries.

Biden: it’s important to restore the soul of this nation. The president has ripped it out. If we unite America, there’s not a single thing we can’t do.

Iraq, guns, and foreign relations

Biden’s record comes back to haunt him again, as viewers are reminded that he voted for the Iraq war. Why should voters trust you, Joe Biden?

Biden says Bush abused the power given to him. He says once in government (with Barack Obama), he was responsible for getting more than 100,000 combat troops out of Iraq. He touts his experience negotiating with foreign leaders.

This is a tactic Biden has deployed again and again tonight: pivoting to his place in Obama’s (popular) government, and pointing out his negotiating experience, both with Republicans and foreign leaders. But is that what voters want? Is bipartisanship not dead now?

As an aside, Biden keeps stumbling over his lines a bit, he’s not hugely convincing here. Bernie Sanders hops in to say a difference with him and Biden is that he led the opposition to the war.

There’s a brief discussion on guns. Eric Swalwell, who is running primarily on the gun control issue, promotes a buy back program. Buttigieg is asked about gun control, with reference to his military experience. He says some of the weapons he trained on have no place on the streets.

Biden bemoans that he’s not had enough time. He is the only person who has got the Brady bill passed. He’s the only one in an administration that brought in gun control measures.

Biden also says we need smart guns – guns should have biometric sensors.

Earlier, Chuck Todd asked for one word answers. Again. Which country would the candidates want to reset the US relationship first?

Buttigieg had a good joke: “We have no idea which of our important allies he will have pissed off by then.” He was talking about Trump, presumably.

Pete Buttigieg: pissed off.
Pete Buttigieg: ‘pissed off’. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

Twitter has been reacting to Kamala Harris’s criticisms of Joe Biden’s record on race, and his response. Is this the end of talk of the Biden-Harris ‘dream ticket’?

Some (brief) thoughts so far

1.The Harris-taking-on-Biden moment is the biggest thing to come out of either debate so far. It’s looking like that will be what everyone is discussing tomorrow. Harris has been struggling in the polls, and n needed a break out moment here. She got it.

2.Like last night, not much time has been devoted to the climate crisis. But, encouragingly, every candidate said tackling the issue.

3.There’s just too many people on stage. To qualify for the debate, Democrats only needed 1% in three polls. It feels like some of the candidates are wasting both their time and ours – we’d learn a lot more if people could talk for more than 60 seconds at a time.

Chuck Todd does his one-word answer thing. It didn’t work last night, and it doesn’t work tonight, but it’s quite revealing, and promising, that almost all of the candidates mention the climate crisis.

Todd: Obama wanted to address healthcare and climate change. Ultimately he could only do one. You might only get one shot, what’s your number one issue?

Swalwell: ending gun violence

Bennet: climate change

Gillibrand: passing a family bill of rights that includes pre-K

Harris: working families tax cut, Daca, guns

Sanders: let me do my stump speech, but also, a political revolution

Biden: you’re underestimating what Barack Obama did. He was strong on climate change. But the first thing I’d make sure we do is defeat Trump

Buttigieg: fix our broken political system

Yang: Universal Basic Income, which would help with climate change

Hickenlooper: collaborative approach on climate change

Williamson: call the prime minister of New Zealand and ask for her advice on climate change.

A Supreme Court/abortion rights question.

If Roe v Wade makes it to the Supreme Court and is struck down, what would Bernie Sanders do about that as president?

Sanders defends a woman’s right to choose. He says he’d never nominate any justice who wouldn’t defend Roe v Wade. He completely ignores the question.

Last night this issue prompted a big(ish) moment for Amy Klobuchar, when she confronted Jay Inslee and said there were three women on stage who had fought pretty hard for women’s rights. That feels a long time ago right now.

A question on the climate crisis...

...after almost an hour-and-a-half. Buttigieg says as mayor of South Bend he has had to deal with this. He says rural America, “with the right kind of soil management” and other things, can be part of the solution. Not the most inspiring response.

Hickenlooper, who hasn’t had much time at all, says he is a scientist. He also says socialism won’t fix the problem. (Another Sanders dig. The attacks on the Vermont senator have been an interesting subthread.)

Biden is asked if he can tackle climate crisis without the support of congress.

He says he and Obama – linking himself to the former president again – built the largest wind-farm in the US. He’d rejoin the Paris climate accord, and “up the ante” in the accord. Biden says we need someone who knows how to corral the world to get things done. Biden playing up his government experience there.

The Guardian’s Vivian Ho in Oakland writes that Harris thrives on being “the adult in the room” in debates, which seems to be her MO so far tonight

Senator Kamala Harris’s supporters have been waiting for her to take the stage in the debates since she announced her candidacy.

She may have stalled in the polls, consistently lagging behind former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders, but anyone who has followed her career knows that she shines brightest when the pressure’s on and she can step into the role of the only adult in room.

After all, her Senate judiciary committee hearings have become almost a spectator sport. Video footage of her flustering attorney general William Barr with a career prosecutor’s mastery has notched millions of views. Her questioning of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh led to memes of her skeptical face circulating around social media.

No doubt, voters tonight are now picturing the kind of damage she could do on a debate stage with President Trump.

Updated

Harris criticizes Biden for past record on race

It’s the biggest moment of the debate so far, and Kamala Harris is at the center of it.

This comes after Buttigieg is asked about his city of South Bend, where a white police officer recently shot a black man. (The officer’s body camera was off. South Bend has very few black police officers.)

Buttigieg says he can’t go into detail on how it happened due to an investigation. But systemic racism is the problem, Buttigieg says. As president he will work to tackle that. Others strive to talk about policing.

Enter Harris.

“As the only African-American on stage, I would like to speak,” Harris says. Big cheers from the crowd.

She turns to Biden.

“I do not believe you are a racist,” Harris says. But she says it was personal and hurtful to hear Biden talk about his relationship with segregationist Republicans – which he did recently.

Harris then criticizes Biden’s historic opposition to busing minority students to better school district. She says when he opposed busing, she knew a little black girl who was being bused to a better school.

“And that little girl was me,” Harris says.

Ahead of the debate, these were the two issues Biden would not have wanted brought up. Well, they have been raised – and both of them by Harris, who is really standing out here.

Updated

The Guardian’s environment reporter Emily Holden has been pointing out the lack of discussion on climate change so far

We’re halfway through the debate, and Joe Biden has faded into the background.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing for him – he had more to lose than the others, given his lead in the polls and the fact he is already well known – but I wonder if he is looking just a little bit uninspiring compare to some of the younger candidates: Harris in particular.

Lester Hold poses a question about China. China steals our property, and manipulate their currency. How would the candidates combat them?

China is an important topic but it isn’t emotive like immigration, and doesn’t make for exciting answers. Bennet says Russia is a greater threat, because of their election interference. But re China, he would involve the rest of the world to solve the problem. Bennet gets loud and angry as he talks about Trump’s actions on the border. He’s passionate and interesting on this point, but maybe one problem is he’s yet another old white guy?

Yang also criticizes Russia. The political newcomer pulls an old political trick – he mentions a farmer he met in Iowa, who was unhappy with taxes.

Buttigieg says China is using technology “for the perfection of dictatorship”. Buttigieg talks up his mid-west background. Trump’s tariffs are hurting factory workers and farmers, he says. He talks about China investing in technology. America needs to invest in itself, Buttigieg says.

It seems California congressman Eric Swalwell’s early attack on Joe Biden may have piqued the interest of audiences at home

Here’s a clip of that Swalwell moment

Candidates debate immigration

The candidates are being asked what they would do on day one of their presidency to deal with the issue of immigration.

This is the topic that prompted what was really the only spat last night: between Julian Castro and Beto O’Rourke.

The problem is that in broad terms, the candidates largely are on the same page. They would get rid of detention centers.

Kamala Harris says people should put themselves in the shoes of a mother who felt forced to pay a coyote to take her child to America. It’s quite emotive, and the crowd like it.

Marianne Williamson tries desperately to chip in. She’s really getting nothing here. Oh, wait, she does get a chance to speak. Williamson says one aspect of immigration that no one else has addressed is a need to address US policy in central America. People brought that up last night, but Williamson is right, no one has talked about it here so far.

Pete Buttigieg turns the discussion to religion. He criticizes Republicans, who in Buttigieg’s eyes are hypocrites for claiming to be the party of god, but allowing children to be locked in cages. Buttigieg is a practicing Christian, and presumably is keen for voters to know that.

Joe Biden says he would send billions of dollars to central America immediately, which would help with ‘the root cause’ of why people are fleeing the region for the US. He and Obama did that, he says.

That’s a tactic we expected from Biden: tying himself to Obama’s presidency. The former vice-president is coming through unscathed here so far. Some people were expecting a bloodbath.

Marianne Williamson, watched by John Hickenlooper, raises the US role in Central America as part of the immigration debate.
Marianne Williamson, watched by John Hickenlooper, raises the US role in Central America as part of the immigration debate. Photograph: Wilfredo Lee/AP

Updated

Elizabeth Warren had her moment on the debates stage last night, but it appears she can’t resist joining in tonight too

Here’s some analysis from The Boston Globe on who spoke the most in the first 30 minutes of tonight’s debate, which shows Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden taking the largest share

Some thoughts so far

Some thoughts so far:

It’s been rowdier than last night, with several candidates talking over each other. The attacks on Biden haven’t really emerged yet. Harris has had the best line, when she played the adult in the room by pleading for calm. Sanders has come under fire, a bit unexpectedly, from some of his rivals. Buttigieg has been quiet.

The candidates are asked to raise their hands if they support giving healthcare to undocumented immigrants. Every hand goes up.

Buttigieg, who we’ve not heard much from at all so far, is asked why. Undocumented immigrants pay taxes and are parts of our society, he says. He mentions that his father came here as an immigrant (from Malta).

Biden, after asking for the question to be repeated, agrees. You can’t let people who are sick go uncovered. He expands on his healthcare plan, which is to expand Obamacare. Biden talks, a little unconvincingly, it must be said, about how he would go after healthcare companies and big pharma.

Updated

Here’s a clip of that moment Kamala Harris stepped in to try and calm squabbling candidates, earning her a round of applause

Bernie Sanders is very consistent, isn’t he. He’s asked about Medicare for All, again, and he sets off: hands waving, voice bellowing. The moderators ask him about how much it would cost. He doesn’t answer.

First question of the night for Marianne Williamson, thirty minutes in. Oh dear.

It’s a question about healthcare. Williamson says everyone’s plans are nice, but if you think you can beat Donald Trump by saying we have all those plans, you’re wrong, Williamson reckons.

I must confess, this is the first time I’ve heard Williamson speak. She’s got one of those 1930s Hollywood accents.

We’re still on healthcare. Michael Bennet criticizes Sanders’ plan. Bennet attacked Sanders earlier as well. Did he not get the memo?

We thought everyone was going to go after Biden. So far, that has not transpired.

The candidates are asked if they would support Medicare for All, to the extent of abolishing private healthcare. Last night, when the Democrats were asked the same question, Elizabeth Warren was the only one to raise her hand.

Tonight, Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris both raise their hands.

That’s two moments – her sick burn and now putting herself to the left on healthcare – where Harris has managed to stand out from the rest so far.

Eric Swalwell is the first of the night to attack Joe Biden. Presumably it’s a prepared line. He says he remembers being a child when a Democratic candidate came to California and talked about the need to “Pass the torch” to young people.

That man was Joe Biden, Swalwell says. And yes, we need to: “Pass the torch.”

“I’m still holding onto that torch,” Biden says. If he was hoping for a laugh, it doesn’t come. Biden then runs through his plans for improving education for young people.

The moderators tries to move the discussion on, there’s some squabbling among the candidates, and Kamala Harris comes in with a line of her own. Americans don’t want to watch a foodfight, she says. They want to know how they will be able to “put food on the table”. It gets a big cheer. Good start from Harris.

Just before that, Pete Buttigieg became the first of the night to speak Spanish! He doesn’t go all in like Beto O’Rourke, but it was definitely Spanish.

Buttigieg is asked why he doesn’t support free college, like Bernie Sanders. He says he wants free college for lower income families. But it doesn’t make sense for working class families to subsidize the children of billionaires.

And Andrew Yang gets his first question of the night. He’s asked how he would pay for Universal Basic Income, his proposal which would give everyone over 18 $1,000 a month. Yang attacks Amazon, and other companies who don’t pay much tax. Being harder on them would raise funds for UBI, he says.

And we're off

And we’re off.

The first question goes to Bernie Sanders. Savannah Guthrie talks about some of his ambitious proposals, and asks Sanders if he will raise taxes on the middle class. If so, Guthrie asks, how he will sell that to Americans?

Sanders launches into his classic stump speech. He says it is a “time for change”. He discusses how he will make healthcare and education more affordable. Guthrie presses Sanders on whether the middle class will face tax rises, and he answers yes: taxes will go up for the middle class. But healthcare will be cheaper.

Biden is asked about his own plan. He immediately attacks Donald Trump – just like he did in his campaign announcement. Biden has noticeably been running against Trump, rather than his fellow Democrats. Maybe we’ll see more of this from him through tonight. Then, like Sanders, just launches into a sweeping stump speech about a whole host of topics. Guthrie doesn’t ask a follow up question.

Kamala Harris is next. Guthrie asks: Do you think Democrats have a responsibility to explain how they will pay for progressive proposals on healthcare and college tuition fees?

Harris says no one asked Trump how people would pay for the tax cuts he gave to the wealthy. A nice line, and she gets a big cheer from the crowd. Harris then touts her own tax plan to cut taxes on the middle class

Updated

How tonight will work: a primer

Here’s a little guide, for those who’ve just joined us. The format for these two debates is, in theory, simple.

The debate will be shown live on NBC, on its affiliated news channels, MSNBC and Telemundo, and streamed online at nbcnews.com. It starts at 9pm ET, and runs for two hours.

In terms of the format: “Brevity will be the name of the game,” according to NBC. “Candidates will have 60 seconds to answer questions and 30 seconds to respond to follow-ups. And there will be no opening statements, though candidates will have a chance to deliver closing remarks.” The two hours will be split into five segments.

Before last night, most analysts anticipated this would leave each candidate with about 8-10 minutes of speaking time. It didn’t. On Wednesday Cory Booker spoke for 10.9 minutes, while Washington governor Jay Inslee only got five.

The candidates’ positions on stage are determined by their average polling performance. That means Joe Biden, way out ahead of the rest, is plonked in the middle. He’s flanked by Bernie Sanders, who in most polls is second (with Elizabeth Warren closing in third), and Pete Buttigieg. California senator Kamala Harris, who completes what is arguably a “big four” of candidates taking part tonight, is next to Sanders.

This is how they’ll line up, from left-to-right:

Marianne Williamson, self-help author;

John Hickenlooper, former governor of Colorado;

Andrew Yang, tech entrepreneur;

Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana;

Joe Biden, former vice-president;

Bernie Sanders, Vermont senator;

Kamala Harris, California senator;

Kirsten Gillibrand, New York senator;

Michael Bennet, Colorado senator;

Eric Swalwell, congressman from California.

Each candidate will be standing at a podium, in front of a rather crude rendering of the White House.

The debate stage.
The debate stage. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Three Democratic candidates – Beto O’Rourke, Cory Booker and Julián Castro – broke into Spanish during last night’s debate, with some mixed results.

Comedians on US late night shows compared O’Rourke to an “embarrassing dad at a Mexican restaurant” while Booker’s wide-eyed reaction to O’Rourke’s Spanish became an instant meme. Castro’s vow to say “Adiós’ to Donald Trump” in 2020 was also an instant hit online.

New York mayor Bill De Blasio, who also appeared on stage last night, appeared to be playing catch up today in Miami. Let’s just say it didn’t go so well.

As the Miami Herald put it, the candidate didn’t endear himself to south Florida’s Hispanic diaspora when he “blurted a quote from one of the most hated historical figures in Miami: ‘Hasta la victoria, siempre.’”

He has since apologized. Will candidates break into Spanish tonight?

Updated

Candidate John Delaney has been putting himself about in the ‘spin room’. He suggested that last night’s clash over health care could be defining for the Democrats in this election. “A couple of weeks ago I was in San Francisco and I said Medicare for All was a bad idea and I was booed and I was told to leave he race,” Delaney told me. “And now last night there weren’t as many hands going up for that proposal as I would’ve thought.

“I bet a month ago a lot more hands would have gone up for getting rid of private insurance. So I just think we’ve already changed the debate and health care is the most important issue. If we can win the health care debate we’re going to be a really good position in this primary.”

Delaney said Elizabeth Warren has “outsourced” her plan to Bernie Sanders. “She may have a lot of plans but she doesn’t have a plan for the most important issue facing the American people.” As for Joe Biden, he added, “he doesn’t have a plan to actually make sure every American has health care”.

John Delaney.
John Delaney. Photograph: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

The crowd are streaming in:

You might notice (we will all definitely notice) that there’s a 40-year age range between the candidates on stage tonight. At 77, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders is the oldest candidate to make it to the TV debates. The millennial mayor of South Bend, Pete Buttigieg, is the youngest candidate running, at 37. Buttigieg is the one with brown hair who looks younger.

Pete Buttigieg.
Pete Buttigieg. Photograph: Brian Frank/Reuters

Some last-minute tweets from the candidates:

Bernie Sanders’ team are holding a pre-debate Q and A:

...Joe Biden has battered out around a dozen tweets outlining his stance on pretty much everything:

...Pete Buttigieg has bought a drone:

... and Kamala Harris is retweeting well wishes from Mamas4Kamala.

Public service announcement: I just had a quick flick around the channels and it seems debate coverage is currently competing for attention with a mini-golf competition on ABC. When the debate starts, at 9pm, ABC will be airing ‘Family Food Fight’. Fox has ‘Spin the Wheel’ in the 9pm slot, where: “Contestants face a colossal, spinning 40-foot wheel”.

Word is coming in that Joe Biden will not be coming to the spin room after the debate. Maybe it’s not a huge issue, but every candidate attended last night, and all tonight’s crew are expected to make an appearance.

A note on the spin room: it’s a slightly obnoxious name for an area in the press filing area, which is across from where the debates take place. After the candidates get off stage they come and stand in the spin room and are mobbed by journalists. (Some more than others – late last night I saw Jay Inslee essentially wandering about on his own.)

The spin room.
The spin room. Photograph: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Your hosts for the evening are:

Lester Holt, anchor of “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” and “Dateline NBC.” Savannah Guthrie, co-anchor of “TODAY” and NBC News chief legal analyst. Chuck Todd, moderator of “Meet the Press with Chuck Todd” and NBC News political director. Rachel Maddow, host of “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC. Jose Díaz-Balart, anchor of “Noticias Telemundo” and “NBC Nightly News Saturday.”

Holt will moderate the first hour alongside Guthrie and Diaz-Balart. After an hour those three will make themselves scarce, and Holt will be joined by Todd and Maddow for the second hour.

It was when Todd and Maddow took over that the sound shenanigans started yesterday. Check this out:

The first Democratic presidential debate on Wednesday night spent around seven minutes on a discussion around climate change, exceeding the total time spent on the crisis during all of the 2016 general election debates.

But the candidates mostly reiterated their campaign talking points and policy proposals, rather than challenging their opponents or conveying the full scope of the problem.

The climate questions did not come until the second half of the debate, when NBC Moderator Chuck Todd asked several contenders how they would address the dangerous effects of rising temperatures.

Rachel Maddow asked Washington governor Jay Inslee if his extensive plan could “save Miami”, the coastal Florida city watching as oceans creep inward, increasing inland real estate costs and exacerbating flooding. Current science shows that even a significant global effort to stall rising temperatures would not prevent the huge disruptions beginning in Miami and other shoreline communities.

“To my surprise, I’m the only candidate who has made the commitment to make this the top priority,” Inslee said in his concluding comments. “We can save ourselves. We can save our children. We can save our grandchildren. We can save literally the life on this planet. This is our moment.”

The bar for entry to this pair of debates was set relatively low, which has contributed to the throng. To qualify, candidates only needed to achieve 1% in three national polls, or receive more than 65,000 individual donations.

Of the 20 candidates, the DNC then mixed them at random – but with the stipulation that five of the top 10 candidates appear on each night. It’s different from Republican 2016 strategy, when the weakest candidates held their own debates before the main event. The “kid’s table” was largely ignored, and roundly mocked.

Last night 15.3m people watched the debates across NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo, and a further 9m online, according to Nielsen. That’s more than watched America’s Got Talent a night earlier! Tonight there are more high profile candidates, so it looks like another good night for NBC.

In terms of what we can expect our ten Democrats to discuss, the DNC has promised questions about the climate crisis, which were conspicuously absent from the presidential debates in 2016.

Many of the candidates have said they support the ambitious Green New Deal, but some of the more centrist types – including Biden – are holding off. Also expect quizzing on healthcare, a real point of differentiation where some contenders support Medicare for All, some are only up for improving Obamacare, and others are somewhere in the middle.

Last night immigration emerged as a key topic – Julian Castro memorably criticizing Beto O’Rourke for the latter’s stance – and we’ll likely hear more on that, and perhaps on Russia, China and Iran. (For varying reasons.)

The Supreme Court’s ruling earlier that the commerce department was not within its rights to add a citizenship question to the 2020 US Census under its proposed rationale – and declining to address gerrymandering in two states – could prompt another line of quizzing.

The DNC has been at pains to promote this as a more serious debate than we have seen from Republicans in recent times, which won’t be difficult, and expect other big topics such as college fees, student loans and impeachment.

The frontrunners in tonight’s Democratic presidential debate – Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders – both lay claim to early efforts to avert the climate crisis. But Sanders is thought by many advocates to be more sincere in his promises to prioritize the challenge.

Biden was among the first to introduce climate legislation in the Senate, and as vice president under Barack Obama, his administration began multiple efforts to limit heat-trapping pollution from cars and power plants. Those rules were incremental, compared to what scientists say is required, and they have are being rolled back by the Trump administration. His administration also helped lead the development of the international Paris agreement to stem emissions.

Sanders says he introduced the most comprehensive climate change bill, a carbon tax and dividend plan in 2013. He also secured energy efficiency spending in the Obama-era stimulus package. In the 2016 election cycle, he emphasized the escalating climate crisis.

Sanders’ support has been central to the Green New Deal, a blueprint popular among progressives that was not mentioned a first round of debates last night. He has called climate change the “existential crisis of our time,” yet he hasn’t published all of his climate proposals in one place, as several other candidates have done.

Biden has come under criticism for his adviser’s suggestions he would take a moderate approach to the climate crisis and allow the continued use of natural gas. Yet he wants to reach net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 and he endorses the concept of a Green New Deal.

The format for these debates is, in theory, simple.

“Brevity will be the name of the game,” according to NBC News, which is overseeing this (the debates are being shown live on NBC, on its affiliated news channels, and on NBCnews.com).

From NBC:

Candidates will have 60 seconds to answer questions and 30 seconds to respond to follow-ups. And there will be no opening statements, though candidates will have a chance to deliver closing remarks.

The two-hour debates will zip by quickly, with five segments [...] separated by four commercial breaks.

Before last night, most analysts anticipated this would leave each candidate with about 8-10 minutes of speaking time.

Instead, the amount of time given to each person on stage varied wildly. Cory Booker got 10.9 minutes, Washington governor Jay Inslee, just five.

O’Rourke and Warren, who alongside Booker were the best polling of the ten candidates, were 2nd and 3rd, so we tonight we can likely expect to hear a lot from Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg and Kamala Harris. But who knows.

“For all the unprecedented scale and diversity of the massive number of candidates vying for presidential nomination of the Democratic party, they can be sheeplike in their herd behavior,” write my colleagues Ed Pilkington and Lauren Gambino.

They’re talking about an immigration detention center for child migrants in Homestead, 30 miles south of Miami, which has become the must-visit place for no fewer than 12 of the 20 candidates appearing at the debates.

Here, in a scrubby bit of wasteland, a city of white tents houses up to 3,000 child migrants in conditions that protesters say are far from humane.

And it is here that the Democratic presidential candidates have been landing like bees to the hive. On Monday it was Eric Swalwell, the congressman from California.

On Wednesday, it was Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar, US senators for Massachusetts and Minnesota, respectively.

On Thursday, New York City’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, snuck in before many of the local and national media had assembled. His luck or loss, depending.

The Vermont senator Bernie Sanders pitched up at the entrance to the facility shortly after 10am. The moment he stepped out of his SUV he was entirely engulfed in a tight ball of microphone booms and TV cameras.

Next up, arriving 23 minutes after Sanders had departed was Beto O’Rourke, fresh from his performance at the first bout of Democratic debates on Wednesday night.

Bernie Sanders stands on a ladder as he looks into the facility holding migrant children in front of a detention center in Homestead, Florida.
Bernie Sanders stands on a ladder as he looks into the facility holding migrant children in front of a detention center in Homestead, Florida. Photograph: Rhona Wise/AFP/Getty Images

So about last night. My colleague Ed Pilkington was here at the debates and rounded up some of the key moments. It was a good night for Cory Booker, Ed writes:

The 50-year-old African American has failed to make much of a dent on the Democratic race so far, but on Wednesday night he came across as assured, focused and with a strong personal story that leant heavily on his low-income and diverse neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey.

He spoke passionately about immigration reform, a topic that has previously been owned by Julián Castro, the only Latino candidate in the Democratic pack, and O’Rourke. And he planted himself firmly in the Medicare for All camp alongside Warren.

Julian Castro had a good time too: he’s been one of the most talked about candidates today. He gave an impassioned response to the news of a father and daughter who had drowned at the border – “It should piss us all off,” Castro said – and shopped his proposal to decriminalizing entering the United States without prior authorization, instead making it a civil offense.

As for Elizabeth Warren, Ed writes:

She was strong on healthcare, shooting up her hand over Medicare for All, the policy that would introduce a national health system and eradicate private health insurance, and denouncing gun violence which she described as a “national health emergency” claiming the lives of seven children in America every day.

But it was a sign of how brutal the format was, with 10 ambitious people all gasping for air on a cramped stage, that even she faded a little as the evening went on. She didn’t get a word in on several key issues, including immigration.

Those of her supporters who were hoping for a dramatic Warren bounce after tonight will probably be disappointed. But so too will those who wanted to see her fall.

The gang share a joke.
The gang share a joke. Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters

Welcome to live coverage of the DNC presidential primary debates

Here we go again! It’s night two of the Democratic debates. All in all, last night passed without too much drama. Elizabeth Warren performed well, as expected, while Cory Booker and Julian Castro also stood out.

The general feeling is that Beto O’Rourke made a bit of a mess of his stage-time, just when he needed a boost to his ailing campaign. The biggest loser was NBC’s sound department, who managed to hot mic themselves and led to Chuck Todd having to cut to an ad break about 30 minutes early.

This evening, it’s the turn of the out and out frontrunner: Joe Biden. The former vice-president has been top of the polls since before he even announced his campaign, and this will be the first chance the wider public has had to check him out. But with great polling position comes great responsibility. Biden has the most to lose, and here he will be forced to actually engage with his Democratic rivals, who may confront him over things like his past positions on school bussing, and his working with segregationists in the Senate.

Among those up against Biden are Bernie Sanders, who has consistently been second in the polls, the up-and-coming Pete Buttigieg, and Kamala Harris, who is still seeking for a breakout moment.

The other six hopefuls are: New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand; Colorado senator Michael Bennet; former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper; California congressman Eric Swalwell; entrepreneur Andrew Yang and author Marianne Williamson.

Join us for all the build-up, and then live news and analysis when the debate kicks off at 9pm.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Mark Wahlberg was one of the highest-paid actors in the world last year – and people are confused
The annual list of Hollywood’s highest-paid actors saw the star of ‘The Family Plan 2’ out-earn the likes of Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Zach Braff denies he is dating AI chatbot
‘Not me,’ said the star of ‘Scrubs’ and ‘Garden State’, ‘love, the guy not dating his chatbot’
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Andrew and Peter Mandelson pictured in bathrobes with Jeffrey Epstein
Trio captured relaxing around a wooden table in photo believed to have been taken on Martha’s Vineyard
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Hooked by Asako Yuzuki: a biting tale of female loneliness and obsession
After the sensational reception of her novel Butter (2017, translated into English in 2024), Asako Yuzuki is back with Hooked (translated by Polly Barton) – a novel about loneliness and the sometimes twisted and complicated relationships between women.
The Conversation
The Conversation
What experts want you to know about the squigglies in your vision
Eye ‘floaters’ are generally harmless - until they’re a sign of something terribly wrong
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Short Circuit: An inexhaustive weekly compendium of rulings from the federal courts of appeal
Fiery writs, imperial sovereigns, and cheating escheators.
Reason
Reason
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.
Download on the AppStore Get it on Google Play