Presidential candidates Andrew Yang, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Julian Castro, Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke, Pete Buttigieg, and Amy Klobuchar will debate on Thursday evening in Houston, Texas, at Texas Southern University.
ABC’s David Muir, George Stephanopoulos, and Linsey Davis will moderate the debate with Univision anchor Jorge Ramos.
Stay tuned to Breitbart News for live updates throughout the evening. All times eastern.
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12:45 AM:
12:15 AM: According to Joel, Biden was the only candidate who did go to the spin room after the debate.
11:45 PM:
11:25 PM: On CNN, Cory Booker says many in the party are wondering if Biden can carry the ball across the finish line without fumbling.
11:10 PM: Interesting stat:
11:00 PM: Some on the left upset there were no questions about voting rights. Wonder what Stacey Abrams is thinking:
10:46 PM: On ABC, Rahm Emanuel thinks Castro’s attack on Biden was “disqualifying.” Emanuel’s pal Axelrod rips Castro on CNN for his “ageist” attack on Biden. CNN’s Anderson Cooper suggests Castro’s attacks are nothing compared to what Trump will throw at him.
A question many are asking:
10:25: Each candidate will be asked about the resilience. Each candidate asked about professional setbacks and how it made them stronger.
Biden: He doesn’t count any professional setback as a “serious setback.” Protesters interrupt Biden. He says, citing his dad, it’s about how quickly you get up. He says he was raised to be believe family is the center of everything and he talks about his personal tragedies that made him lose his faith for awhile before he got it back. He says you deal with it by finding purpose in what you do and he hopes his late son Beau is proud of him today.
Warren says she’s known what she wanted to be since second grade. She wanted to be a schoolteacher who wanted to be “tough but fair.” Warren speaks about her first year as a special needs teacher after the University of Houston. She lost her job because she got pregnant and then she decided to go to law school. Warren says she knows what’s broken and is in the fight to fix what’s broken.
Sanders talks about growing up in a rent-controlled apartment with poor parents. He talks about professional resilience–getting 1% of the vote before finally getting elected mayor of Burlington and then getting elected to Congress. He then talks about his fights against Wall Street and the corruption and greed of the pharmaceutical industry, the military industrial complex, the prison industrial complex. He says he will be able to take on the “greed and corruption” of the corporate elite and create an economy that works for all of us.
Harris: She says she was told each time she ran for public office that “it couldn’t be done.”
Buttigieg talks about wondering if acknowledging who he was going to be the ultimate professional setback. He said he had no idea if it set him back and talks about how trust can be reciprocated. He says this election is not about anyone of them or Trump–it’s about the people who trust politicians with their lives.
Yang: He was an unhappy lawyer and then started a businesses that flopped before picking himself back up. He said he still remembered how isolating failure was and spent seven years training entrepreneurs around the country.
Booker: Biggest setback was taking on the political machine in Newark and the machine fought back and he lost. He says we need to use this moment in history to unite in common cause
Beto: He learned everything he has about resilience from El Paso. He talks about the act of terror directed at his community largely “by the president of the United States.”
Klobuchar: She talks about her daughter who couldn’t swallow when she was born and was sick for years. She said she was kicked out of the hospital and that prompted her to advocate for a law to ensure mothers are able to stay in the hospital for 48 hours after the birth of their child.
Castro tells the story about quitting his law firm job to vote against a plan to build a golf course over a reservoir. He says nobody gets tested more in a position of public trust than the president and he passed his first major test that pitted the people versus corporate interests.
10:18 PM: Booker teed up a question about the opportunity gap in education. He says he has seen the “anguish” of parents who are frustrated at schools with poor results. He says he raised the salaries of teachers, closed poor-performing charter schools, and expanded charter schools that did well.
Booker then talks about environmental injustice (lead) before pivoting to holistic solutions that are needed.
Malpractice to have a “charter school” debate and not ask Booker if Raheem ever learned how to read.
10:16 PM: Castro says schools are segregated because neighborhoods are segregated. That’s why his education plan also includes housing assistance to desegregate neighborhoods. Castro says it’s a myth that charter schools are better than public schools. He wants more transparency from them than is required now.
10:14 PM: Biden asked about his remarks re: not being responsible for the sins of his grandfather. He talks again talks nonsensically about redlining and needing social workers to help parents better raise kids. He talks about how his deceased wife was a teacher and institutional segregation before then talking about Venezuela. He says parents need to be told to put on the record player at night and cites stats about poor kids hearing thousands of fewer words than kids who are more well off.
10:09 PM: Warren says money for public schools should stay in public schools and not go anywhere else. She says she will have a Sec. of Education who has been a public school teacher. Warren says she has proposed a two-cent wealth tax on the super rich that would provide universal pre-K for three- and four-year-old and better compensate teachers while canceling debt.
10:08 PM: Buttigieg rips Betsy DeVos and says we have to respect teachers the way we respect soldiers and pay teachers like we pay doctors.
10:01 PM: Davis, the moderators, attacks Yang’s support for charter schools. Yang says he is pro-good schools and his kid goes to public school. He says we need to pay teachers more and lighten up the emphasis on standardized tests. Yang says we are telling educators that they are 100% responsible for educating when they only control 30% of what’s responsible for how kids learn. Yang says we need to do more to make the environment outside of schools better for kids.
10:00 PM: Beto says he will enact environmental legislation even if his donors oppose. He talks about embracing renewable wind and solar and freeing the country from fossil fuels. He wants to pay farmers for environmental services they want to provide.
9:58 PM: Ramos tees up a question to Booker about whether Americans in Iowa and Texas should eat less beef re: climate change. He rips factory farms for their misaligned interests.
Booker then pivots and says it is shameful that we don’t talk about veterans and their needs.
9:57: PM: Castro calls Maduro a dictator and wants TPS protections for Venezuelans.
9:56 PM: Sanders back on brand attacking the “handful of billionaires” in various industries, media.
9:53 PM: Muir tries to make Yang look bad on foreign policy by citing the credentials the elites love of everyone on stage. Yang says he signed a pledge to end the forever wars. He says Americans want a president who has the right values to make the right decisions. Missed opportunity for Yang to ask Americans if all of the credentialed people have enacted foreign policy decisions that they are proud of that put Americans/humanity first…
9:51 PM: Sanders tells Biden that he never believed what Cheney and Bush claimed about Iraq like Biden did.
9:48: Biden says he’s been in and out of Afghanistan (not with a gun like Buttigieg) more than anybody else on stage before mumbling something and realizing he maybe should not have exaggerated yet again. Biden, like the other Dem. candidates, wants troops brought home from Afghanistan.
Biden making a mess of trying to clean up his lies about when he exactly first opposed the Iraq War.
9:40 PM: Biden, echoing the Obama administration’s TPP talking points, says either America is going to write the rules or China will re: trade deals.
9:38 PM: Sanders differentiating himself with Biden on trade. He says he led the opposition to NAFTA. He also rips Trump for thinking trade policy is a tweet in the middle of the night.
9:37 PM: Harris says she is not a protectionists and America has a “complicated relationship” with China. She says Trump reminds her of the character in the Wizard of Oz… when you pull back the curtain he’s a small dude. Harris also apparently takes a lighthearted jab at Stephanopoulos’s height… the one time this evening where she appropriately laughed.
9:35 PM: Warren on brand and message ripping giant multinational corporations for America’s terrible trade policies. She wants farmers, environmentalists, regular people at the table re: trade deals. She says these corporations will move jobs overseas to save a nickel in a “heartbeat.” She says everyone wants access to America’s markets and the country should use trade to strengthen America’s workers and demand corporations adhere to stricter environmental/labor standards if they want access to America’s markets.
9:31 PM: Klobuchar also dodges and says Trump is going to bankrupt America like he bankrupted his casinos. She says she would go back to the drawing board but is not specific. She says Trump is undermining our strength as a nation by making a mockery of trade policy.
9:31: PM: Buttigieg implies Trump can’t negotiate with China’s Xi and says America’s leadership is needed more than ever. He doesn’t answer the tariffs question like Yang bluntly did and punts, saying “it’s not about tariffs.”
9:28 PM: Yang finally gets a question on tariffs. He says he would not repeal tariffs on day one but would make it clear to China that they need to deal. Yang says the trade imbalances are real but Trump has produced an “arbitrary” and “haphazard” trade policy that has hurt people in both countries. Moderators don’t know how Yang is going to answer questions because he doesn’t give canned answers. So, they don’t have their pre-cooked “follow-ups” ready and are too stupid to think on their feet to ask interesting follow-up questions.
9:25 PM: A point many are making as the establishment media seem even more out of touch and elitist:
Mr. Serena Williams backing Yang’s plan:
9:19 PM: Buttigieg says those who support Trump’s immigration policies are supporting racism.
Beto want to rewrite immigration laws in the image of Houston and El Paso.
9:17 PM: Warren looks terrible trying to answer Yang’s question and steal his time. Yang says his father grew up on a peanut farm abroad and now his son is running for president. Yang says that’s the message he will have for immigrants. He wants more legal immigration. Ramos misses follow-up opportunity on implications re: his Freedom Dividend that will only be provided to citizens.
Terrible form for Warren (who is suspected of having stolen Native American identity to benefit professionally) as noted by many debate watchers:
9:13 PM: Castro says Biden wants to take credit for everything good associated with Obama and wants none of the blame for everything that was bad, especially re: immigration.
9:12 PM: Biden does not answer if he made a mistake in not opposing the Obama administration’s deportations.
9:10 PM: Mr. Jorge Ramos now has the stage on immigration. He says Biden supported the border wall in 2008. He says Biden served in an administration that deported 3 million people. He asks if he did anything to prevent those deportations. Ramos wants to know why Latinos should trust him.
Biden says it is outrageous to compare Trump to Obama and says he and Obama never locked people up in cages despite the fact that Breitbart News broke the story about migrants being warehoused during the Obama-Biden administration.
9:05 PM: Warren smartly brings the gun control debate back to “corruption” after Booker talks about the politics of “empathy.” She wants to get rid of the filibuster to enact gun control measures.
Sanders also brings it back to corruption, but Warren was first to do so. Sanders disagrees with Warren about eliminating the filibuster.
9:00 PM: Beto bluntly says, “Hell yes, we are going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.”
8:58 PM: Harris says Biden should say “yes, we can” instead of “no, we can’t” re: executive actions on gun control. But she giggles while saying it and yet again comes off as just awkward.
Harris also accuses Trump of “tweeting out the ammunition”:
8:55: Debate turns to the El Paso/Odessa mass shootings.
Biden, after forgetting that he was never a congressman, now can’t remember Moms Demand Action. He says something along the lines of mothers against guns, perhaps thinking of Mothers Against Drunk Driving…He calls for gun buybacks, saying we should get the guns out basements.
8:52: The Thursday Night Football game is apparently delayed due to inclement weather. So the debate may have more viewers.
8:51 PM: Biden claims he opposed redlining policies and says so many people are in jail who should not be in jail. He says nobody should be in jail for nonviolent crimes or drug problems. He says he’s the guy who put in “drug courts” to divert people from the criminal justice process.
8:50 PM: Klobuchar asked if she should have done more re: white police officers shooting black men when she was a prosecutor. She claims that’s not her record. Gives legalese answer full of technicalities. When you’re explaining….
8:49 PM: Harris asked about why she didn’t change the system as a prosecutor. She gives the same answer about wanting to have a seat at the table. She claims she was born knowing how biased the criminal justice system is. Her record continues to haunt her throughout the primary process.
8:45 PM: Buttigieg asked about his difficulties with black voters. He says systemic racism preceded Trump and it will exist even when Democrats defeat Trump. He says harms compound (a dollar stolen like a dollar saved) and talks about how generational theft has put people in two different countries. He says you can’t replace racist policies with neutral ones and hope everything will be OK.
8:42 PM: Debate turns to racism. Beto says the county was founded in 1619, not 1776. He says Trump is a “white supremacist” who poses a “mortal threat” to people of color. He talks about various systemic inequalities in education, etc.
Castro says Trump inspired a shooter to come to El Paso to try to kill people who looks like him.
Booker talks about systemic racism, says there are more African Americans in jail than there were slaves. He basically says Democrats shouldn’t get cookies for saying Trump is a “racist” because everyone knows he is. He also talks about environmental racism
8:38 PM: Booker says everyone on stage is in favor of universal coverage and comes at it with the best intentions.
8:37 PM: Yang says we are talking about health care the wrong way. He says the current system makes it harder for people to hire.
He says he is Asian so he knows a lot of doctors who are fed up with paperwork, bureaucracy. He praises the great Cleveland Clinic model.
8:33 PM: Bernie passionately says under his plan, people will not go bankrupt because of a medical emergency like cancer.
Biden says he knows a lot about cancer…and says people need help now.
Beto says Democrats are offering a “false choice.” Beto is framing Biden as an “incrementalist” whose plan will leave many uninsured. Beto brings up the ability of unions to keep the plan they fought for.
Castro also praises Sanders and Obama for the work they have done on health care. Castro says Biden’s plan leaves 10 million people uncovered. He accuses Biden of lying about his plan at the last debate. He says Barack Obama’s plan was not to leave 10 million uncovered.
Castro wonders if Biden is forgetting what he said two minutes ago (age implications) re: health care buy ins.
8:30 PM: Buttigieg says he trusts the American people and if progressives are right, Americans will opt for his Medicare for All who want it plan. He asks Sanders why he won’t trust Americans. Sanders says people lose their insurance if they get fired or if their employers change the plan.
Harris says she supports Medicare for All but wants to improve it and gives another roundabout answer. Harris seems to be pivoting everything back to Trump. She says Trump spent the first years of his tenure trying to get rid of Obamacare, and she praises the late Sen. McCain.
8:26 PM: And now for some strange reason, ABC asks Klobuchar, WHO IS LAST in polling among those on stage, the next question to give her air time. She won’t answer which candidate is the “extreme” one. She says while Bernie wrote the bill she “read the bill.” She hits Sanders on private insurance.
8:25 PM: Warren says she’s never met anyone who like their insurance company. She says they like their doctors, nurses, etc.
8:23 PM: Biden says Sanders and Warren aren’t answering his criticisms about costs.
8:21 PM: Sanders says “he wrote the damn bill” while defending Medicare for All. He says nobody will pay more than $200 a year for prescription drugs.
8:20 PM: Warren says costs will go up for wealthier individuals and giant corporations under Medicare for All but costs will go down for working families. But she doesn’t directly answer Biden’s criticisms about costs/private insurance.
8:19 PM: Biden is asked about Medicare for All vs. improving Obamcare. He says Warren is for “Bernie” and he is for “Barack.” He concedes his plan costs a lot but not nearly as much as Warren’s and Sanders’s.
8:09 PM: Andrew Yang says everything revolves around the almighty dollar and that’s why we don’t trust institutions. He announced his “Freedom Dividend” raffle. He asks those watching at home to go to Yang2020.com and tell the campaign what $1,000/month could do for them.
Robotic, inauthentic, consultant-driven and stiff politicians like Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg chuckle.
Buttigieg talking about unity and trying his best to display gravitas. Not working.
Harris says she has a few words for Trump. She says Trump has spent the last two years trying to sow hate and division and that’s why we’ve gotten nothing done. She says the only reason Trump has not been indicted is because a DOJ memo states that a sitting president can’t be charged with a crime. Harris, like nearly every other candidate, robotically says there is so much more that unites than divides.
Harris tells Trump to go watch Fox News when he is speaking at Baltimore at this time. Awkward attempt at jabbing Trump. Incompetent advisers didn’t tell her on this night he wouldn’t be watching TV?
A hoarse Bernie gives a speech attacking the fossil fuel industry, possibly setting up something later with Biden.
Warren says she was born in Oklahoma but she is glad to be in Texas. She says her brothers served in the military and that was their ticket to the middle class. She got hers at the University of Houston. Warren talks about service members being preyed upon and people struggling to pay their bills. She says she knows what’s broken and how to fix it.
Biden uses his opening statement to talk about refusing to postpone finding a cure for cancer, taking on climate change, pre-K, etc.
8:03 PM: Opening statements. Castro starts his opening statement by talking about exciting a young generation of Americans ready for a bold future. He says he can turn Texas blue.
Klobuchar says what unites Democrats is much stronger than what divides them. “Houston, we have a problem,” she says of Trump. She says Trump runs the country like a game show and would rather lie than lead. Everything else is standard stump speech material. She is appealing to people stuck in the “middle of the extremes.”
Beto says the El Paso shootings showed just how “dangerous” Trump was because the shooter was “inspired to kill” by Trump. He then talks about the smallness of today’s politics with a bunch of platitudes.
Booker speaks about his bio–how he moved into the inner city after law school. He says that’s like the story of America and speaks about uniting Americans in common cause.
8:01 PM: Jorge Ramos opens the debate by saying they will discuss “Latinx” issues. He then speaks Spanish since Univision is also sponsoring the debate.
7:50 PM: The candidates are being introduced and walking on stage.
7:45 PM: Yang’s surprise: He’ll announce a raffle for $1,000/month for 12 families. Campaign will get way more than $120,000 worth of new contacts/donations (people buying MATH merch, etc.) from people who have never voted before and are not on anyone else’s lists.
7:30 PM: Thirty minutes until game time:
7:15 PM:
Joel interviews Rahm Emanuel about Medicare for All:
7:05 PM: Breitbart’s Matt Boyle previews debate:
Don’t forget to follow Joel Pollak and Kristina Wong, who are at the Houston debate:
More robotic talk from Team Kamala:
Interesting Andrew Yang debate prep strategy:
Rather than relying on aides or other politicians to play his opponents, as is customary, the offbeat, web-savvy 44-year-old outsider hired a cast of real actors and actresses to put him through the wringer for two-and-a-half hours at the Signature Theatre in Manhattan.
Yang invited a few dozen of his donors to play the audience, and they were instructed to treat the candidate like he had no business being on a presidential debate stage. “You’re not Yang Gang right now. You’re a DNC donor, a longtime DNC donor that just wishes we’d all shut up and have Biden as our president right now,” a campaign aide instructed the audience.
To Yang’s right, Kamala Harris’ impersonator, wearing a sharp black jacket and pearls, imitated the former attorney general’s prosecutorial style, waving her signature pointed finger to prosecute her case. To Yang’s left, the Beto O’Rourke performer mimicked the former congressman’s straining, hoarse speech with thumb-on-fist flourishes.
Cory Booker’s understudy, who was white, gave a stirring rendition of the senator’s sermonizing tone. The actor with the stage name Bernie Sanders waved his arms wildly and spoke with a passable Brooklyn timbre, but had a nicer suit and flashier tie. Joe Biden’s performer broke character with his crisp diction.
Breitbart Fact Check: Fact Check: Trump Increased Funds for Black Colleges 17%:
CLAIM: President Donald Trump “signed legislation to increase federal funding for HBCUs by a record 13 percent. That was the highest ever done.”
VERDICT: True, and he has increased it by 17% since 2017.