Ten Democrats will debate at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, on Wednesday evening. Presidential candidates Andrew Yang, Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Tulsi Gabbard, Tom Steyer, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, and Amy Klobuchar will take the stage just months before the nominating process starts.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Andrea Mitchell will moderate the debate with NBC’s Kristen Wekler and the Washington Post’s Ashley Parker.
Stay tuned to Breitbart News for live updates. All times eastern. Debate begins at 9 PM ET.
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11:50 PM: Warren just not appealing to people like Peter Gammons…. and David Gergen:
11:39 PM: MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell says Biden’s screw up re: Harris/Moseley Braun was unlike anything he has ever seen in a debate because he forgot that Harris existed. He said Biden had a great debate up until that point and said that gaffe was as bad as it could have gotten for the former vice president.
11:30 PM:
11:03 PM: Closing statements start. Booker says he has not qualified for the next debate and needs help. Booker says he saw John Lewis in the audience and says he is literally on the stage because a lawyer who decided to represent families who were discriminated against. He says the lawyer told him he did so because he saw John Lewis being beaten by state trooper in Alabama. Booker says we have a “moral moment” right now like in 1965 and he will cause, quoting John Lewis, “good trouble.” He asks Americans to keep him on the stage.
Steyer says everyone is more patriotic than the “criminal in the White House.” He says he is different than everyone on stage because he knows government has been purchased by corporations and has spent a decade building coalitions to defeat those corporations. He says he is the only person talking about term limits. He says he has built international businesses and he is the only person who can say that “Mr. Trump” is a fraud in his business dealings. He is making the electability argument.
Gabbard talks about how everyone needs to be treated with respect– “Aloha” values of inclusion, respect. She says Dr. Martin Luther King visited Hawaii in 1959 and expressed his appreciation for the “Aloha spirit” when it comes to racial justice. Gabbard said King said he saw the face of the future in Hawaii and says “let’s make Dr. King’s dream a reality.”
Yang says he is here with his wife and two kids. He says our children are not all right right now because of all of the economic disruptions, etc. Yang said he did not want to run for president but the people in Washington DC did not want to talk about issues like automation they did not understand and did not have solutions for.
He says he is not running for president because he fantasized about running for president. He says he is running for president because he is a parent and patriot and sees the future and will not accept what he sees right now.
Klobuchar says the election is about economics but it is also about patriotism and decency. She says people turned out in Virginia, Kentucky and says Democrats must also appeal to moderates who can’t stomach Donald Trump. She again seems very jittery.
Harris says we’re in a fight for our rule of law, for our democracy, and for our system of justice. She says to fight this fight, Democrats must have the ability to go toe to toe with Donald Trump. She says she has taken on Sessions, Barr, Kavanaugh. She says she has never represented a corporation or special interests… she says justice (economic, reproductive, education) is on the ballot and America’s promise will be unlocked if we overcome these injustices.
Buttigieg talks about former Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson and how he helped create the black middle class.
He says he is not only running to beat Donald Trump but to also lead the era that comes after Trump. He says that era must be one of inclusion. He says he is inviting progressives, moderates, and future former Republicans to joint the movement he is building.
Sanders says he is the son of an immigrant and stands with the undocumented immigrants. Says he spent a night in jail in the 1970s after protesting. He says he has received more campaign contributions at this point than any candidate in history.
Warren says she hears a lot of great ideas. She says the majority of Americans are with Democrats on issues but corruption prevents issues from being solved. She says drug companies and big corporations benefits and talks about her anti-corruption plan.
Biden says he hopes Warren wasn’t talking about the “spotless” Obama administration when she was talking about corruption. Biden says we have the most productive workers and we are led by the power of our example. He says he is tired of people with the “woe is me” attitude and repeats his stump speech. He talks about getting up and taking back the country: “Get up and take it back.”
11:02 PM: Steyer now talking about his Next Gen organization’s ability to turn out voters in the 2020 so Democrats can have a “sweeping victory.”
10:58 PM: Gabbard says Buttigieg’s service is not enough for him to be Commander-in-Chief. Rips him for his “inexperience” and cites his recent “careless statement” about how he would be sending troops to Mexico to fight to cartels. Buttigieg says his statement was taken out of context and was talking about U.S.-Mexico cooperation. He now rips Gabbard for sitting down with a “murderous dictator like that” (Assad).
Gabbard says Buttigieg was asked if he would send troops to fight cartels and his answer was yes.
Gabbard, responding to Assad criticisms, says Kennedy met with Kruschev, Reagan-Gorbachev.
10:57 PM: Buttigieg and Klobuchar spar over “Washington experience” after candidates discuss voting rights issues. He says there is over 100 years of Washington experience on the stage right now and asks where has that gotten us.
10:51 PM: Warren says abortion is a “human right” and an “economic right” when asked if there is a room for a person like pro-life Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, who just won re-election. She punts and when asked if there is room for someone like Edwards, she says she is not here to drive anyone out of the party.
Sanders says this is the moment when men must stand up with women on abortion. Sanders says he is tired of conservatives who want government off the backs of Americans and don’t understand that women, and not politicians, control their own bodies.
10:49 PM: Debate now turns to abortion. Klobuchar says we should “codify Roe v. Wade into law.” She rips Trump for having said women and then doctors should go to jail. She says abortion will be a big issue in the general election.
10:42 PM: Booker rips Biden for not wanting to legalize marijuana at the federal level and he wondered if “he was high” when he said it. Booker says marijuana is already legalize for the privileged. He says there are more African-Americans in prisons than slaves in 1850.
Booker says Democrats need a candidate who will inspire black voters. But Booker and Harris aren’t those candidates.
Biden says marijuana should be decriminalized. “Everyone gets out, records expunged,” Biden says. Biden says he “comes out of the black community” in terms of support and cites his endorsements from African American elected officials.
Biden, talking about former Seantor Moseley Braun, says he has the support of the only African-American woman ever elected to the Senate. Harris jumps in and says: “Nope… The other one’s here.”
10: 41 PM: Warren asked if she will use taxpayer money to take down parts of the border wall because she called the wall a monument to hate. Warren gives a confusing answer about taking parts down if they are not necessary and quickly shifts to children being caged in Amazon-like warehouses.
10:39 PM: Warren talking about student loan debt as an “economic justice” issue. She says black students are more likely to borrow money and more likely to be indebted. She says that is why everyone on the stage needs to embrace student loan forgiveness because it will “close the black-white” income gap.
10:36 PM: Buttigieg says he his faith teaches him to care about those who are marginalized in society. He says though he does not have the experience of being a person of color, he sometimes has felt that he was a stranger in his own country.
10:35 PM: Harris given a chance to rip Buttigieg for his lack of support from black voters and she punts.
Harris says Democrats for too long have taken black voters for granted. She says at some point, people get tired of being thanked for showing up and want politicians to show up for them.
10:32 PM: Biden asked about #MeToo. He says “we have to fundamentally change the culture” re: how women are treated. He talks about the “it’s on us” movement on college campuses that he help to spearhead to change the culture. Biden says no man has the right hit a women unless it is for self defense, which is rare. He then says we have to combat women’s issues by keep “punching at it.”
10:30 PM: Yang says white supremacist groups should be labelled as terrorist organizations so the federal government could get better data. Yang says we need to reach out boys who are susceptible to hate groups before they lose their way.
10:29 PM: Debate now turns to race. Candidates asked what they would do about white supremacism. Gabbard says leadership starts at the top and we “set the record straight” and correct the racial injustices that continue to exist. She says the war on drugs has disproportionately impacted people of color and the poor. She wants sentencing reforms and reforms to the money-bail system.
10: 23 PM: Warren, when asked about military issues, says she wants a force of 10,000 people to take care of and maintain national parks.
10:21 PM: Sanders says Saudi Arabia is not a reliable ally. He says we have to bring Iran and Saudi Arabia together in a room and tell them the country is tired of spending billions because of their problems.
He says the same goes for Israel-Palestinians.
He says we need to be rethinking who are allies are around the world. Says he is pro-Israel but “it is no longer good enough for us to be simply pro-Israel.” He says America must treat Palestinians with “respect.”
10:18 PM: Biden, when asked about Saudi Arabia, says the Crown Prince should be punished and held accountable for Khashoggi’s murder. He says Saudi Arabia should be sold weapons and should be made a pariah.
Klobuchar says China is in it for the long game and we need a president who has a long-term strategy on China.
10:17 PM: Booker rips Trump’s “transactional” foreign policy. He says Trump’s scorecard on China is not good since it has become more authoritarian under Trump. He wants to check Putin, China and other countries trying undermine democracy.
10:15 PM: Yang says what he would say to Putin during their first phone call if he wins the White House.
Yang says he will say he is sorry that “I beat your guy.” He will also tell him the the days of meddling in America’s elections are over. Yang says he will tell him he will strengthen NATO.
He says he will propose a new world data organization–like the WTO for data.
Yang also calls out China for human rights abuses.
10:12 PM: Sanders asked if he would cut a deal with the Taliban.
Sanders takes the opening to say one of the differences between himself and Biden is that Biden supported the “terrible war in Iraq” while he voted against it.
Sanders says we have to rethink the war on terror and if it necessary to cut a deal with the Taliban, he will do so.
10:10 PM: Mitchell asks Biden what he would do re: North Korea that Obama did not do in his eight years.
Biden says that Kim Jong Un says he was a rabid dog that needed to be beaten with a stick. Biden says America needs to make clear to China that the country will move up its defenses and if they “view that as a threat, it’s an easy thing to respond to” by putting pressure on North Korea. He says Trump has no idea what he’s re: Korea.
10:09 PM: Mitchell asks Harris about North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and nuclear concessions.
Harris uses the question to say: “Donald Trump got punked.”
10:07 PM: Sanders, taking a page out of AOC’s playbook, says we don’t have decades to solve the climate change problem. He says “climate refugees” will cause national security problems all over the world.
He says the fossil fuel industry is “criminally liable” for lying about climate change and “maybe we should prosecute them as well.”
10:03 PM: Maddow tees up a climate change question for Steyer. He says he is the only person on stage who will say climate is the number one priority. He says Biden won’t say it. Warren won’t say it. He says he will declare a “state of emergency” and use the emergency powers of the presidency to combat climate change. He says it should be the top priority in his foreign policy.
Biden says climate change is “the existential threat to humanity.” He says he doesn’t need a “lecture from my friend” on climate change issues. He now talks more gobbledygook and says Steyer was producing coal around the world than “all of Great Britain produces” while he was passing climate legislation.
Steyer says everyone needs to come to the same conclusion he did over a decade ago on climate.
10:02 PM: Gabbard talks about transitioning the country off of fossil fuels and ending the billions in subsidies given to the fossil fuel industry re: environmental threats.
10:01 PM: Buttigieg, asked if he would continue Trump’s farm subsidies, says he has heard from many farmers that the subsidies are not making them whole. He rips Trump’s “trade war” that never should have been started. He talks about small refinery wavers that hurt ethanol producers. A very smart answer to appeal to Iowans.
9:54 PM: Booker now talks about gentrification and his ideas to use the tax law to empower renters as much as homeowners (mortgage interest deduction).
9:53 PM: Warren says housing is how people build wealth and says the federal government has favored white people over blacks (redlining) and that still needs to be addressed.
9:50 PM: Julian Castro, who is not on the stage, said Democrats should talk about housing tonight.
Welker asks Steyer why he is the best person to solve the housing crisis. Was he the best person to get this question? C’mon.
Steyer says resources need to be applied to build millions of units that are sustainable because it has a direct impact on climate.
9:46 PM: Klobuchar (proposing three months of paid family leave) and Harris (proposing six months) asked to explain their plans. Klobuchar says it is important that you pay for your plans because Trump lies and increases the debt while treating farmers and workers like “poker chips” in a casino. She says Democrats have an obligation as a party to be fiscally responsible.
Harris, when asked about her plan, tells people to go to her website to read all of her plans. She says it is no longer the case that people are not having children in their 20s. She says people are having kids in their 30s and 40s and they are now raising their kids and taking care of their aging parents. She says the burden falls on women to do that work and they have to make a difficult choice re: leaving good-paying jobs. She says six months is necessary for the reality of today.
Liberal Democrats are going to love Harris’s answer and was probably her best moment on policy in all of the debates.
9:45: Yang calls for paid family leave. He says the U.S. should not be on a list with Papua New Guinea (countries without paid family leave policies.) Yang takes the opportunity to tout his freedom dividend proposal that will allow families to pay for childcare or stay at home to raise their kids.
9:43 PM: Biden says Democrats should not say “lock him up” because “it’s about civility” and we need to restore the soul of the country.
Sanders says more Americans are believing that Trump is in violation of the law after watching the impeachment hearings.
Biden says Trump has “indicted himself.” Biden says there are two questions–whether he should be impeached and removed and whether he should be prosecuted after he leaves office. He says the latter is a question for an attorney general.
9:41 PM: Maddow notes that people are now chanting “lock him up” at the World Series and campaign events. She says that chant has been heard at two of Sanders’ rallies and Maddow asks if Democrats should be okay with that.
Sanders says nobody is above the law and if he did break the law, he should be prosecuted.
9:40 PM: Booker is asked if Trump communicated with Americans and tweeting all of his thoughts is a norm that should have been broken. Booker says Trump demeans and degrades the nation. A bizarre question that seemed to set up Booker to highlight that he used Twitter to communicated to citizens well before Trump but Booker whiffed.
9:39 PM: Biden basically says he will be a good president because he knows the names of all of the world’s leaders. Sounds very establishment.
9:35 PM: Mitchell asks what Klobuchar meant when she implied Buttigieg would not be on the stage if he were a female. She says woman, though, are held to a higher standard and if not we would be able to play the game of naming our favorite female president.
Klobuchar says she has passed over 100 bills and frames herself a consensus builder. It’s misleading because she passes a lot of small bills that are often impossible not to get a consensus. Of course, moderators don’t call her out on that. What huge bill is Klobuchar associated with?
9:33 PM: Buttigieg claims he has the right experience to take on Donald Trump. He says he “comes from the kind of communities” that Trump claims he is helping. He says Trump claims to help people while traveling on private jets between golf courses.
9:32 PM: Yang finally gets a question. Parker says Yang has never served in the government and military and asks how he will be able to respond to terrorist attacks. Yang first praises Steyer for using his billions to fight climate change and says he should not criticized for doing so. Steyer replies: “Thank you, Andrew.”
Yang has says the next Commander-in-Chief should be focused on the threats of tomorrow. A good frame because Yang’s whole campaign theme is that today’s politician don’t understand threat of the future like AI, etc.
9:31 PM: Klobuchar, contrasting herself with Steyer, says
9:30 PM: Worth noting that Yang is the only person who has not gotten a question. Bad form for MSNBC after a year of very strange omissions that has prompted even fairly neutral observers to call out the network:
9:29 PM: Steyer gets a question. He talks about a broken government that is purchased by corporations. He says he has taken on a defeated tobacco companies, utilities, drug companies, etc. Will MSNBC ask him about his private equity deals?
9:25 PM: Gabbard is asked about what the “rot” she she’s in the Democratic party. Gabbard says the party continues to be influenced by the “foreign policy establishment” in Washington that Clinton represents along with the military industrial complex. She slams the Bush-Clinton-Trump foreign policy doctrine. Interesting omission of Obama. Gabbard says as president she will end the regime-change wars and the new cold war.
Harris is asked to respond and she says “it’s unfortunate that we have someone on this stage” who wants to be the party’s nominee who spent years on Fox News criticizing Obama and “buddying up to Steve Bannon.” Harris is months late on this comeback–and it shows how unprepared she and her team were when Gabbard telegraphed her attacks against Harris a couple weeks ago. A day late and a dollar short.
9:22 PM: Welker asks Sanders if Obama is right when he said Americans don’t want to tear the system down. Sanders says he isn’t and then talks about a health care system that is “cruel and dysfunctional.” He says “some of the people up here” think should not take on the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. He’s talking about Mayor Pete and Biden and maybe Booker. But he doesn’t mention them by name.
Dunce moderators do not ask Sanders which candidates he is talking about. Piss poor job of following up by this team so far. Out to lunch.
9:20 PM: Warren defends he Medicare for all plan. She says when people have had a chance to “feel it” and “taste it” after the third year, people are going to want it.
Sanders, when finally brought into the discussion, says: “Thank you, I wrote the damn bill.”
9:18 PM: Buttigieg says we are in a different environment than when Obama was president and claims that Democrats now have a majority on issues like guns and immigration if they can “galvanize” and not “polarize.” He pitches his “Medicare for all who want it” plan and says Democrats should not be “commanding” people to get Medicare.
9:14 PM: After Warren pitches her “two cents” wealth tax, Booker, backed by Wall Street, says he is for increasing the estate tax and does not agree with Warren’s wealth tax. Booker says he wants a more just tax system and says the country needs to give more people opportunities to grow wealth.
Booker, at the very end of the stage, gets a question before other candidates like Yang and Gabbard.
It seems like MSNBC is trying its best to make Booker seem like the “moderate” candidate Democrats should back. But there is a reason he is at the end of the stage.
Warren says she is “tired of freeloading billionaires” and repeats her stump speech about everything a two-cent wealth tax can help accomplish.
9:11 PM: Harris is next and she says “we have a criminal in the White House.” Harris is just a talking-point machine, re-upping some of her best anti-Trump lines from the trail.
9:08 PM: Mitchell asks Biden a good question. She mentions Biden has claimed Republicans will work again with Democrats if he becomes president. She asks how that will be possible when Republicans want him and his son investigated.
“Donald Trump doesn’t want me to be the nominee,” Biden says, adding that he also found out Putin doesn’t want him to be president from the hearings. Biden keeps stressing that he is the best person to beat Trump but never answers Mitchell’s question. Mitchell doesn’t follow up and lets Biden slide. Expect someone like Sanders to whack Biden on this later if given an opportunity.
9:07 PM: Buttigieg, asked the same question, says Trump’s conduct should be central and claims Trump has already confessed his crimes on television. He says he will confront Trump for his wrongdoings but says he is also running to govern after Trump. He says when Trump is defeated, it will be a “tender” moment in a country when the sun will come up. He says the country will be more divided than ever and big issues still need to be addressed.
9:06 PM: Sanders says Trump is a “pathological liar” who is the “most corrupt president” in modern history when asked how central Trump’s conduct should be in the campaign. Sanders, stealing a bit from Yang, says Democrats cannot be consumed with Trump or they will lose the election. He says the American people understand that Congress can “walk and chew bubble gum at the same time” by dealing with Trump’s corruption and standing up for working families and fighting the corrupt political system and the “rigged economy.”
9:04 PM: For some reason, Klobuchar is now given air time. She says she is for an impeachment inquiry but the jury is still out on the evidence. Won’t commit to convicting and removing Trump like Warren. Klobuchar seems a bit jittery.
9:02 PM: Maddow begins with an impeachment question. Maddow asks Warren if she is willing to convince her Republican colleagues to convict Trump. What a softball question. Warren says of course.
Warren now segues to money in politics, putting her against Democrats backed by big-money donors like Biden without mentioning anyone. Warren says ambassadorships should not be for sale.
9:00 PM: All candidates on stage as the debate is about to get started. Mitchell says they will cover a lot of topics, including “national security, race, and climate.”
8:50 PM: Candidates about to take the stage. Chris Matthews says the impeachment hearings have shown that the Democrats are simply, more than anything, an “anti-Trump” party. He says Democrats are more interested in bringing Trump down than they are about any of the presidential candidates and their platforms.
8:45 PM: A late entry into the race who obviously did not qualify for the debate:
8:39 PM: Can Mayor Pete take the heat tonight? Will his poll numbers hold after tonight’s debate?
Yang creates an all-female playlist featuring a Taylor Swift album on the day Ariana Grande, a Scooter Braun client, expressed her support for Bernie Sanders.
Ariana Grande for Bernie:
Creative fundraising pitch from Yang’s campaign:
Candidates will be debate on the Oprah Winfrey soundstage. Media in the Whoopi Goldberg Soundstage.
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