The first Democratic debate, night 2

Our live coverage of tonight’s Democratic debate is winding down, but you can read our takeaways at the links below:

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris had a tense exchange over Biden’s past praise of some senators who supported segregation and his opposition to busing.   

“It was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country. It was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing,” Harris said. 

Biden responded, “I do not praise racists. That is not true.” 

Facts First: This exchange needs context. Biden does have a history of praising senators who supported segregation, but in several instances he claimed they clashed on the issue of civil rights. 

Biden’s campaign was riled last week when he cited two segregationist senators and as examples of colleagues he could work with during an era where “at least there was some civility” in the Senate. Biden did not praise either of the men, but he does have a history of praising several senators who supported segregation and opposed the Civil Rights Act – though not for their positions opposing civil rights. 

Biden praised then-Mississippi Sen. John Stennis, a staunch segregationist as a “hero” and “the rockbound integrity of the United States Congress” in the 1980s. Biden called Stennis “a hell of a guy” in 2008.

Biden also has praised South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond, who ran for president as a segregationist in 1948 as a Dixiecrat. In 1993, Biden spoke at Thurmond’s 90th birthday and praised him by comparing him to Confederate General Robert E. Lee. 

Biden has claimed both Stennis and Thurmond changed with the times. When Thurmond died, Biden said he did not believe the senator was racist at his core. 

In his Senate farewell address in 2009, Biden said he became friends with Stennis, Thurmond and Mississippi’s James Eastland despite opposing their views on civil rights.  

“I never thought I’d develop deep personal relationships with men whose position played an extremely large part in my desire to come to the Senate in the first place to change what they believed in – Eastland, Stennis, Thurmond. All these men became my friends,” Biden said.

Joe Biden, asked about his vote for the Iraq war and his judgment on taking the US to war, touted the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq in 2011.

Facts first: Biden is correct that he oversaw the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq in 2011. But he left out a key point – three years later, US troops returned to Iraq to fight ISIS, which rose to power in the vacuum left, in part, by the withdrawal of American forces.

Biden voted to authorize military intervention in Iraq in 2002 and later became a critic of the Bush administration’s handling of the war. His son, Beau, also deployed to Iraq for a year in 2008, serving in an administrative post with the 261st Signal Brigade.

The withdrawal of roughly 150,000 US combat troops from Iraq became a major part of Biden and President Obama’s election platform in 2008 and ultimately, the last American convoy left the country in December 2011. 

In 2014, the US sent a much smaller contingent of a few thousand soldiers back to Iraq as part of the campaign against ISIS after the terror group rose to power and claimed a significant portion of territory both in Iraq and Syria.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders hammered home a familiar theme for him, saying that the middle class is stagnating, while the richest Americans are adding to their wealth. 

“In the last 30 years, the top 1% has seen a $21 trillion increase in their wealth,” he said at Thursday’s debate.

Facts First: The top 1% of households saw their wealth grow by $22.3 trillion on an inflation-adjusted basis, according to Federal Reserve data. 

Matt Bruenig, the founder of the left-leaning People’s Policy Project, earlier this month also released an analysis based on Federal Reserve data, which tallies Americans’ wealth.

He adjusted it for inflation, but removed the value of certain possessions, such as cars and refrigerators, and found a $21 trillion increase in wealth for the top 1% from 1989 to 2018, while the wealth of the bottom 50 percent dropped by $900 billion during the same timeframe.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg said Thursday that China is investing massively in artificial intelligence.  

Facts First: Buttigieg’s assertion that China is prioritizing artificial intelligence is true but the Trump administration has proposed significant investments as well. 

The Chinese government has outlined an aggressive plan to become a world leader in artificial intelligence by 2030, according to the New York Times. One Chinese city, Tianjin, announced last year it will establish a $16 billion fund to support the development of AI, according to Reuters. 

And according to CNBC, Chinese state media reported last year that the country will build a $2.1 billion development campus that will accommodate 400 businesses and produce an estimated $7 billion in annual productivity.

China accounted for 48 percent of all AI-related venture capital in 2017 — outstripping the United States for the first time, according to CB Insights, a venture funding research firm.   

Presidential candidate Marianne Williamson wasn’t pleased with her performance tonight and said she is hoping to elbow her way into the conversation next time.

“I am rather disappointed in myself,” she told CNN. “Personally, I don’t feel I got a chance to answer many questions, and even when I answered the questions, the way things were positioned … it was certainly not my best. But I’ll be back in a month, and I’ll practice real hard to learn better how to do it.”

Williamson, an author and spiritual adviser, said she’ll need to “learn how to elbow my way in” for the next debate.

“It’s not my nature,” she said.

Williamson went on to say last night’s debate was less fiery.

“If there had been so much of that last night, I think I would have said, ‘OK, now I have gotta practice this.’ That’s why I went in quite naive,” she said.

Sen. Kamala Harris and Joe Biden had a testy exchange on race and school busing.

It began with Harris referencing Biden’s recent comments about working with pro-segregationist Senators, and ended with her personal story of benefiting from busing, a policy she criticized Biden for opposing.  

Biden shot back claiming Harris’ comments were “a mischaracterization of my position across the board.” Biden said he opposed busing mandated by the Department of Education but that he would have allowed localities to bus students should they choose to do so.  

Facts First: Biden was a vocal opponent of federally-mandated busing. His remarks in the 1970s broadly denounced busing programs claiming they were bad for local communities. 

In 1978, Biden co-sponsored and strongly advocated for legislation that would have limited the ability of federal judges to compel school districts to integrate public schools by busing black students to white areas and vice versa.

He particularly solicited the support of segregationist Mississippi Democrat James Eastland, writing in 1977, “I want you to know that I very much appreciate your help during this week’s committee meeting in attempting to bring my anti-busing legislation to a vote.”

Biden says he would allow busing under certain circumstances. In cases where a school system has been racially segregated by gerrymandering district lines or by other legalistic means, Biden said he supported desegregation by any legal means at hand – including busing.  

In 1975, Biden supported an amendment offered by Senator Jesse Helms that would have made busing much more difficult in all jurisdictions by prohibiting the Department of Health, Education and Welfare from collecting information needed to identify segregated school systems.

However, neither piece of legislation would have explicitly prohibited Berkeley from choosing to bus black students into majority white schools or vice versa. Berkeley was one of the first cities to adopt a busing program in 1968.

After the Helms amendment failed, Biden offered a provision that would’ve prevented federal funds from being used to require any school to assign students or teachers by race.  

Biden said he supported school integration by other means but opposed busing because he thought it had a negative impact on communities. 

Sen. Kamala Harris said that she told local sheriffs in California when she was the state’s attorney general that they could buck certain requests to detain undocumented immigrants made by federal immigration officials — a progressive policy that is still fought for today by immigration activists.  

Facts First: This is true, though some liberals in California said she was slow to come around. 

In 2012, Harris issued an “information bulletin” to law enforcement agencies in the state saying that they were not required to fulfill detainer requests from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

At the time, the American Civil Liberties Union wrote that her statement “should finally put to bed any lingering doubt that immigration detainers are voluntary requests” and noted that a better solution would be the passage of statewide legislation.

Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang didn’t get much speaking time on stage tonight, but he said he thinks he still accomplished his mission.

Yang said he’s hoping to make his case again to Americans at the next debates, hosted by CNN, in July.

“I’ll have plenty of other opportunities,” he said. “Obviously, I would have loved more questions.”

He added that he felt the questions directed at him were “sparse.”

Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bennet, speaking reporters after the debate, said he thinks he can win the nomination and beat President Trump.

Bennet just stepped off the stage following a two-hour debate with nine other Democratic candidates who also sought to make their case to Americans.

He was one of the top five candidates with the most speaking time at the end of the debate. (Bennet spoke in total for about 7:59 minutes.)

Former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper criticized a liberal policy proposal saying, “If you look at the Green New Deal which I admire the sense of urgency and how important it is to do climate change, I’m a scientist, but we can’t promise every American a government job.” 

Facts First: This is almost true. While the Green New Deal does guarantee people jobs, it doesn’t specify they’d be government jobs.  

The Green New Deal is a proposed bill that is more a list of ideas than a hyper detailed proposal.

This 14-page piece of legislation touches on a wide range of topics including cutting carbon emissions and switching power generation to 100% renewables. It also does promise everyone in the US a job, but it does not specify that it would be with the government.  

Specifically, the legislation says it is: “guaranteeing a job with a family-sustaining wage, adequate family and medical leave, paid vacations, and retirement security to all people of the United States.” 

The bill also promises workplace safety laws, paid vacations, family and medical leave and it offers discrimination protections.

Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet claimed that 160,000 families that make up the top 0.1% have the same wealth as the bottom 90%.  

Facts First: This is correct, according to one study.  

There are several ways to measure wealth in America, and none of them are perfect. However according to at least one analysis from economists, this statistic is true.

Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman at the University of California-Berkeley sent a letter to Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren – who often touts this comparison of wealth – with their estimate of how much revenue her ‘ultra wealth tax’ would generate. 

In the letter, they wrote that the 0.1 percent own about 20% of the nation’s wealth. The bottom 90% own about 25%.

Correction: This post has been updated to correct the bottom-line conclusion about the statistic Bennet cited.

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand claimed that seven migrant children have died in the US custody during the Trump administration.

“He’s torn apart the moral fabric of who we are. When he started separating children at the border with their parents. The fact that seven children have died in his custody,” Gillibrand said.

Facts First: Gillibrand is correct. 

At least seven children migrating to the US from the southern border have died in US custody since 2018, according to news reports and government statements.

The Democratic candidates just made their pitch to American voters, wrapping up the two-night debate event in Miami.

Here’s what they said:

Pete Buttigieg claimed that because of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on China, “Americans are going to pay on average $800 more a year.”

Facts First: Buttigieg is slightly underestimating the cost of Trump’s China tariffs, according to one paper published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The study found that Trump’s latest tariff escalation – which raised the rate from 10% to 25% on $200 billion of Chinese goods – could cost a typical household $831 a year.

That’s in addition to the $414 cost that could be incurred by the earlier rounds of tariffs imposed during 2018.

Pete Buttigieg said: “There are undocumented immigrants in my community who pay sales taxes and pay property taxes directly or indirectly.”   

Facts First: It’s true that undocumented immigrants pay taxes.  

Undocumented immigrants pay billions in taxes each year, even though they do not have Social Security numbers. They file using what’s known as an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number.  

“Most experts believe that the vast majority of tax returns filed with ITINs today are filed by undocumented immigrants,” according to the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington-based think-tank. That method is also used by some noncitizens who are legal immigrants to the US.    

In 2015, according to the IRS, 4.35 million tax returns were filed using ITINs, accounting for more than $13.6 billion in taxes. 

Moments after Biden touted his role in pulling troops out of Iraq during the Obama administration, Sanders reminded the former vice president of his role in the decision to send them there.

Both candidates talked about de-escalating or ending America’s ongoing conflicts. Biden said combat troops should be removed from Afghanistan, calling it “long overdue.”

Sanders discussed his efforts, including his spearheading of the War Powers Act’s passage, to end US involvement in Saudi Arabia’s intervention in Yemen, which he described as “the most horrific humanitarian disaster on earth.”

NBC’s Chuck Todd asked the candidates what would be the first issue they’d tackle if elected president.

Here’s what they said:

In arguing for a candidate from a new generation to be the Democratic nominee, California Rep. Eric Swalwell quoted Joe Biden in 1987 at the California Democratic convention. 

Facts First: Biden did say this February 3, 1987, at the California Democratic convention and it was a part of his stump speech during his 1988 presidential campaign and in appearances during the previous year. He was quoting John F. Kennedy and talking about how it made him feel at the time. 

“Remember how you felt when you heard let the word go forth, from this time and place, that the torch has been passed. Passed to a new generation of Americans,” Biden said, quoting President John F. Kennedy’s first inaugural address.

Later, Biden concluded by saying, “it’s time to be on the march again. It’s time to get America moving again and as the man who will speak to you later today will tell you quite simply, our time has come.” 

Watch that speech here.

Former Vice President Joe Biden quickly responded to Sen. Kamala Harris’ callout regarding his comments on working with segregationist senators, saying he’s been mischaracterized.

“It’s a mischaracterization of my position across the board. I do not praise racists. That is not true,” Biden said.

He went on to say that he’s worked as a public defender “when, in fact, my city was in flame because of the assassination of Dr. King,” and with President Obama, “who in fact we worked very hard to see to it we dealt with the issues in a major, major way.”

Biden continued: “The bottom line here is, look. Everything I have done in my career, I ran because of civil rights and continue to think we have to make fundamental changes and those civil rights, by the way, include not just African-Americans, but the LGBT community.”

Harris pressed Biden on where he stood on key issues when he was US senator, specifically if he opposed bussing at the time.

“I did not oppose bussing in America. What I opposed is bussing ordered by the Department of Education.” Biden told Harris.

Joe Biden said: “[Undocumented immigrants] in fact contribute to the well-being of the country but they also for example increase the lifespan of social security. Because they have a job, they’re paying a social security tax. That’s what they’re doing. It’s increased the lifespan.” 

Facts First: This is true.   

Undocumented immigrants often pay into the Social Security system through payroll taxes, but typically do not receive benefits. According to a 2013 report by the Office of the Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration, in 2010, undocumented immigrants paid about $12 billion more into the system than they received.  

That could extend the period of solvency for the Social Security trust funds, which are currently projected to be depleted in 2035.

It’s rare for Joe Biden to stop talking, but twice tonight on the debate stage he uttered words seldom – if ever – heard from his mouth: “My time is up, I’m sorry.”

The former vice president often seemed eager for the conversation to move on without him. In the second hour of the debate, when he was at the center of a series of fiery exchanges aimed at his long record, Biden twice came to a stop – without being silenced by moderators.

Biden has more debate experience under his belt than any other presidential candidate, so perhaps he knew when it was time to stop. He was struggling to make his points in a crisp manner, and Sen. Kamala Harris scored far more points on their fiery and memorable exchange on race.

It’s been seven years since Biden’s been on the debate stage. The crowded and chaotic setting was nothing like the genteel affair with Paul Ryan during the 2012 vice presidential debate.

Perhaps Biden was just rusty, like when he suggested Democrats won the Senate last fall, when he surely meant the House. Or perhaps he has lost his step. Only future debates – and campaign stops – will show whether he is a strong front-runner or merely a placeholder. 

But tonight, the former vice president surrendering his microphone – without being asked by the moderators – was remarkable for a man known for a half-century of stem-winders.

Andrew Yang claimed that Amazon pays “literally zero in taxes.” “Oh, so, it’s difficult to do if you have companies like Amazon, trillion-dollar tech companies paying literally zero in taxes while they’re closing 30% of our stores.” 

Facts First: When it comes to taxes the picture is more complicated than Yang claims. Amazon pays state taxes and has also paid federal taxes in the past. 

The Wall Street Journal reported recently that Amazon’s overall tax rate from 2012 through 2018 was 8%.  

“From 2012 through 2018, Amazon reported $25.4 billion in pretax US income and current federal tax provisions totaling $1.9 billion,” the Journal reported.

“That is an 8% tax rate — low, but not zero or negative. Looking back further, since 2002, Amazon has earned $27.7 billion in global pretax profits and paid $3.6 billion in global cash income taxes, a 13% tax rate.”

Amazon’s SEC filings in 2017 showed it did not expect to owe any federal tax, and in fact expected to get a $137 million refund from the federal government.

It did, however, say it expected to pay $211 million to states. 

More recently, in February, an analysis of Amazon corporate filings by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that the company got a rebate of $129 million for tax year 2018.

Analysts say Amazon was able to whittle down its tax liability by taking advantage of tax credits and deductions.

California Sen. Kamala Harris claimed that the tax bill signed by President Donald Trump benefits major corporations and will contribute at least $1 trillion to the US debt. 

Facts First: This is true. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the 2017 Republican tax act would add some $1.9 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade. 

CNN has previously reported that the Republican tax reform bill passed in 2017 included tax cuts for corporations as well as individuals – but while the benefits for business were permanent, the individual taxpayer cuts will expire by 2027. If Congress does nothing to extend them, the top 1% will at that point receive roughly 83% of the tax cut benefits, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. 

Last year, the Congressional Budget Office projected that the Republican tax bill would add $1.9. trillion over the course of 10 years.

Sen. Kamala Harris confronted former Vice President Joe Biden on his recent remarks, in which he recalled working with two segregationist senators.

He used the senators as examples of colleagues he could work with during an era where “at least there was some civility” in the Senate.

Here’s what Harris had to say about Biden’s remarks:

She went on to talk about her experience as young girl.

“It was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bussed to school every day. 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,” Harris said.

Harris raised the issue while talking about race and recalling her own childhood.

“There is not a black man I know, be he a relative, a friend or a coworker who has not been the subject of profiling or discrimination. My sister and I had to deal with the neighbor who told us her parents couldn’t play with us because we were black,” she said.

Her account tweeted this moments ago:

Mayor Pete Buttigieg admitted that his police force in South Bend lacked diversity because he “couldn’t get it done.”

South Bend, Indiana, has been in turmoil over the last two weeks after a white officer shot a black man during an altercation earlier this month. The police have alleged that the black man was breaking into cars and wielding a knife.

The South Bend Police Department has lost African-American officers nearly every year under Mayor Pete Buttigieg, according to numbers released to CNN by the police department. When Buttigieg took office in January 2012, the South Bend Police Department had 29 black officers on the force. That number was 15 in 2019, according to the numbers.

Buttigieg said the situation around the shooting is a “mess” because the officer didn’t have his body camera on.

He added: “This is an issue that is facing our community and so many communities around the country. Until we move policing out from the shadow of systemic racism and whatever this reaches us, there is a wall of mistrust put up one racist act at a time not from what happened in the past, but what happened in the present. It threatens the wellbeing of every community. I am determined to bring about a day when a white person driving a vehicle in and a black person driving a vehicle, when they see a police officer approaching, feels the same thing. Not of fear, but of safety. I am going to bring about that very thing.”

California Rep. Eric Swalwell is sporting an orange ribbon on his lapel to honor victims of the Parkland, Florida shooting.

The ribbons were made by the father of Jaime Guttenberg, a student who was killed in the mass shooting of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February 2018. Swalwell wore the same orange ribbon at his kickoff campaign rally in California.

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg lambasted Republicans touting their close ties to Christian leaders at the same time that they are separating families at the border and putting children into detention centers.

“Now, our party doesn’t talk about that as much largely for a good reason which was, we are committed to the separation of church and state and stand for people for any religion and people of no religion,” Buttigieg said. “But we should call out hypocrisy.”

He added: “And for a party that associates with Christianity to say it is OK to suggest that God would smile on the division of families at the hands of federal agents, that God would condone putting children in cages, has lost all claim to ever use religion language again.”

Buttigieg, an Episcopalian, often talks about the benefits of faith on the campaign trail and his rise to prominence was based, in part, in his ability to talk about faith with Democrats and use it to slam Republicans.

“Frankly, it couldn’t be more radically different than what I see certainly in this White House, where there is a lot of chest-thumping and self-aggrandizing, not to mention abusive behavior, but also political agenda that seems to always be revolving around that idea that somehow it’s too easy for poor people in this country,” Buttigieg said in April. “It’s just so different from what I get when I read Scripture.”

“I get that one of the things about Scripture is different people see different things in it,” he added. “But, at the very least we should be able to establish that God does not have a political party.”

Senator Bernie Sanders blasted the rich for taking advantage of America in Thursday night’s debate, saying that three people own more wealth than the bottom half of the nation. 

Facts First: It’s true that the three richest Americans have more wealth than the bottom half of the nation, according to a 2017 study by the left-leaning Institute for Policy Studies. 

Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Warren Buffett had more combined wealth ($248.5 billion) than the 160 million people on the lower rungs of the wealth ladder, according to the study. 

The institute used data from the 2017 Forbes 400 list and the Federal Reserve’s 2016 Survey of Consumer Finances.

President Donald Trump says he briefly watched a portion of the Democratic debate underway in Miami, and wasn’t impressed.

Speaking alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Japan, Trump criticized the debaters for unanimously expressing support for providing health care to undocumented immigrants.

While health care for undocumented immigrants comprised a portion of the debate, the Democrats also spent time laying out their plans for providing more Americans health coverage.

He went on to address Merkel, explaining his view that last evening’s debate was uninteresting.

“You know they have a debate going on,” he said to his German counterpart. “There was the first debate last night. It wasn’t very exciting I can to tell you that. They have another one going on today. They definitely have plenty of candidates, but that’s about it. I look forward to spending time with you rather than watching that.”

California Sen. Kamala Harris vowed to start her presidency by using an executive action to reinstate DACA status and DACA protection to undocumented immigrants.

“Immediately on January 20 of 2021, we cannot forget our DACA recipients and I’m going to start there. I will immediately by executive action reinstate DACA status and DACA protection to those young I will further extend protection for deferral of deportation for their parents and for veterans who we have so many who are undocumented and have served our country and fought for our democracy,” she said.

Harris also said she would put a plan into place to review asylum cases, as well as release children from detention centers.

Some background: Harris has previously vowed to use executive actions to remove the threat of deportation of millions of undocumented people in the United States.

What’s in her plan: The plan would work within the current confines of immigration law and assumes Congress would be unable to pass immigration reform, something the body has failed to do for years. Her plan, should she be elected in 2020, would instead expand the use of deferred action immigration programs and use executive actions.

Ahead of the Democratic debate, Harris advisers said their plan was twofold:

The discipline of this career prosecutor is showing off. She’s prepared for weeks for this debate in Washington and then arrived early in Miami to drill through last-minute debate prep. She also has shown on the campaign trail a deft ability to use canned phrases and make them sound as if she’s saying it for the first time.

Enter: “OK guys, Americans don’t want a food fight. They want to know how we’ll get food on their table.”

What we’re seeing here is the notorious preparation of the studious prosecutor.

Bernie Sanders claimed “83% of your tax benefits go to the 1%.”  

Facts First: This is incorrect. For the 2018 tax year, the top 1% was estimated to have received 20.5% of the benefits from the tax cuts, according to the non-partisan Tax Policy Center.

Some estimates say that if certain tax cuts are not reapproved by Congress after they sunset in 2027, 83% of the benefits would go to the top 1%.

President Donald Trump’s tax reform law passed in December 2017 included tax cuts for corporations as well as individuals – but while the benefits for business were permanent, the individual taxpayer cuts will expire by 2027.

If Congress does nothing to extend them, the top 1% will at that point receive roughly 83% of the tax cut benefits, according to the Tax Policy Center.

NBC’s Savannah Guthrie just asked all 10 presidential candidates to raise their hands if their government plan would provide health care coverage to undocumented immigrants.

All of the candidates raised their hands.

The move drew applause from the audience.

In calling for change, Bernie Sanders said: “500,000 people are sleeping out on the streets today.” 

Facts First: Sanders is basically correct here. While the number of people experiencing homelessness fluctuates in the United States, the most recent government tally broadly comports with Sanders’ claim.  

According to the federally mandated Point in Time Count conducted every year by HUD to count the nation’s homeless population, there were 552,830 people experiencing homelessness on a single night in December 2018. 

Rep. Eric Swalwell urged former Vice President Joe Biden to pass the torch to younger candidates by quoting then-Sen. Joe Biden back to the now 76-year-old candidate.

“I was 6 years old when a presidential candidate came to the California Democratic convention and said it’s time to pass the torch to a new generation of Americans,” the California Democrat said. “That candidate was then-Sen. Joe Biden.”

The line landed as Swalwell, who is 38, and Biden were split screen on camera as the audience let out a collective gasp.

“He was right when he said that 32 years ago. He is still right today,” Swalwell continued.

Biden, in response, said, “I’m still holding onto that torch. I want to make it clear.”

For a moment on stage tonight, the candidates running for the Democratic nomination descended into a cacophony of noise over who was old, who was young, who wanted the torch and who still had it.

Then Sen. Kamala Harris interjected: “Americans don’t want to witness a food fight. They want to know how we’re going to put food on their table.”

The audience broke into applause.

Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, got a chance to use one of the many languages he knows tonight.

Before jumping into a question, Telemundo’s José Díaz-Balart welcomed Buttigieg in Spanish.

Buttigieg quickly responded in Spanish, saying, “Good night. Thank you.”

Some background: Buttigieg speaks eight languages: English, Norwegian, Spanish, Italian, Maltese, Arabic, Dari and French.

The opening volleys of the second Democratic primary debate offered an immediate contrast between the candidates’ competing ideas about the direction of the party – thanks in large part to former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper.

Sen. Bernie Sanders took the first question, talking up his Medicare for all plan. In response to a question from the moderator, he said that taxes would go up in order to make it happen. His argument: Health care costs for would go down, creating a net financial benefit.

Former Vice President Joe Biden got the next question: about his remarks to donors that nothing would “fundamentally change” for them if he were elected. Biden responded by attacking Trump and and promising to end his tax cuts for the rich.

But it was Hickenlooper who laid bare the party’s internal divisions in response to a question about Sanders’ democratic socialism.

Hickenlooper has been a vocal critic of Sanders and, in just a sentence or two, summarized party moderates’ argument against him.

The early portion of tonight’s debate was all about Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders: the policies he’s built his brand on advocating, and the consequences of them.

The debate opened with Sanders acknowledging his Medicare for All proposal would come with higher taxes (but lower health care costs overall). “Yes, they will pay more in taxes, but less in health care for what they get,” he said.

The candidates faced questions that revolved around Sanders’ agenda. South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg was asked about his breaking with Sanders on whether college tuition should be free.

Candidates who have criticized Sanders were asked to defend their position on him. The first question to former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper was to explain which of Sanders’ policy ideas he considers socialist. Hickenlooper answered by pointing to the political challenge that “the Republicans are going to come with everything they can to call us socialist.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden took his first swipe at President Trump of the night while talking about income inequality.

Asked about his remarks to wealthy donors in which he said we shouldn’t demonize the rich, Biden then tried to explain what he meant.

“What I meant is, look. Donald Trump thinks Wall Street built America. Ordinary middle class Americans built America. My dad had an expression. ‘Joe, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck.’ It’s about dignity and respect and looking your kid in the eye and seeing that everything is going to be okay. Too many people at the middle class and fall had the bottom fallout. I am saying we have to be straight forward. We have to make sure we understand that the return of dignity to the middle class, they have to have insurance that is cover and they can afford it. They have to make sure we have a situation where there is continuing education and they are able to pay for it and they center have to make sure they breathe air that is clean and they have water that they can drink. 

The question: “You have called for big new government benefits like universal health care and free college. In a recent interview, you suggested that Americans would be delighted to pay more taxes for things like that. My question to you is, will taxes go up for the middle class in a Sanders administration and if so, how do you sell that to voters?”

Sanders’ answer: “People who have health care under medicare for all will have no premiums, no deductibles and copayments and no out of pockets. Yes, they will pay more in taxes and less in health care for what they get.”

One of the oldest candidates, Joe Biden, and the youngest candidate in the race, Pete Buttigieg, are standing next to each other tonight, laying bare their age difference.

And the difference is stark: When Buttigieg – age 37 – was born in 1982, Biden – age 76 – had been in the Senate for roughly a decade. He became a senator in from Delaware in 1973.

For weeks, Buttigieg has been making a generational argument about his candidacy – an unspoken knock on Biden. Now, viewers can see it on stage.

Andrew Yang isn’t wearing a tie tonight for his first Democratic presidential debate.

But he doesn’t seem to be bother by it because as he put it, he is in “debate mode.”

Sen. Kamala Harris, from California, has voiced support for a number of progressive issues. She said the US needs Medicare-for-all, has backed marijuana legalization and has said she’d use executive actions to remove the threat of deportation of millions of undocumented people in the United States.

But those progressive views could clash with her law and order history.

Harris is a former California state attorney general. In that role, she supported a city policy that required law enforcement to turn over undocumented juvenile immigrants to federal immigration authorities if they were arrested and suspected of committing a felony, regardless of whether they were actually convicted of a crime.

Two men who would be first husbands should their spouses win the presidency tweeted ahead of tonight’s debate.

Chasten Buttigieg, who married Pete Buttigieg in June 2018, tweeted, “You’re ready, @PeteButtigieg. You’ve got this. I love you,” alongside a photo of what looked like a last-minute suit adjustment.

Kamala Harris’s husband Douglas Emhoff said in a tweet of his own, “Dear ⁦@KamalaHarris⁩: I love you, I believe in you, and I’m so proud of you. The whole country is going to see what I get to see everyday. You are amazing. ❤️❤️”

The two are approaching their fifth wedding anniversary this August.

Rep. Eric Swalwell, who announced his 2020 bid in April, made combating gun violence a focus even months before he entered the race.

The California congressman traveled to Iowa in December with Cameron Kasky, co-founder of March for Our Lives, the student activist group that grew out of the 2018 shooting at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School

“We should go big and be bold and expect in our lifetime that we can have background checks,” Swalwell said at the Progress Iowa event in December. “We can ban and buy back every single weapon of war. We can fund and study gun violence. We can take care of people with mental illness needs.”

The first event Swalwell attended as a 2020 contender was a town hall focused on gun control in Sunrise, Florida — a few miles from Stoneman Douglas High School. Swalwell has also called for a ban on “military-style semiautomatic assault weapons” with a buy-back program.

Listen to Swalwell address gun violence during his 2020 campaign kickoff speech:

Colorado’s Sen. Michael Bennet entered the 2020 race in May — later than he intended.

Bennet’s announcement was delayed after the senator was diagnosed with prostate cancer in early April. He had surgery shortly after the diagnosis and announced last month that doctors gave him a clean bill of health.

He added that his cancer diagnosis and the clean bill of health gave him clarity on running for president.

Watch Bennet talk about his cancer diagnosis in the clip below:

Sen. Bernie Sanders this week offered up a plan to completely eliminate the student loan debt of every American, staking out uncharted territory in the Democratic presidential primary.

The details: The new legislation would cancel $1.6 trillion of student loan undergraduate and graduate debt for approximately 45 million people. His ambitious plan has no eligibility limitations and would be paid for with a new tax on Wall Street speculation.

The proposal goes further than the plan previously unveiled by his Democratic primary rival Sen. Elizabeth Warren, whose package was subject to income eligibility levels.

Learn more about Sanders’ plan in the video below:

Businessman Andrew Yang’s platform includes a plan for universal basic income.

What that means: He wants to give all Americans over the age of 18 $1,000 per month to address economic inequality. He argues the policy would play a key role in restructuring the modern economy to make it more equitable.

How he’s testing it out: Yang is paying two voters $1,000 a month as a test run of his plan. He will personally fund the monthly stipend — or “Freedom Dividend” — for 41-year-old Kyle Christensen of Iowa Falls, Iowa, and another voter from New Hampshire.

Watch Yang explain his plan in the clip below:

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand will take the stage tonight hoping to cast herself as the race’s clear champion for women, an aide tells CNN.

And after watching last night’s contest, the aide said, the New York Democrat plans to invoke President Trump more than candidates did so last night.

Trump was rarely mentioned in last night’s debate, something that Gillibrand’s team clearly believe was a mistake by the ten candidates on stage.

Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) does a television interview in the spin room before the second night of the first Democratic presidential debate on June 27, 2019 in Miami, Florida.

Rep. Eric Swalwell took a swipe today at Joe Biden, calling some of the former vice president’s ideas “staler than Donald Trump’s.”

The California Democrat, speaking to CNN, also questioned Biden’s electability.

Swalwell also said he supports decriminalizing illegal border crossings and supports Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s efforts.

Cedric McMinn was lucky enough to get a pair of tickets to tonight’s debates.

But he said he’s most excited to see California Sen. Kamala Harris. McMinn said he first met Harris during former Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum’s campaign.

Harris, he said, is more than qualified to be president.

“She’s the right person for the job,” McMinn said.

Casey Miller wasn’t always into politics. But Pete Buttigieg, the mayor from South Bend, Indiana, changed that.

Miller, 34, added: “This is the first time I am in it, that I am truly concerned, truly interested in what they have to say.”

She said she’s attracted to Buttigieg’s authenticity and on-the-job experience in South Bend.

“He is just so genuine,” Miller said. “Everything that he says you know that he means it.”

The Indiana native doesn’t have tickets to the debate, but she said she doesn’t mind because she’s happy to be an outside observer.

Protesters filled street corners for the second night in a row ahead of tonight’s Democratic presidential debates.

This is what it looked like:

Ten Democratic presidential candidates will face off in Miami tonight.

Some of them, however, were tweeting about the debate and other key issues, including the Supreme Court, hours before they hit the stage.

Here’s what they had to say:

Former Vice President Joe Biden talked about the Supreme Court’s decisions today on gerrymandering and the 2020 Census citizenship question.

Michael Bennet said the Supreme Court has “given up on democracy.”

John Hickenlooper did an AMA on Reddit.

Andrew Yang tweeted about tonight’s debate, saying he expects to get about five to 10 minutes of airtime.

California Rep. Eric Swalwell prepped for the debate.

Bernie Sanders announced he was on Twitch, and shared a video on the immigration crisis.

Marianne Williamson invited everyone to share their “big truth.”

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand wants you to text her if you need a refresher on her platform.

Marianne Williamson, a long-shot Democratic presidential candidate, has taken her pitch to the Iowa in an unusual way.

Williamson’s campaign told CNN she moved to Iowa this spring in the hopes of garnering some votes from her new neighbors.

What you need to know about her: Williamson, a Texas native, has written several best-selling books beginning with her first, “A Return to Love,” which got the attention of Oprah Winfrey. Since then, Williamson has been a “spiritual friend and counselor” to Winfrey. 

In 2014, Williamson ran for a congressional seat in California only to finish fourth in the primary, despite name recognition, $2 million spent, and celebrity endorsements, including a campaign song written by Alanis Morissette. That seat eventually went to Rep. Ted Lieu.

Watch Williamson explain her qualifications in the video below:

Julián Castro’s biggest breakout of last night came as he jousted with Beto O’Rourke on the question of whether crossing the border from Mexico should be a crime.

Here’s what he said about his debate performance:

“Well, clearly I had a great night,” Castro told CNN’s John Berman on New Day.

Watch for more:

Former Rep. John Delaney, clearly annoyed at the fact that Sen. Bernie Sanders will be at the center of tonight’s debate stage, made a familiar attack against the Vermont independent when asked by CNN in the spin room: He’s not a member of our party.

One thing to note: Delaney was on the debate stage last night and won’t be on it tonight,. After going to dinner, Delaney plans to be back at 11 p.m. ET to respond to the contest.

Joe Biden does not want to spend the whole evening on his past record. He will defend and explain, but will try and pivot forward.

Former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper entered the 2020 race in March — and from the beginning he’s taken aim at President Trump.

In his announcement video, Hickenlooper slammed Trump as a “bully” and said, “As a skinny kid with coke bottle glasses and a funny last name, I’ve stood up to my fair share of bullies.” The video also chronicled his life as a geologist, an owner of a brewpub, the mayor of Denver and the governor of Colorado from 2011 to 2019.

Later, at a CNN town hall, Hickenlooper attacked Trump again, saying the President “should be ashamed of himself” for saying he doesn’t view white nationalism as a rising global threat following the mosque terror attacks in New Zealand that killed 50 people.

Watch that moment:

Former Vice President Joe Biden is the Democratic field’s current frontrunner for 2020 and sits at No. 1 on CNN’s power rankings of Democrats most likely to get their party’s presidential nomination in 2020.

CNN’s Chris Cillizza and Harry Enten explain two main reasons why:

Watch part of Biden’s 2020 campaign announcement in the video below:

After a series of sharp exchanges on the first night of debates in Miami, that four of the top five candidates in the 2020 race – including former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders – will be on the stage together means the possibility for high-profile exchanges are all but certain.

Here are some key questions headed into the Thursday’s debate:

Biden v. Bernie: How will the two top contenders in the Democratic primary – who will be standing side by side – handle each other? Sanders has shown a willingness to go after Biden in speeches and interviews, but, to date, the former vice president has only occasionally engaged with any of the criticism he has received from the party’s liberal wing. Will that continue on Thursday?

Prosecutor Harris: The California senator is in the top tier, but her campaign has cycled through different messaging over the last few months. Lately she has embraced her past a prosecutor, arguing that the Democratic nominee needs to be able to “prosecute” the case against Trump. Does the California Democrat focus her energy on the Republican in the White House or the Democrats flanking her left and right? 

Can Buttigieg overcome South Bend? The South Bend Mayor comes into the debate on defense after weeks of strife in his hometown over after a white police officer shot a black man who was allegedly breaking into cars and wielding a knife. The incident has raised new questions about the police force and his handling of the city and could further complicate his efforts to win over black voters. Polls show he is struggling with the key Democratic demographic. Will other candidates bring up the issues Buttigieg faces at home? His campaign is preparing to respond to such attacks, aides said.

Which Biden shows up? Biden has done well in past debates, but this is his first primetime debate since facing off with then Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan in 2012. Both Biden, and the party he is seeking to represent, have changed since them. Will that show?

Hickenlooper vs. the left: Hickenlooper, more than anyone else on the stage, has been critical of Sanders and the left of the Democratic Party. It’s not a question of will he attack Sanders, it’s a matter how much time he decides to spend on his progressive rival. Sanders would likely welcome those attacks, so does the former Colorado governor risk playing into the senator’s hands and, in the meantime, missing out on an opportunity to introduce himself to voters.

Who is…? For anyone not in the top tier – namely businessman Andrew Yang and author Marianne Williamson, the two candidates on stage who aren’t elected officials – the goal may be to get people at home to hop on Google and search “who is” your name. Yang has a devoted online following, but many people have never heard of him and a boost with people who don’t live online could be critical. Williamson, too, has run a unique campaign and this could be her best moment to introduce herself.

Will the Supreme Court’s gerrymandering and census decisions make debate waves? Earlier today, the Supreme Court handed down a pair of hotly anticipated decisions: First, it ruled that partisan gerrymandering couldn’t be challenged in the courts. Then the justices said that, at least for now, the Trump administration could not add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

The gerrymandering decision will allow legislative and governing majorities to continue to draw up maps that effectively guarantee their grip on state government. It’s a decision Democrats rushed to condemn and that Sen. Elizabeth Warren, in a tweet, called an “abomination.”

The question now: The courts have taken on greater weight with Democrats during the Trump (and McConnell) Era… so what do the candidates here propose to do about it?

There has been lots of debate within the party over how to deal with a Supreme Court that seems likely to skew in conservatives’ favor for a long time to come. Some progressives want add more justices, or pack the court, while others have discussed rotating justices into and out of their seats — ending the current lifetime appointments.

Thursday rulings have thrust those questions and propositions back into the spotlight. And that will give the candidates on stage a chance to step out and make some headlines.

It doesn’t take long on the campaign trail to see that Kirsten Gillibrand is having a great time.

“I probably am having more fun than the other candidates,” she said with a laugh in an interview with CNN.

But there is a harsh irony to this upbeat attitude: Gillibrand’s campaign, despite the joy, has gone nowhere since she announced earlier this year. The senator’s polls are sagging: a May Monmouth University poll found her with less than 1% in New Hampshire.

Gillibrand said in an interview that she was well aware of these issues. When asked why her campaign hasn’t taken off, the senator jumped in.

“Not yet,” she interjected.

Gillibrand said she is confident that her campaign will get its time in the spotlight.

Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, on Friday skipped scheduled campaign stops so he could spend time in his hometown meeting with community leaders after a recent officer-involved shooting.

At a march protesting the shooting, the mayor said he’s “serious about fixing this.”

But tempers flared at the 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful: “You running for president and you want black people to support you, and vote for you,” one incensed community member told Buttigieg. “That’s not going to happen!”

About the shooting: An officer shot and killed a man earlier this month after police received a call that someone was breaking into cars, according to the County Metro Homicide Unit.

The man — who was later identified by the unit as Eric Jack Logan of South Bend — was transported to a hospital in critical condition and later died. Buttigieg said the officer was put on administrative leave while the incident is investigated.

The first group of Democratic presidential candidates faced off last night at Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami, Florida.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts was the top-polling Democratic presidential candidate onstage, and the early moments of the party’s first 2020 debate showed why.

Here are a few takeaways from the opening night of Democrats’ first 2020 presidential debates:

Ten more Democratic presidential candidates will take the debate stage in Miami tonight.

The candidates going head-to-head are Marianne Williamson, John Hickenlooper, Andrew Yang, Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Kirsten Gillibrand, Michael Bennet and Eric Swalwell.

Here’s what we know about the debate: