NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate provides the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Friday, February 7th, 2020

We’re watching the eighth 2020 Democratic presidential debate. Join us!

Good evening, and wel­come to NPI’s live cov­er­age of the eighth Demo­c­ra­t­ic pres­i­den­tial debate of the 2020 cycle.

NPI staff are watch­ing and shar­ing impres­sions of the debate as it pro­gress­es, which will take place over the course of sev­er­al hours in Man­ches­ter, New Hamp­shire. ABC is the media part­ner for this DNC-sanc­tioned debate along with its Man­ches­ter affil­i­ate WMUR and Apple News.

The debate will run for three hours, from 5 PM Pacif­ic to 8 PM Pacific.

Here’s how you can tune in:

In addi­tion to watch­ing on ABC, view­ers can get up-to-the-minute cov­er­age about the can­di­dates and issues as the debates unfolds on the iPhone’s free Apple News app. Not only can view­ers watch the debate, but they can click on a feed of live updates to see more infor­ma­tion, includ­ing real-time updates, analy­sis and explain­er guides from ABC News’ top cor­re­spon­dents and experts.

And here’s an overview of the for­mat and mod­er­a­tor lineup:

Chief Anchor George Stephanopou­los, “World News Tonight” Anchor and Man­ag­ing Edi­tor David Muir and ABC News Live Anchor Lin­sey Davis will mod­er­ate the debate.

Join­ing them will be WMUR-TV Polit­i­cal Direc­tor Adam Sex­ton and WMUR-TV News Anchor Mon­i­ca Hernandez.

Can­di­dates will have one minute and fif­teen sec­onds to answer direct ques­tions and forty-five sec­onds for rebut­tals, at the dis­cre­tion of the mod­er­a­tors. Can­di­dates will not make open­ing or clos­ing state­ments, but there will be a clos­ing question.

Tonight’s line­up of sev­en can­di­dates is iden­ti­cal to the Decem­ber debate lineup.

  • For­mer May­or Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana
  • U.S. Sen­a­tor Bernie Sanders vof Vermont
  • U.S. Sen­a­tor Eliz­a­beth War­ren of Massachusetts
  • For­mer Vice Pres­i­dent Joe Biden
  • U.S. Sen­a­tor Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota
  • Bil­lion­aire Tom Steyer
  • Entre­pre­neur Andrew Yang

Our live cov­er­age begins below.

UPDATE, 4:57 PM (Ruairi): Wel­come to NPI’s cov­er­age of the eighth Demo­c­ra­t­ic pres­i­den­tial debate! Sev­en can­di­dates face each oth­er in Man­ches­ter, NH, in the after­math of Iowa’s cau­cus débacle.

UPDATE, 5:03 PM (Ruairi): The debate will be mod­er­at­ed by ABC’s George Stephanopou­los, David Muir and Lin­sey Davis.

UPDATE, 5:03 PM (Ruairi): Tom Stey­er is the first on stage, sport­ing his favourite plaid tie

UPDATE, 5:04 PM (Ruairi): Stey­er is fol­lowed by the two female can­di­dates in this debate, Amy Klobuchar and Eliz­a­beth Warren.

UPDATE, 5:05 PM (Ruairi): Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, the fron­trun­ners, will be cen­ter stage. Pete Buttigieg walks onto stage to a huge cheer.

UPDATE, 5:05 PM (Ruairi): Andrew Yang jogs onto stage to join his rival candidates.

UPDATE, 5:06 PM (Ruairi): Joe Biden is asked about the results of Iowa – why did Sanders and Buttigieg beat him? “I took a hit in Iowa, and I’ll take a hit here [in New Hamp­shire],” Biden predicts.

UPDATE, 5:07 PM (Ruairi): Biden is asked if Buttigieg and Sanders are “too big a risk.” Biden says: “Bernie’s labelled him­self a Demo­c­ra­t­ic Socialist.”

UPDATE, 5:07 PM (Ruairi): Biden calls out Buttigieg’s biggest weak­ness – Buttigieg doesn’t have a broad coali­tion of minor­i­ty voters.

UPDATE, 5:08 PM (Ruairi): Asked if he is wor­ried about Trump’s attacks on him. He says no because “Don­ald Trump lies all the time!”

UPDATE, 5:09 PM (Ruairi): Sanders calls for uni­ty among Democ­rats in order to beat Trump. He says that the way to beat Trump is by increas­ing vot­er turnout.

UPDATE, 5:09 PM (Ruairi): Asked about low turnout in Iowa, Sanders says that “young peo­ple turned out in big­ger num­bers than they did in Obama’s cam­paign in 2008.”

UPDATE, 5:10 PM (Ruairi): Amy Klobuchar says that she is con­cerned about a “demo­c­ra­t­ic social­ist” at the top of the tick­et. She argues that such a label next to the nom­i­nee’s name will “shut peo­ple out.”

UPDATE, 5:10 PM (Ruairi): Klobuchar says she can “bring in independents…as well as mod­er­ate Repub­li­cans.” She says that Trump’s “worst night­mare” is a can­di­date who brings in “the middle.”

UPDATE, 5:11 PM (Ruairi): Tom Stey­er says that “after this week, there’s a real threat that Don­ald Trump could be reelected.”

UPDATE, 5:12 PM (Ruairi): Stey­er says that a can­di­date has to appeal to a diverse group of vot­ers, but by men­tion­ing lati­no and black vot­ers he seems to be attack­ing Buttigieg more than Sanders.

UPDATE, 5:12 PM (Ruairi): Andrew Yang says “Amer­i­ca, it’s great to be back on the debate stage,” before refer­ring to his sig­na­ture pro­gram – $1,000 a month for every Amer­i­can (the Free­dom Dividend).

UPDATE, 5:13 PM (Ruairi): Yang says that the cap­i­tal­ist-social­ist dichoto­my is out of date. He says that prof­its and the econ­o­my aren’t the only met­rics to watch.

UPDATE, 5:13 PM (Ruairi): Yang calls for a “human cen­tered ver­sion of capitalism.”

UPDATE, 5:14 PM (Ruairi): Eliz­a­beth War­ren launch­es straight into her stump speech against cor­po­rate-con­trolled government.

UPDATE, 5:14 PM (Ruairi): “That is cor­rup­tion, pure and sim­ple… that’s what we can run on!” War­ren says that Democ­rats should be on the side of hard-work­ing people.

UPDATE, 5:15 PM (Ruairi): Instead of attack­ing any oth­er can­di­date, War­ren choos­es to call for a unit­ed front behind anti-cor­rup­tion policies.

UPDATE, 5:15 PM (Ruairi): Pete Buttigieg says he isn’t inter­est­ed in labels. “Polit­i­cal­ly, we’re fac­ing a fun­da­men­tal­ly new prob­lem” in Don­ald Trump.

UPDATE, 5:16 PM (Ruairi): Buttigieg says that Sanders is say­ing “it’s my way or the high way.” Buttigieg direct­ly claims that Sanders’ poli­cies are polarizing.

UPDATE, 5:17 PM (Ruairi): Sanders: “Need­less to say, I’ve nev­er said that!” He says that “the way you bring peo­ple together…you raise the min­i­mum wage to 15 bucks an hour…make it clear you’re not going to give tax cuts to billionaires.”

UPDATE, 5:17 PM (Ruairi): Sanders describes the lack of uni­ver­sal sin­gle-pay­er health­care in the Unit­ed States as “an inter­na­tion­al disgrace.”

UPDATE, 5:18 PM (Ruairi): Buttigieg says that “there is a bet­ter way” to expand health­care. Buttigieg says he doesn’t want “to com­mand peo­ple to accept a pub­lic pro­gram if they don’t want it.”

UPDATE, 5:19 PM (Ruairi): Buttigieg says he is offer­ing a method­ol­o­gy that can both unite the coun­try and get “game chang­ing” stuff done.

UPDATE, 5:19 PM (Ruairi): Biden is very aggres­sive tonight. He launch­es imme­di­ate­ly into an attack on Medicare for All – “the idea mid­dle class tax­es aren’t going to go up is crazy!”

UPDATE, 5:20 PM (Ruairi): Joe Biden says that Bernie says “go fig­ure!” over the costs of Medicare for All. “I bust­ed my neck get­ting [the Patient Pro­tec­tion Act] passed, I know how hard it is!”

UPDATE, 5:21 PM (Ruairi): Sanders says: “If we do what Joe wants, we’ll spend $15 tril­lion on health­care” over ten years. He points out that Amer­i­cans spend more than any coun­try on healthcare.

UPDATE, 5:21 PM (Ruairi): Sanders offers sim­pli­fi­ca­tion, say­ing that zero bil­lion a year is wast­ed on admin­is­trat­ing thou­sands of plans.

UPDATE, 5:22 PM (Ruairi): Sanders says that Biden’s plan will ulti­mate­ly cost Amer­i­cans more. Biden snaps back: “My pro­pos­al gives you a choice.”

UPDATE, 5:22 PM (Ruairi): Biden returns to the point that Medicare For All would dou­ble the fed­er­al bud­get. Klobuchar jumps on the band­wag­on against Medicare For All.

UPDATE, 5:23 PM (Ruairi): Klobuchar lash­es out against Sanders, War­ren and Buttigieg’s plans, and says she can offer lead­er­ship on “men­tal health­care, addic­tion and long term care.”

UPDATE, 5:24 PM (Ruairi): War­ren points out that thir­ty-six mil­lion Amer­i­cans reg­u­lar­ly can­not afford to fill a pre­scrip­tion. “It’s either that or gro­ceries, either that or pay rent on time.”

UPDATE, 5:24 PM (Ruairi): War­ren promis­es to use pres­i­den­tial pow­er “to reduce the cost of com­mon­ly used pre­scrip­tion drugs… We can start to make health­care better.”

UPDATE, 5:25 PM (Ruairi): Pete Buttigieg says that he “brings a dif­fer­ent perspective…that of some­body whose life has been shaped” by the Beltway.

UPDATE, 5:26 PM (Ruairi): Biden argues “the pol­i­tics of the past, I think, were not all that bad.” He points to a vari­ety of leg­isla­tive efforts he spearheaded.

UPDATE, 5:26 PM (Ruairi): Biden says that the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion “was just he begin­ning of the future.”

UPDATE, 5:27 PM (Ruairi): Buttigieg says that the next pres­i­dent will face chal­lenges that are dif­fer­ent from the Oba­ma era. “We can­not solve the prob­lems before us by look­ing back.”

UPDATE, 5:27 PM (Ruairi): Buttigieg declares that he wants to invite “future for­mer Repub­li­cans” to “turn the page.”

UPDATE, 5:28 PM (Ruairi): Klobuchar brings up impeach­ment. She applauds the courage of Doug Jones of Louisiana and Mitt Rom­ney of Utah.

UPDATE, 5:29 PM (Ruairi): Klobuchar crit­i­cizes Buttigieg’s com­ments about impeach­ment being bor­ing. She says “we have a new­com­er in the White House, and look where it got us!”

UPDATE, 5:30 PM (Ruairi): Sanders launch­es into a list of the prob­lems in the Amer­i­can health sys­tem: “Why is it!… we’ve been talk­ing about health­care in this coun­try for one hun­dred years!”

UPDATE, 5:31 PM (Ruairi): Tak­ing a leaf from Warren’s rhetoric, Sanders says that we have to “take on” the insur­ance indus­try and drug com­pa­nies. “This coun­try belongs to all of us, not a hand­ful of spe­cial interests!”

UPDATE, 5:32 PM (Ruairi): Stey­er jumps in: “The ques­tion is, how do we beat Don­ald Trump? We’re going to have to take Mr Trump down on the econ­o­my,” ref­er­enc­ing the Clin­ton cam­paign of the 1990s.

UPDATE, 5:32 PM (Ruairi): Stey­er is hav­ing his best moment of the debates so far: “If we win, we can get the right thing Bernie, and I’m with you!”

UPDATE, 5:33 PM (Ruairi): Buttigieg says that Democ­rats can win by putting up some­body “who’s not afraid…to remind Amer­i­cans that God does not belong to a polit­i­cal par­ty.” He refers to his back­ground in Indi­ana and mil­i­tary service.

UPDATE, 5:34 PM (Ruairi): Buttigieg: “We feel a sense of exhaus­tion watch­ing the division…I see that temp­ta­tion to walk away from it all.”

UPDATE, 5:35 PM (Ruairi): Andrew Yang says “Don­ald Trump is not the cause of our prob­lem… he is the symp­tom of a dis­ease that’s been grow­ing in our communities.”

UPDATE, 5:35 PM (Ruairi): Yang says that “com­mu­ni­ties are see­ing their way of life get­ting blown to smithereens” by indus­tri­al changes and cor­po­rate monopolies.

UPDATE, 5:36 PM (Ruairi): The debate turns to the Sen­ate’s fail­ure to con­vict Trump. War­ren is asked if she would inves­ti­gate Trump if elected.

UPDATE, 5:36 PM (Ruairi): “No one is above the law and that includes the pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States.” War­ren wants to “reestab­lish the rule of law in this coun­try” and would have an inde­pen­dent com­mis­sion look into Trump’s wrong­do­ing while in office.

UPDATE, 5:37 PM (Ruairi): War­ren says that peo­ple “are los­ing faith in our gov­ern­ment… they see a gov­ern­ment that just works great if you’re rich!”

UPDATE, 5:37 PM (Ruairi): War­ren says that “it’s not enough to sim­ply talk about the future.” She lays out her pro­gres­sive agen­da, but says we can only do it by tak­ing on corruption.

UPDATE, 5:38 PM (Ruairi): Andrew Yang is asked about his com­ments about impeach­ment. He says that throw­ing past pres­i­dents in jail is a bad precedent.

UPDATE, 5:39 PM (Ruairi): Yang wants to focus on the future, and says that the Amer­i­can peo­ple want the pres­i­dent to focus on the future.

UPDATE, 5:40 PM (Ruairi): Sanders says that the tru­ly hor­ri­fy­ing part of the Sen­ate’s refusal to con­vict Trump, ” is the prece­dent that is set.” He lays out what a pres­i­dent could do with this precedent.

UPDATE, 5:40 PM (Ruairi): Sanders: “The sad­dest aspect of this whole thing is that there are Repub­li­cans in the Sen­ate who knew better…with the excep­tion of Mitt Rom­ney, they didn’t have the guts.”

UPDATE, 5:41 PM (Ruairi): Tom Stey­er says that Repub­li­cans “have cov­ered up the truth,” but the focus of Democ­rats should be on winning.

UPDATE, 5:41 PM (Ruairi): Stey­er: “Is he a crook? I knew that two years ago!” Stey­er says that Trump is a threat to the Amer­i­can people.

UPDATE, 5:42 PM (Ruairi): Buttigieg is asked whether nom­i­nat­ing Biden would be a threat because the Repub­li­cans are inves­ti­gat­ing him. “No,” says Buttigieg.

UPDATE, 5:42 PM (Ruairi): Trump “would seek to weaponize a son against his own father.” Buttigieg brings a note of uni­ty to the debate.

UPDATE, 5:43 PM (Ruairi): Biden, vis­i­bly upset by the con­ver­sa­tion, says that Trump will lie about any­one the Democ­rats nom­i­nate. He than calls for a stand­ing ova­tion for Colonel Vin­d­man, the whistle­blow­er who was fired by Trump.

UPDATE, 5:44 PM (Ruairi): Klobuchar is asked about Hillary Clinton’s vicious attacks on Sanders. Biden, smil­ing, hugs Sanders.

UPDATE, 5:44 PM (Andrew): That was a pret­ty cool moment and a nice show of uni­ty. Brings to mind a cou­ple of the hap­pi­er moments from the 2016 Demo­c­ra­t­ic debates, when Hillary Clin­ton and Bernie Sanders stood united.

UPDATE, 5:45 PM (Ruairi): Klobuchar refers to drug leg­is­la­tion that she and Sanders worked togeth­er on. “We got four­teen Repub­li­can votes…it’s just an exam­ple of what we have to do here.”

UPDATE, 5:45 PM (Ruairi): Klobuchar wants to offer “an opti­mistic Amer­i­ca” for vot­ers. She calls out Trump’s com­ments on the tax bill to friends at Mar-a-Lago

UPDATE, 5:46 PM (Ruairi): Klobuchar says she doesn’t know if Sanders’ pro­grams will get Repub­li­can sup­port. “I’m the only one who has con­sis­tent­ly won in red dis­tricts… I have a way of work­ing with people.”

UPDATE, 5:47 PM (Ruairi): Sanders says, “I must con­fess, I don’t get too many news­pa­per edi­tors’ sup­port,” before turn­ing to Clinton’s critique.

UPDATE, 5:48 PM (Ruairi): Sanders wants to “look for­ward, not back to 2016.” He says that in Ver­mont, as a can­di­date, he secured 25% of the Repub­li­can vote. “I passed more bipar­ti­san amend­ments on the floor of the House…than any oth­er mem­ber of the House.”

UPDATE, 5:48 PM (Ruairi): Sanders: “There are ways that we can work with Repub­li­cans on cer­tain issues. Let’s do that.”

UPDATE, 5:49 PM (Ruairi): Buttigieg is asked about the death of Iran’s Gen­er­al Suleimani – would he have ordered the strike? Buttigieg says “there is no evi­dence” that the strike was justified.

UPDATE, 5:50 PM (Ruairi): Buttigieg says that Trump’s aggres­sion against Iran “didn’t start with Suleimani,” but start­ed with the with­draw­al from the Iran nuclear deal.

UPDATE, 5:51 PM (Ruairi): Buttigieg recounts meet­ing a for­mer mil­i­tary com­rade – “Peo­ple in uni­form will do what­ev­er the Unit­ed States requires of them. Keep U.S. pol­i­tics out of it!”

UPDATE, 5:52 PM (Ruairi): Buttigieg says that a strike deci­sion “depends on the circumstances…this is not an episode of 24!” Dis­cussing intel­li­gence reports, he says, “I don’t think he even reads it!”

UPDATE, 5:53 PM (Ruairi): Biden says that “there’s no evi­dence yet of immi­nent threat” over Suleimani. Biden says the Unit­ed States is “alone, with­out friends” in the Mid­dle East.

UPDATE, 5:53 PM (Ruairi): Biden says that if his son Beau were in Iraq today, “I’d have been so mad [about the strike], I don’t know what I would have done!”

UPDATE, 5:54 PM (Ruairi): Sanders says there are a lot of bad actors around the world. “You can­not go around say­ing you’re a bad guy, we’re gonna assas­si­nate you…you’re open­ing the door to inter­na­tion­al anarchy!”

UPDATE, 5:55 PM (Ruairi): Sanders says we have to “bring coun­tries around the world togeth­er” through “debate and dis­cus­sion at the U.N.”

UPDATE, 5:55 PM (Ruairi): War­ren is asked about Afghanistan. Would she lis­ten to gen­er­als who want to remain in the country?

UPDATE, 5:56 PM (Ruairi): War­ren recounts expe­ri­ence as a sen­a­tor, tour­ing the region: “Nobody can describe what win­ning looks like, all they can describe is end­less war.”

UPDATE, 5:56 PM (Andrew): ABC has done a ter­ri­ble job with ques­tions so far today. The premise and fram­ing of near­ly every ques­tion has been bad. Very bad.

UPDATE, 5:57 PM (Ruairi): “What has all these years of war brought us?” asks War­ren. “We sent our troops in and they did their best… it is time to bring our com­bat troops home.”

UPDATE, 5:57 PM (Ruairi): War­ren is pressed on the issue: “I want to hear the plan…I want to hear where our allies are… it can’t just be the Unit­ed States wag­ing end­less war.”

UPDATE, 5:59 PM (Ruairi): Biden is asked if War­ren is wrong. “I’m not sure if she wants to pull all troops out of the Mid­dle East.” He talks about the Oba­ma Administration’s pol­i­cy to con­tain the Islam­ic State group.

UPDATE, 5:59 PM (Ruairi): Biden attacks Trump’s deci­sion to with­draw from Kur­dish-held areas of Syr­ia, say­ing U.S. troops had their heads down in shame.

UPDATE, 6:00 PM (Ruairi): “There is no pos­si­bil­i­ty of unit­ing that coun­try,” says Biden, refer­ring to Afghanistan. He wants a small U.S. pres­ence to restrain terrorism.

UPDATE, 6:01 PM (Andrew): At least half of ABC’s debate ques­tions have been craft­ed to invite the Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­dates to attack each oth­er, often using right wing fram­ing. This is shame­ful and outrageous.

UPDATE, 6:01 PM (Ruairi): Buttigieg, on the 2003 Iraq inva­sion, says “the Vice Pres­i­dent made the wrong decision.”

He lays out the for­eign pol­i­cy issues that next pres­i­dent will face.

UPDATE, 6:01 PM (Ruairi): Buttigieg wants to “be ready for the future,” rather than have Trump’s “17th cen­tu­ry” approach to security.

UPDATE, 6:02 PM (Ruairi): Biden says he was deceived by Bush over Iraq (in fact, he sup­port­ed the occu­pa­tion, even after the U.S. inva­sion in 2003).

UPDATE, 6:03 PM (Ruairi): Biden says that, unless the Democ­rats win, NATO will fall apart. He touts his inter­na­tion­al expe­ri­ence: ”I know every one of these lead­ers by name.”

UPDATE, 6:04 PM (Ruairi): Stey­er is asked about his for­eign pol­i­cy expe­ri­ence. He says that the mil­i­tary-focused approach to for­eign pol­i­cy is a symp­tom of corruption

UPDATE, 6:05 PM (Ruairi): Stey­er asks how the mil­i­tary will help solve cli­mate change – that will take diplo­ma­cy. Biden jumps in, say­ing he has had a part of every diplo­mat­ic effort of the Oba­ma administration.

UPDATE, 6:06 PM (Ruairi): Biden says “we must keep our com­mit­ments when we make them, oth­er­wise we have no power…it doesn’t require large num­ber of troops, I nev­er said that!”

UPDATE, 6:06 PM (Ruairi): Sanders repeats his catch­phrase: “I not only opposed [the Iraq] War, I helped lead the oppo­si­tion” in 2003.

UPDATE, 6:07 PM (Ruairi): Sanders says cli­mate change “is not an Amer­i­can issue, it;s’a glob­al issue… here is my dream… instead of spend­ing [huge sums] of mon­ey a year on weapons of destruc­tion, maybe we pool our resources” against cli­mate change.

UPDATE, 6:14 PM (Ruairi): The debate turns specif­i­cal­ly to issues that are espe­cial­ly rel­e­vant to New Hampshire.

UPDATE, 6:14 PM (Ruairi): Pete Butigieg is asked about drug over­dos­es. He has argued that “incar­cer­a­tion should no longer be the response to drug possession.”

UPDATE, 6:15 PM (Ruairi): Buttigieg says that “some of this has been dri­ven by drug com­pa­nies that were irre­spon­si­ble,” refer­ring to law­suits against drug com­pa­nies in South Bend, his city.

UPDATE, 6:16 PM (Ruairi): Buttigieg calls for more men­tal health pro­fes­sion­als. Andrew Yang is asked if he would man­date treat­ment for drug overdoses.

UPDATE, 6:17 PM (Ruairi): Yang says “you have to look at the com­pa­nies that profited…as Pres­i­dent we will take back those prof­its.” He says that the opi­oid epi­dem­ic hap­pened “on the government’s watch.”

UPDATE, 6:18 PM (Ruairi): Andrew Yang also calls for less puni­tive mea­sures against opi­oid users. He says that the opi­oid epi­dem­ic is an issue that is affect­ed by cor­po­rate corruption.

UPDATE, 6:18 PM (Ruairi): Klobuchar is asked if, as a pros­e­cu­tor, she regrets send­ing drug users to jail. “We weren’t a busi­ness, we didn’t want to see repeat customers.”

UPDATE, 6:19 PM (Ruairi): Klobuchar promis­es to use mon­ey from a fed­er­al law­suit against opi­oid pro­duc­ers (approx­i­mate­ly bil­lion) to pay for addic­tion treatment.

UPDATE, 6:19 PM (Ruairi): Klobuchar says “I will get this done, and it is per­son­al for me.”

UPDATE, 6:20 PM (Ruairi): Sanders is asked about gun con­trol. He vot­ed against gun reg­u­la­tion in the 1990s.

“In 1988, I said we should ban the sale of assault weapons.”

UPDATE, 6:21 PM (Ruairi): Sanders says that gun pol­i­cy won’t be “dic­tat­ed by the NRA.” He says that Ver­mont is a rur­al, pro-gun state. “I rep­re­sent­ed that perspective…the world has changed and my views have changed.”

UPDATE, 6:22 PM (Ruairi): Sanders gives a good expla­na­tion for his gun pol­i­cy record. Biden is asked about his own gun record, and whether Sanders can be giv­en the ben­e­fit of the doubt.

UPDATE, 6:23 PM (Ruairi): Biden attacks Sanders’ vote for loop­holes for man­u­fac­tur­ers. He says that, while he was push­ing for gun con­trol, Sanders was vot­ing against him.

UPDATE, 6:24 PM (Ruairi): War­ren is asked about America’s “gun culture.”

She says that the coun­try has “a gun vio­lence prob­lem,” talk­ing about mass shoot­ings, domes­tic vio­lence, sui­cide and oth­er issues.

UPDATE, 6:25 PM (Ruairi): “We need to think of it just like auto safe­ty!” War­ren refers to the over­whelm­ing pub­lic sup­port for more gun con­trol and lack of leg­is­la­tion – “it is the gun indus­try that con­tin­ues to call the shots.”

UPDATE, 6:25 PM (Ruairi): War­ren uses gun con­trol as an argu­ment to “roll back the filibuster.”

UPDATE, 6:26 PM (Ruairi): The debate moves to the Supreme Court and abor­tion. Biden is asked if he would apply a “lit­mus test on abortion.”

UPDATE, 6:27 PM (Ruairi): Biden says that he didn’t apply a “spe­cif­ic test, but a gener­ic test.” He says he was “part of the rea­son why” jus­tices Kagan, Bad­er-Gins­burg and Sotomay­or got onto the court.

UPDATE, 6:28 PM (Ruairi): Biden launch­es into a robust defense of abor­tion. War­ren says “I’ve lived in an Amer­i­ca where abor­tion is ille­gal and rich women still got abortions.”

UPDATE, 6:29 PM (Ruairi): War­ren says that “we can’t sim­ply rely on the courts…3 out of 4 peo­ple believe that Roe v Wade should be the law.” She calls for a law to enshrine Roe v Wade.

UPDATE, 6:29 PM (Ruairi): Klobuchar says that “I would only appoint judges that respect prece­dent and one of those prece­dents in Roe v Wade.”

UPDATE, 6:30 PM (Ruairi): Klobuchar refers to the 2016 cam­paigm, when Trump promised to put women and doc­tors who per­form abor­tions in jail.

UPDATE, 6:31 PM (Ruairi): Buttigieg is asked about expand­ing the court. “What I’ve called for is…structural reform so that some of the jus­tices are not appoint­ed by a par­ti­san process.”

UPDATE, 6:32 PM (Ruairi): Buttigieg sup­ports the idea of mak­ing con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ments to tack­le Supreme Court reform and bring­ing down Cit­i­zens United.

UPDATE, 6:32 PM (Ruairi): Biden says he pushed for a law to take down mon­ey in pol­i­tics decades against. “Who­ev­er has the major­i­ty [of the Supreme Court] will have the abil­i­ty to abuse it.”

UPDATE, 6:33 PM (Ruairi): Biden says that “we must win back the Unit­ed States Senate…who is most like­ly to help get a Sen­ate elect­ed.” He says that he can not only win the pres­i­den­cy, but win the Senate.

UPDATE, 6:34 PM (Ruairi): Sanders says that he would nev­er appoint a jus­tice against Roe v Wade, leg­is­late on it, and sup­port Planned Parenthood.

UPDATE, 6:35 PM (Ruairi): Stey­er says that, on the courts, “the Repub­li­cans refused to give Pres­i­dent Oba­ma his due.” He says that the Repub­li­cans are stack­ing courts for future gen­er­a­tions with “young, right-wing radicals.”

UPDATE, 6:35 PM (Ruairi): Stey­er says “we have not said one word tonight about race…are you kid­ding me!”

He says that Democ­rats need to get vot­ers to the polls.

UPDATE, 6:36 PM (Ruairi): Stey­er says that Democ­rats can win on all the issues if they beat Trump on the economy.

UPDATE, 6:37 PM (Ruairi): Buttigieg is asked about unequal polic­ing in his home city that hap­pened under his lead­er­ship. “Sys­temic racism has pen­e­trat­ed o every lev­el of our sys­tem and my city is not immune.”

UPDATE, 6:38 PM (Ruairi): Buttigieg: “Opi­oid addi­ca­tion is best described as a med­ical prob­lem.” He makes a pitch to black vot­ers, say­ing he will make reforms to incar­cer­a­tion over drugs.

UPDATE, 6:39 PM (Ruairi): How does he explain the increase in mar­i­jua­na arrests of black peo­ple in South Bend on his watch. He says that drug enforce­ment was tar­get­ed to tack­le violence.

UPDATE, 6:40 PM (Ruairi): War­ren is asked if Buttigieg’s answer was sub­stan­tial. “No. You have to own up to the facts!” War­ren refers to stud­ies that show that black peo­ple are mis­treat­ed through­out the crim­i­nal jus­tice system.

UPDATE, 6:40 PM (Ruairi): “We need to start hav­ing race-con­scious laws!” War­ren points to his­toric dis­crim­i­na­tion against blacks through­out U.S. legislation.

UPDATE, 6:41 PM (Ruairi): Andrew Yang says “you can’t reg­u­late against racism.” Refer­ring to Mar­tin Luther King, he says that King sup­port­ed uni­ver­sal basic income.

UPDATE, 6:42 PM (Ruairi): Yang says that his UBI pro­gram will give black and lati­no peo­ple “buy­ing pow­er.” Stey­er says “I dis­agree with you, Andrew… I am for reparations.”

UPDATE, 6:42 PM (Ruairi): Stey­er calls out a mem­ber of Joe Biden’s cam­paign (Dick Harput­lian) who made racist com­ments against a Stey­er cam­paign­er in South Carolina.

UPDATE, 6:43 PM (Ruairi): Biden defends him­self by say­ing that he has more sup­port from the South Car­oli­na African Amer­i­can com­mu­ni­ty than anyone.

UPDATE, 6:44 PM (Ruairi): Sanders inter­jects, say­ing call­ing for an end to the War on Drugs, pri­vate pris­ons, and oth­er sys­tems of racism in the U.S. “We’re gonna end cash bail,” Sanders says.

UPDATE, 6:45 PM (Ruairi): Stey­er says “I’ve worked to end cash bail in Cal­i­for­nia, and it’s gone!” Stey­er wants Biden to dis­avow the state­ments of his cam­paign aide.

UPDATE, 6:45 PM (Ruairi): Biden says that the aide “is sor­ry for what he said.” Biden swift­ly turns away from the ques­tion, say­ing that the Democ­rats need to stop “tak­ing the black com­mu­ni­ty for granted.”

UPDATE, 6:46 PM (Ruairi): Biden calls for a wide array of pro­grams to help minor­i­ty com­mu­ni­ties across the board, from pris­ons to hous­ing. Biden says the civ­il rights move­ment “got me involved in the first place.”

UPDATE, 6:47 PM (Ruairi): Biden starts to argue for increased invest­ment in edu­ca­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly hir­ing more African Amer­i­can men as teachers.

UPDATE, 6:48 PM (Ruairi): Sanders is asked if he agrees with Nina Turn­er that Biden has “betrayed” African Amer­i­cans. Sanders says: “Biden is a friend, and I’m not here to attack him.”

UPDATE, 6:48 PM (Ruairi): Sanders says there is “no excuse” for var­i­ous inequal­i­ties between black and white families.

UPDATE, 6:49 PM (Ruairi): Klobuchar says “we know that there are eco­nom­ic solu­tions here… there is some­thing else insid­i­ous here.” She calls out sys­tem­at­ic vot­ing sup­pres­sion across the U.S.

UPDATE, 6:49 PM (Ruairi): Klobuchar wants to “stop the vot­ing purges…they are dis­crim­i­nat­ing with sur­gi­cal pre­ci­sion against these African Amer­i­can voters.”

UPDATE, 6:50 PM (Ruairi): Biden agrees “com­plete­ly” with auto­mat­ic vot­er reg­is­tra­tion. He slight­ly los­es track of his train of thought before com­ing back to vot­ing suppression.

UPDATE, 6:51 PM (Ruairi): War­ren says that Democ­rats “talk about how impor­tant the black com­mu­ni­ty is – at least at elec­tion time.” She says that she can offer “real, con­crete plans” to help minor­i­ty communities.

UPDATE, 6:52 PM (Ruairi): War­ren says that cut­ting stu­dent loan debt will dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly help out African Americans.

UPDATE, 6:52 PM (Ruairi): Tom Stey­er says, “out of nar­ra­tive, comes pol­i­cy.” He wants to “set up a com­mis­sion on race and deal with race explicitly.”

UPDATE, 6:53 PM (Ruairi): Stey­er wants to “retell the sto­ry of the last four hun­dred years,” rec­og­niz­ing the moral lead­er­ship of the black com­mu­ni­ty in Amer­i­can politics.

UPDATE, 6:54 PM (Ruairi): While Stey­er wants to hon­or black polit­i­cal heroes, Andrew Yang makes an eco­nom­ic argu­ment: “It’s an eco­nom­ic unnat­ur­al dis­as­ter, and we know who is worst affect­ed by nat­ur­al disasters.”

UPDATE, 6:55 PM (Ruairi): Andrew Yang wants to put “straight cash, into their hands.” He says that eco­nom­ic change will “hit black peo­ple the hardest.”

UPDATE, 6:55 PM (Ruairi): War­ren is asked about Michael Bloomberg. “I don’t think any­one ought to be able to buy their way into a campaign!”

UPDATE, 6:56 PM (Ruairi): War­ren says “we want to end this unlim­it­ed spending…everyone on this stage except Amy and me is either a bil­lion­aire, or receiv­ing mon­ey from PACs.”

UPDATE, 6:57 PM (Ruairi): War­ren asks her vier­w­ers to “pitch in five bucks…our democ­ra­cy is in the bal­ance!” Klobuchar opines that she “can’t stand the big mon­ey in politics.”

UPDATE, 6:57 PM (Ruairi): Klobuchar says that nobody looks at Tru­mop and thinks “can we get any­one rich­er?” (an implic­it attack on Bloomberg).

UPDATE, 6:58 PM (Ruairi): Klobuchar recounts her work­ing-class roots in the Mid­west. She makes an effec­tive case for her via­bil­i­ty as a pres­i­den­tial candidate.

UPDATE, 6:59 PM (Ruairi): Sanders wants to not only over­turn Cit­i­zens Unit­ed, but intro­duce pub­lic fund­ing of elec­tions. He direct­ly atacks Buttigieg for the “forty bil­lion­aires” who are con­tribut­ing to that campaign.

UPDATE, 7:00 PM (Ruairi): “Build a mass move­ment of work­ing peo­ple who are will­ing to stand up to, not take mon­ey from, bil­lion­aires,” says Sanders, wav­ing a fin­ger at Buttigieg.

UPDATE, 7:01 PM (Ruairi): Buttigieg argues that he is the only per­son on stage who “isn’t a mil­lion­aire or a bil­lion­aire.” He argues that he doesn’t have wealthy sup­port­ers (which is patent­ly not true).

UPDATE, 7:02 PM (Ruairi): Buttigieg says “we need you to join us right now…this is a time for addi­tion, not sub­trac­tion, for belong­ing, not exclusion.”

UPDATE, 7:02 PM (Ruairi): Sanders is asked about the recent Trump trade deal. He says the New Hamp­shire sen­a­tors who vot­ed for the deal are wrong.

UPDATE, 7:03 PM (Ruairi): Sanders says that he offers the most com­pre­hen­sive cli­mate action plan, and the trade deal is “sim­ply export­ing fos­sil fuel emis­sions to Mexico.”

UPDATE, 7:04 PM (Ruairi): Sanders says that job loss­es to Mex­i­co will con­tin­ue under the trade agree­ments nego­ti­at­ed by Trump’s regime. Klobuchar says Trump’s deal offered some improve­ments, so she vot­ed for it.

UPDATE, 7:05 PM (Ruairi): Klobuchar says the best way to tack­le cli­mate dam­age is to bring back Oba­ma-era poli­cies. “Hav­ing no trade agree­ment with Cana­da and Mex­i­co puts us at a dis­ad­van­tage,” when nego­ti­at­ing with China.

UPDATE, 7:06 PM (Ruairi): War­ren said Demo­c­ra­t­ic law­mak­ers made the trade deal “a whole lot bet­ter.” She says that she vot­ed for the deal because it made life slight­ly bet­ter for Amer­i­can farm­ers and consumers.

UPDATE, 7:06 PM (Ruairi): Tom Stey­er: “I got­ta agree with Bernie Sanders.” He says that “we have to stop mak­ing for­eign pol­i­cy deci­sions in the old way.”

UPDATE, 7:07 PM (Ruairi): Stey­er says that the trade deal does offer pos­i­tive changes, but it shows wrong think­ing. “If we actu­al­ly want to be the leader of the world…we’re going to have to put cli­mate first…and ask, does that help us build a coali­tion of coun­tries around the world to do the right thing.”

UPDATE, 7:08 PM (Ruairi): Stey­er says he would use access to U.S. mar­kets to bar­gain for cli­mate jus­tice. Klobuchar says “you’ve got to have some friends,” argu­ing that a deal with Mex­i­co and Cana­da helps the Unit­ed States.

UPDATE, 7:09 PM (Ruairi): Klobuchar says that when the Unit­ed States has oppor­tu­ni­ties to work with allies and doesn’t do it it will iso­late the country.

UPDATE, 7:16 PM (Ruairi): The final ques­tion con­cerns child pover­ty. After ten straight years of eco­nom­ic growth, one in five chil­dren are liv­ing in pover­ty. What does that say about the Unit­ed States of America?

UPDATE, 7:16 PM (Andrew): Final­ly, a decent ques­tion from the modaer­a­tors. Why could­n’t they have led off with this one? You’ll nev­er hear a ques­tion like this asked at a Repub­li­can pres­i­den­tial debate.

UPDATE, 7:17 PM (Ruairi): Andrew Yang wants to put mon­ey “direct­ly into the hands of fam­i­lies.” He says that the mar­ket doesn’t val­ue stay-at-home moms, coach­es, most artists, many journalists.

UPDATE, 7:18 PM (Ruairi): Buttigieg says that “we’re count­ing the wrong things… we’ve had an econ­o­my grow and not be able to lift up” people.

UPDATE, 7:19 PM (Ruairi): Buttigieg says “the Amer­i­can peo­ple want to see change.” He wants to “turn a new page, leave the pol­i­tics of the past in the past.”

UPDATE, 7:20 PM (Ruairi): War­ren says that “the best invest­ment we can make as human beings is to invest in our chil­dren.” Her wealth tax can pay for child­care and pre‑K edu­ca­tion, while rais­ing wages for child­care workers.

UPDATE, 7:20 PM (Ruairi): War­ren wants to “put real mon­ey” into health­care, edu­ca­tion, hous­ing and oth­er pro­grams to help lift peo­ple up.

UPDATE, 7:21 PM (Ruairi): Biden recounts his father los­ing a job. He was the poor­est man in Con­gress for many years: “I’ve nev­er focused on mon­ey for me… I was a sin­gle dad for years.”

UPDATE, 7:22 PM (Ruairi): Biden says that chil­dren are “the kite strings that raise our nation­al ambi­tion.” He wants to help edu­ca­tion through­out a child’s life, as well as cre­at­ing train­ing programs.

UPDATE, 7:22 PM (Ruairi): Biden: “Every­one is enti­tled to be treat­ed with dig­ni­ty and respect, and we’re not doing it.”

UPDATE, 7:23 PM (Ruairi): Sanders says that the rea­son for child pover­ty is the same rea­son the Unit­ed States gives bil­lions to cor­po­ra­tions and has mas­sive drug prices. “That rea­son is that our pri­or­i­ties are deter­mined by the 1% and wealthy cam­paign contributors.”

UPDATE, 7:24 PM (Ruairi): “We say unashamed­ly that we are rais­ing our fund­ing not from bil­lion­aires, but from the work­ing class of this coun­try.” Sanders wants to “change our nation­al priorities.”

UPDATE, 7:25 PM (Ruairi): Klobuchar says that “we have not lost hope.” She has a plan to erad­i­cate child pover­ty in a gen­er­a­tion. “To get it done, we have to be able to reach vot­ers that we lost.”

UPDATE, 7:25 PM (Ruairi): Klobuchar says that Trump has “a com­plete lack of empa­thy.” She says, “I know you, and I will fight for you.”

UPDATE, 7:26 PM (Ruairi): Klobuchar says peo­ple who are tired of noise and extrem­ism “have a home with me.”

UPDATE, 7:27 PM (Ruairi): Tom Stey­er says the Repub­li­can plan is “pret­ty sim­ple. They want to cut tax­es on the rich­est cor­po­ra­tions.” He says, “it is true in every red state.”

UPDATE, 7:28 PM (Ruairi): Stey­er says that Trump “has no idea what pros­per­i­ty looks like across this coun­try.” He promis­es to com­bine mobil­i­ty, invest­ment and jus­tice. “Dream it, and make it happen.”

UPDATE, 7:28 PM (Ruairi): With Steyer’s clos­ing com­ments, the New Hamp­shire debate is over.

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