Democratic debate: Who won? Candidates clash over healthcare, immigration, impeachment and more
Candidates clash over immigration, gun violence and the economy
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The race to the White house has officially begun, with the first Democratic presidential debate in Miami now over.
Tonight's showdown featured: Cory Booker, Bill de Blasio, Julián Castro, John Delaney, Tulsi Gabbard, Jay Inslee, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O'Rourke, Tim Ryan and Elizabeth Warren.
The candidates clashed over immigration, gun violence and the economy - as well as getting in a number of digs at President Donald Trump.
The second 2020 debate will take place on Thursday evening with the remaining ten candidates having their chance to prove why they should be America's next president.
Follow how the debate progressed in the liveblog below
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Donald Trump's re-election campaign has bought prime ad real estate at the top of YouTube's homepage, clearly hoping to capitalise on interest in the streamed event tonight. One ad agency has called it 'one of the loudest megaphones on the internet'.
The president said he would be tuning in to watch the debate Wednesday, but only because "I have to".
Speaking on Fox Business, Mr Trump said: "Well, I'll be on a plane. Yes everyone said I'll be tweeting. I'll actually be on a plane and it just seems very boring, but I'm going to watch it because I have to."
"That's part of my life, you know, it's part of my life," he added.
The 10 candidates will have 60 seconds to answer tonight's questions, and 30 seconds to respond to follow-ups over the course of the two-hour debate.
According to NBC, candidates will not give opening statements, but they will have the chance to deliver closing remarks.
The debate will take place at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami.
Hosts will include Savannah Guthrie, Lester Holt and Chuck Todd of NBC News, Rachel Maddow of MSNBC and José Diaz-Balart of Telemundo.
A new poll from YouGov has found that a majority of Democrats and liberal Americans do not think it is acceptable for presidential candidates to interrupt each other during debates.
To qualify for the debate, candidates had to either get 65,000 donors to their campaigns, with at least 200 donors in 20 different states, or achieve one per cent in three separate polls recognised as legitimate by the DNC.
14 candidates fulfilled both criteria while four candidates - Mike Gravel, Seth Moulton, Steve Bullock, Wayne Messam - failed to qualify.
Ahead of the first Democratic debate Wednesday night, presidential candidate John Hickenlooper was reportedly mistaken for a member of the press, according to NPR reporter Scott Detrow.
On Thursday, a second debate will take place in Miami.
Night two will also see an additional 10 Democratic presidential candidates, including Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.
The full list of candidates for Thursday's Democratic debate is as follows:
Joe Biden
Bernie Sanders
Pete Buttigieg
Kamala Harris
Kirsten Gillibrand
Michael Bennet
Marianne Williamson
Eric Swalwell
Andrew Yang
John Hickenlooper
This is Clark Mindock live from Florida. It’s a steamy day here in Miami, and folks are counting down until the first debates start. In downtown Miami so far things have been relatively quiet— mostly just the press bothering to hang around near the debate hall. But, that’s all soon to change with some raucous parties in favor of candidates and issues (and some Republican groups who, presumably, aren’t too jazzed about any of the 20 folks to be on stage over the next two days.
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