The first Democratic presidential debate is just hours away, kicking off the race to the White House.
Held in Miami, there will be two 2020 debates this week on Wednesday and Thursday, with ten candidates speaking each night.
The first of the two will feature: Cory Booker, Bill de Blasio, Julián Castro, John Delaney, Tulsi Gabbard, Jay Inslee, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O’Rourke, Tim Ryan and Elizabeth Warren.
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From Clark Mindock in Miami:
The “Trump train” — a group of supporters who literally travelled to Miami by train — has arrived. They are protesting socialism on one side but have been by some folks preaching on the other side of the road.
To be clear: Neither side is pro Democrat – but they are both angry with each other, and police have been sent out to keep them apart.”
Bernie Sanders is appearing at tomorrow’s debate, but he is making sure he is put out his platform before tonight’s starts.
The president has seemingly dashed hopes that he will be live-tweeting the debate.
As he flies to Japan for the G20 summit, Mr Trump has said he is “off to save the free world”. A man who makes such grandiose statements may not be able to hold himself back from commenting on the debate.
Tom Perez, the Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), has claimed that the party has a “deep” field when it comes to candidates and that voters will find something they like.
The vast majority of Democratic voters say they will be tuning in to their party’s first presidential debates, according to a new Hill-HarrisX poll found.
In the poll, 77 per cent of registered voters who identified as Democrats said they are either very or somewhat likely to tune in tonight and Thursday.
Overall, 62 per cent of voters said they were likely to view the 2020 candidates face off, including 56 per cent of independent participants and 52 per cent of Republicans.
The theatrics are coming out in full force– and a lot of different interests are mixing just outside the debate arena. Walk a few feet and you’ll run into Union activists, and Planned a parenthood activists, and then a bunch of NYPD cops calling Bill DeBlasio a “liar”. Poor guy can’t catch a break.
The tweets are coming thick and fast from the president now. He is back to complaining about his former presidential rival Hillary Clinton and the fact that former members of the intelligence community against him and helped fuel the Mueller investigation.
The Mueller investigation would have happened whatever the situation around the the people he mentions.
On Air Force One, Mr Trump is tweeting about the “bipartisan humanitarian assistance” that the Senate has passed this evening. It will likely do little to quell his critics over his handling of the border.
Mr Trump has blamed the deaths on the Democrats refusing to go along with his hardline plans over immigration at the border – with the Democrats saying the president has to take his share of the blame thanks to his callous policies.
Immigration will be the top topic today after the outcry caused by the photograph of the bodies of Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez and his 23-month-old daughter Valeria in the waters of the Rio Grande. The picture further highlighted the plight faced by Central American migrants hoping to claim asylum in America.
With Donald Trump on his way to Japan for the G20 meeting, where trade talks with China’s President Xi Jinping and a meeting with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin will take centre stage, you would have thought he would have enough on his plate.
But he is already tweeting regularly and we can expect him to likely do so during the debate.
First is Robert Mueller’s Russia report and the question he raised that the president could have committed obstruction of that investigation. Mr Mueller is due to testify to Congress next month and Mr Trump is not happy.
He stats on impeachment and the cost of the investigation are both exaggerated.
For an in-depth look at the Democratic presidential candidates facing off Wednesday and Thursday night, you can read more here.
With so many candidates in the running, Wednesday and Thursday’s debates will offer one of the first opportunities for some of the lesser-known candidates to introduce themselves to voters.
If you plan to watch the Democratic debate Wednesday night, you can do so via NBC, MSNBC and Telemundo from 9 to 11pm EST.
The networks will be streaming the debates online as well as on YouTube and Twitter.
Here’s a picture from inside the press hall…
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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