Live Updates Ahead of Tonight’s Democratic Debate – The New York Times

Ms. Harris, who had refrained from attacking her opponents for the debate’s first two hours, asked Ms. Warren why she did not call for Twitter to suspend Mr. Trump’s account.

“Senator Warren, I just want to say that I was surprised to hear that you did not agree with me that on this subject of what should be the rules around corporate responsibility for these big tech companies, when I called on Twitter to suspend Donald Trump’s account, that you did not agree,” Ms. Harris said.

Ms. Warren shot back, “I don’t just want to push Donald Trump off Twitter, I want to push him out of the White House.” She did not say whether Twitter should indeed suspend the president from its platform.

Ms. Harris got another shot, and again pressed Ms. Warren. Ms. Warren once again did not take the bait and dodged the question.

Throughout the primary, Ms. Warren has led the field in her aggressive stance to break up big tech companies like Amazon, Google and Facebook and she did so again on Tuesday.

“I’m not willing to give up and let a handful of monopolists dominate our economy and our democracy,” she said.

Ms. Warren walked through Amazon’s role as a product marketplace and product seller.

“You get to be the umpire in the baseball game or you get to have a team. You don’t get to be both at the same time,” she said.

While her Democratic rivals do want to go as far, most agree with the sentiment. Mr. O’Rourke said they should not call out particular companies. Mr. Yang said breaking up companies would not solve problems, rattling off a joke that grew broad laughs.

“There is a reason why no one is using Bing today,” he said. “Sorry Microsoft.”

Mr. Booker, meanwhile, called for “regulation and reform,” while acknowledging that tech companies represent a “massive problem in our democracy.”

As the debate approached the end of the second hour, Bernie Sanders was asked directly to reassure the American people about his health two weeks after a heart attack. But before the moderator Erin Burnett could get the question out, Mr. Sanders delivered his answer. “I’m healthy, I’m feeling great,” he said.

Cory Booker interjected with a joke that Mr. Sanders also supports medical marijuana.”

I’m not on it tonight,” Mr. Sanders retorted.

When Ms. Burnett then asked the question, Mr. Sanders invited people to his rally this weekend in New York. “We are going to be mounting a vigorous campaign all over this country. That is how I think I can reassure the American people,” he said, thanking his rivals for their “love” and “prayers.”

“I just want to thank you from the bottom of my heart, and I’m so happy to be back here with you this evening,” he said to applause.

The opioid discussion that just took place is a good exhibit of why some of the most vexing issues facing the presidential candidates is so difficult as a debate topic.

Amy Klobuchar and Tom Steyer each bemoaned prescription drug companies for pushing prescription opioids on Americans to enrich themselves, but didn’t reveal much contrast between themselves or their onstage opponents, or even Mr. Trump.

Yet this is a topic that hits home for millions of Americans and one that candidates are asked about frequently on the campaign trail. It’s a serious problem without easily digestible solutions.

There’s a lot of agreement onstage, with little understanding of what, exactly any of the candidates would do.

Beto O’Rourke and Pete Buttigieg sparred aggressively over guns in an intense and personal exchange. Mr. O’Rourke has called for the mandatory buyback of assault weapons by the government. Mr. Buttigieg has called that unrealistic and a plan that damages the Democratic Party.

“If the logic begins with those weapons being too dangerous to sell, then it must continue by acknowledging with 16 million AR-15s and AK-47s out there, they are also too dangerous to own,” Mr. O’Rourke said. “Every single one of them is a potential instrument of terror.”

But Mr. O’Rourke struggled to say how he would handle taking the guns from Americans who do not want to give up those weapons. “Congressman, you just made it clear that you don’t know how this is actually going to take weapons off the streets,” Mr. Buttigieg said. “We can’t wait, we can’t wait for universal background checks.”

“We cannot wait for purity tests,” he concluded, “We just have to get something done.”

After Mr. O’Rourke said it was time to stop listening to polls and be bold, Mr. Buttigieg jumped back in. “I don’t need lessons from you on courage,” Mr. Buttigieg said, saying the real problem was the National Rifle Association, whom they should unite against. He said Democrats could conceivably ban assault weapons and not get “wrapped around the axle” of mandatory buybacks.

“If you’re not going door to door, it’s not mandatory,” Mr. Castro said, opposing the plan, noting that in many communities the idea of police knocking on doors has also led to violence.

Joe Biden tried once again to present himself as the person onstage with the most direct foreign policy experience.

“I may be the only person who has spent extensive time alone with Putin and Erdogan,” he said, referring to the Russian and Turkish leaders.

During two opportunities to discuss the current situation in Syrian, Mr. Biden didn’t exactly say whether he’d send additional American troops to quell the fighting along the Syria-Turkey border, but blamed Mr. Trump for inflaming a tense situation.

“We have an erratic, crazy president who knows not a damn thing about foreign policy and operates under his own fear for re-election,” he said.

Democrat after Democrat piled onto Mr. Trump on international affairs.

“This president is turning the moral leadership of this country into a dumpster fire,” Senator Cory Booker said.

“This president is caging kids on the border and letting ISIS prisoners run free,” added Julián Castro.

Pete Buttigieg, Beto O’Rourke and Amy Klobuchar, three candidates who sorely need to boost themselves in the polls, have adopted the same strategy tonight: Go after Elizabeth Warren.

All three sought to contrast themselves and their plans with Ms. Warren, with Mr. O’Rourke arguing the Massachusetts senator is “more interested in being punitive” than offering a positive vision. Ms. Klobuchar has twice offered “a reality check to Elizabeth.” And Mr. Buttigieg scolded her for not saying whether her health care plan will raise middle class taxes.

Ms. Warren, a polling co-leader with Mr. Biden, serves a useful foil for the three aiming to occupy the party’s moderate lane. Ms. Klobuchar and Mr. O’Rourke are in danger of missing next month’s debate, while Mr. Buttigieg is trying to lift himself into the field of front-runners.

By contrast, there were few attacks on Mr. Biden, who took much of the incoming fire from rivals in the past debates. Going after Ms. Warren lets the would-be moderate standard-bearers avoid a contrast with Mr. Biden, particularly on the Ukraine issue where he has become vulnerable. Attacking Ms. Warren serves as a rehearsal for the party’s moderate voters of how the candidates would fare against her in a presumed one-on-one matchup much later in the primary process.

It also shows which of the liberal candidate is feared most by the moderates. It’s no longer Bernie Sanders, it is only Ms. Warren.

Mr. Booker and Ms. Harris both came into the debate struggling for support and attention. And it was apparent by the end of the first hour that they had adopted a similar game plan: seeking to rise about the fray and food fight unfolding around them.

“Tearing each other down because we have a different plan is unacceptable,” Mr. Booker said at one point, saying Democratic infighting would be “a disaster for us.”

Earlier, Mr. Booker had been the first candidate to castigate the media for asking Mr. Biden questions about his son’s work in Ukraine.

“I feel like I’m having déjà vu up here,” Mr. Booker said, lashing Mr. Trump for circulating false allegations.

At one point, Ms. Harris aired a complaint that women’s advocates have pressed for months: the lack of questions about abortion.

“This is the sixth debate we have had in this presidential cycle. Not one word with all of these discussions about health care, on women’s access to health care. It’s outrageous,” Ms. Harris said to cheers.

Tulsi Gabbard attacked The New York Times, CNN, the “mainstream media” and others who have written about how Russians are praising her and encouraging her presidential campaign.

“Just two days ago The New York Times put out an article saying that I’m a Russian asset and an Assad apologist and all these different smears,” Ms. Gabbard said. “This morning a CNN commentator said on national television that I’m an asset of Russia. Completely despicable.”

The Times article did not describe Ms. Gabbard in these ways. It noted that she has drawn support from Russian state news media sources and others in that country, as well as white nationalist and members of the alt-right.

Her broadside came in response to a question about whether additional U.S. troops should be sent to protect Kurdish communities in Syria, who are under attack by Turkish troops following Mr. Trump pulling U.S. forces out of the country.

Ms. Gabbard repeatedly invoked the phrase “regime change war” to describe American policy abroad and in the Middle East in particular.

“As president I will end these regime change wars by doing two things — ending the draconian sanctions that are really a modern day siege, the likes of which we are seeing Saudi Arabia wage against Yemen that have caused tens of thousands of Syrian civilians to die and to starve,” she said. “And I would make sure we stop supporting terrorists like Al Qaeda in Syria who’ve been the ground force in this ongoing regime change war.”

Mr. Buttigieg, who like Ms. Gabbard is a military veteran, sharply disagreed.

“Well, respectfully, congresswoman, I think that is dead wrong. The slaughter going on in Syria is not a consequence of American presence, it’s a consequence of a withdrawal and a betrayal by this president, of American allies and American values,” he said.

Bernie Sanders got a question right in his wheelhouse: Should billionaires exist? He didn’t quite say yes but did launch into his regular tirade against the ultra-wealthy, saying it is “a moral and economic outrage” that the three richest Americans control as much wealth as half the country.

Mr. Steyer, himself a billionaire, went next. He denounced corporate power and blamed Republicans for passing legislation cutting taxes for the wealthy.

“The results are as shameful as Senator Sanders said,” he said. “It’s absolutely wrong, undemocratic and unfair.”

Ms. Warren then weighed in: “My question is not why do Bernie and I support a wealth tax, it’s why doesn’t — does everyone else on this stage — think it’s more important to protect billionaires than it is to invest in an entire generation.”

Mr. Biden then remarked, “No one is supporting billionaires.”

Ms. Warren didn’t quite roll her eyes, but she threw him a side eye.

Ms. Klobuchar weighed in soon after: “I want to give a reality check here to Elizabeth. No one on this stage wants to protect billionaires. Not even the billionaire wants to protect billionaires. We have different approaches. Your idea is not the only idea.”

The Democrats onstage mostly agree on economic policy but they disagreed over how to address the growing issue of automation replacing jobs, and the severity of threat that automation poses.

Ms. Warren said that automation was not a central issue, saying economic data suggested trade was a bigger issue.

“The principle reason has been bad trade policy,” Ms. Warren said of job losses.

Mr. Yang, who has made addressing automation a central issue, disagreed, saying Americans can see the issue playing out in front of them. “They see a self-serve kiosk in every McDonald’s,” he said, as millions of truckers worry about self-driving cars.

Mr. Yang said downplaying automation was “Ignoring the realities that Americans see around them every single day.”

Mr. Sanders, meanwhile, pledged a job for everyone who loses one through automation.

“Damn right we will,” Mr. Sanders said.

The health care discussion showed the greater schism in the Democratic Party. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are on the side of eliminating private health insurance and installing a Medicare for all system, while Joseph R. Biden Jr., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Senator Amy Klobuchar are on the other, castigating Medicare for all as a “pipe dream,” as the Minnesotan called it.

It is the broader debate rippling throughout the 2020 Democratic campaign trail. Polls show the party’s voters tend to favor the Warren-Sanders proposals, but are nagged by whether a candidate running on eliminating private health insurance can win a general election. This is the crux of the Democratic debate: a pull between early-state voters’ hearts and heads, with each of them becoming prognosticators guessing about what swing voters in key swing states might prefer.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, as she has done for weeks on the campaign trail, refused to entertain the question of whether “Medicare for all” will require a middle-class tax increase.

Instead she aimed to turn the question to overall costs.

“Let me be clear on this,” she said. “I will not sign a bill into law that does not lower costs for middle class families.”

She repeatedly refused to say.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg immediately pounced.

“A yes or no question that did not get a yes or no answer,” he said, saying it sounded like the type of things Americans hate about Washington. He added, “Your signature senator is to have a plan for everything: Except this.”

Mr. Buttigieg then pitched his “Medicare for all who want it.” When Ms. Warren’s turn came, she said that Mr. Buttigieg’s vision amounts to “Medicare for all who can afford it.”

Mr. Buttigieg came back and said Ms. Warren would “obliterate” the private health insurance of 150 million Americans. “It’s just better than Medicare for all whether you want it or not,” Mr. Buttigieg said, rebranding Ms. Warren’s plan in a more negative light.

Senator Amy Klobuchar followed up with her own hit on Ms. Warren.

“At least Bernie’s being honest here,” Ms. Klobuchar interrupted, addressing Ms. Warren as “Elizabeth,” saying Americans deserved to know where the “invoice” was going.

Ms. Klobuchar continued, dismissing Ms. Warren’s ideas as unrealistic, declaring there is a “difference between a plan and pipe dream.”

It fell to Mr. Sanders to explain exactly what Medicare for all would require.

“Taxes will go up,” he said, before explaining that costs will go down because, under his plan, medical insurance premiums and co-pays would be eliminated.

Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. largely dodged a question about whether it was proper for his son, Hunter, to work for a Ukrainian energy company, aiming to turn the question back onto President Trump’s conduct.

“My son did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong. I carried out the policy of the United States government in rooting out corruption in Ukraine,” Mr. Biden said.

Invoking George Washington’s warning about foreign interference in American affairs, Mr. Biden said Mr. Trump has directed his aides to investigate Mr. Biden and his son because he doesn’t want him as a general election opponent.

“Rudy Giuliani, the president and his thugs have already proven they are flat lying,” Mr. Biden said. “He doesn’t want me to be the candidate.”

Pressed again on the question, Mr. Biden said: “My son’s statement speaks for itself. I did my job. I never discussed a single thing with my son about anything having to do with Ukraine. No one has indicated I have.”

Senator Bernie Sanders followed Mr. Biden but notably choose not to defend Mr. Biden or his son’s work in Ukraine, pivoting to his own message about fighting for the middle class.

CNN’s Anderson Cooper directed the first question to Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has surged in the polls in recent months, about impeachment, asking her why Mr. Trump should be impeached and removed from office with only a year until the election.

“Sometimes there are issues that are bigger than politics,” she began. “No one is above the law.”

“This is about Donald Trump but understand this is about the next president and the next president and the next president,” she said. “The impeachment must go forward.”

Mr. Sanders added that Mr. Trump the “most corrupt” president in American history.

Mr. Biden agreed that Mr. Trump was the “most corrupt,” and hit Mr. Trump for failing to cooperate. “They have no choice but to move,” Mr. Biden said of Congress.

“He’s been selling out our democracy,” Senator Kamala Harris said when her turn came around, adding “He has given us the evidence and tried to cover it up.”

By opening the debate with impeachment questions, the moderators are throwing softballs to the candidates onstage. So far they’ve allowed Ms. Warren, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris to recite their stump speech remarks on impeachment without any contrast with each other.

“Our framers imagined this moment,” Ms. Harris said. “A moment when we would have a corrupt president.”

It’s a far cry from the first three debates, which each opened with taut exchanges about health care policy. Allowing them each a direct contrast with Mr. Trump falls square in the wheelhouse of each of the Democrats running to replace him.

The challenge for the candidates who have to go later in what are effectively opening statements on impeachment is saying something that viewers didn’t just already hear.

Asked about the possibility of impeachment distracting her party and Congress, Ms. Klobuchar said, “We can do two things at once.” She added a quick reference to farmers in Iowa, where she is staking her campaign.

“I’d like to hear from him about how coddling up to Vladimir Putin makes America great again,” Ms. Klobuchar said.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg went after Republicans for opposing impeachment.

“A president 10 years or 100 years from now will look back at this moment and either draw the conclusion that no one is above the law or that a president can get away with anything,” he said, echoing a line that Ms. Warren said a few minutes earlier.

Mr. Buttigieg, as he has in past debates, invoked the morals of not just Mr. Trump but congressional Republicans, who he said should also be supporting impeachment.

Representative Tulsi Gabbard, the lone House member onstage, struck a different tone, expressing concern about the division an impeachment would cause and echoed a talking point that Mr. Trump’s allies have used: that Democrats have wanted to impeach Mr. Trump from the start.

“He won that election in 2016,” Ms. Gabbard said.

The 12 Democratic candidates are now taking the stage, shaking hands and smiling and waving to the audience. Mr. Biden was first, followed by Ms. Warren, who shook his hand and said, “Hi Joe.” Mr. Sanders was next, waving to the hall and shaking the hands of his two top rivals. Ms. Harris took the stage and gave Mr. Sanders a gentle pat on the back. When former Representative Beto O’Rourke entered he shook the hands of everyone onstage. Seven other candidates filed in, waving to the audience one after another.

Even more than in past debates, there are a lot of eyes on Mr. Sanders, who had a heart attack exactly two weeks ago, and who is returning to the campaign trail with tonight’s debate. Many Democrats are also watching Mr. Biden closely to see how he handles any questions about his son Hunter Biden’s work for overseas companies.

Maggie Astor, Thomas Kaplan, Jonathan Martin, Sydney Ember, Katie Glueck and Kevin McKenna contributed reporting.