Two hours of talking, yet much left unsaid
With 10 candidates on stage and five moderators posing questions on Night One, Democrats said a lot Wednesday night. But there were a variety of topics that have dominated the national political conversation but didn’t get touched on during the action-packed two hours. Here are the issues we’ll be listening for tonight:
- Affirmative action
- Black Lives Matter
- The census and the citizenship question
- Coal as a resource and for jobs
- Data privacy and surveillance
- Disinformation in 2016 election
- The Green New Deal
- Hate crimes and involvement with white supremacist organizations
- Israel and the Palestinians
- NAFTA and other trade deals
- Obamacare
- Reparations
- Sexual harassment
- Social Security
- Teacher pay and school quality
- Trans-gender military service
- Vaccination issues and the return of diseases that used to be rare
Now that you’ve seen the candidates, tell us how you feel
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Castro nabbed the spotlight. Now he has to keep it
Julián Castro, who has been frustrated by the relative lack of attention paid to his campaign up to now, found his way to the spotlight Wednesday — and now he has to keep it.
The housing secretary under President Barack Obama and the mayor of San Antonio before that not only broke from the pack but did so by hammering his fellow Texan on stage, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, for whom Castro campaigned when O’Rourke ran for the Senate in 2018.
Warren ran away with debate, progressive survey says
Warren was the clear winner of Wednesday night’s debate among members of the progressive group Indivisible, according to the results of its flash poll.
The group sent text messages to thousands of its members across the country shortly after the conclusion of the first night to ask which candidate “impressed” most. They received responses from 6,497 people in all 50 states.
Who won Night One?
The first night of the first Democratic presidential debate offered many Americans their first real look at the sprawling 2020 field and gave the candidates a chance to try to break out from the pack. Here’s who won, who disappeared on stage and will hope for better luck next time (in order of stage appearance).
Dems’ español thrills some, turns off others
Some of the Democratic candidates touted their Spanish-speaking skills in the first night’s debate, impressing some Latinos but leaving others in a huff. The español rolled off the tongues of some better than others but was clearly an attempt to reach out to the Latino electorate and a nod to the “Latinidad” of Miami, where the debate was held and where 70 percent of residents are Hispanic.
Dems agree Trump economy ‘rigged’
At the first debate of the Democratic presidential primary, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, of Massachusetts, and the nine other candidates charged that the “rigged” economy under Trump is benefiting only the rich, while they disagreed over the border crisis, military power and how to improve the nation’s health care system.
Must-see TV
More than 15 million Americans tuned in to Night One of the first Democratic presidential debate, suggesting strong interest among voters in hearing from possible opponents to Trump.
Another 9 million viewers watched via livestreams hosted across the internet.
Can Thursday’s debate top those numbers? With former Vice President Joe Biden, Sanders, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and others, it’ll have a shot.
Here are the special guests each candidate invited
Rep. Eric Swalwell entered the debate area on Thursday wearing an orange ribbon to indicate his support for gun reform, which has been a signature issue of his campaign platform. In particular, he wore it in the memory of Jaime Guttenberg, who was killed in the Parkland, Florida, school shooting last year. His guests at Thursday’s debate include her father, Fred Guttenberg, and and Tamar Manasseh, founder of Mothers Against Senseless Killings.
Other candidates were also joined by special guests.
Marianne Williamson brought her daughter, India Williamson, and Frances Fisher, an actress who endorsed the candidate. While Bernie Sanders invited family and staff, Joe Biden was joined by Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottom and Rev. Laurie Steele of Cincinnati, Ohio. Michael Bennet brought his daughter Caroline.
Pete Buttigieg came with the largest announced entourage. He invited his mother Anne Buttigieg and husband Chasten Buttigieg — as well as Sean Shaw, the first black Democratic Nominee for attorney general in Florida; Florida state Rep. Adam Hattersly; Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis; and Victoria Hernandez, the director of government affairs at Miami-Dade College; among other guests.
John Hickenlooper, Andrew Yang, Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand had not announced who they have invited.
Factchecking Night One: What’s true and false
As the first 10 Democratic presidential candidates jostled to make their views heard on the first night of debate amid a historically crowded field of candidates, NBC News fact checked their various claims on everything from the number of daily gun deaths to Americans’ support for Roe v. Wade.