***Live Updates*** Democrats Debate in Georgia

The Associated Press
AP

Ten Democrats will debate at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, on Wednesday evening. Presidential candidates Andrew Yang, Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Tulsi Gabbard, Tom Steyer, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, and Amy Klobuchar will take the stage just months before the nominating process starts.

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Andrea Mitchell will moderate the debate with NBC’s Kristen Wekler and the Washington Post’s Ashley Parker.

Stay tuned to Breitbart News for live updates. All times eastern. Debate begins at 9 PM ET.
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10:03 PM: Maddow tees up a climate change question for Steyer. He says he is the only person on stage who will say climate is the number one priority. He says Biden won’t say it. Warren won’t say it. He says he will declare a “state of emergency” and use the emergency powers of the presidency to combat climate change. He says it should be the top priority in his foreign policy.

Biden says climate change is “the existential threat to humanity.” He says he doesn’t need a “lecture from my friend” on climate change issues. He now talks more gobbledygook and says Steyer was producing coal around the world than “all of Great Britain produces” while he was passing climate legislation.

Steyer says everyone needs to come to the same conclusion he did over a decade ago on climate.

10:02 PM: Gabbard talks about transitioning the country off of fossil fuels and ending the billions in subsidies given to the fossil fuel industry re: environmental threats.

10:01 PM: Buttigieg, asked if he would continue Trump’s farm subsidies, says he has heard from many farmers that the subsidies are not making them whole. He rips Trump’s “trade war” that never should have been started. He talks about small refinery wavers that hurt ethanol producers. A very smart answer to appeal to Iowans.

9:54 PM: Booker now talks about gentrification and his ideas to use the tax law to empower renters as much as homeowners (mortgage interest deduction).

9:53 PM: Warren says housing is how people build wealth and says the federal government has favored white people over blacks (redlining) and that still needs to be addressed.

9:50 PM: Julian Castro, who is not on the stage, said Democrats should talk about housing tonight.

Welker asks Steyer why he is the best person to solve the housing crisis. Was he the best person to get this question? C’mon.

Steyer says resources need to be applied to build millions of units that are sustainable because it has a direct impact on climate.

9:46 PM: Klobuchar (proposing three months of paid family leave) and Harris (proposing six months) asked to explain their plans. Klobuchar says it is important that you pay for your plans because Trump lies and increases the debt while treating farmers and workers like “poker chips” in a casino. She says Democrats have an obligation as a party to be fiscally responsible.

Harris, when asked about her plan, tells people to go to her website to read all of her plans. She says it is no longer the case that people are not having children in their 20s. She says people are having kids in their 30s and 40s and they are now raising their kids and taking care of their aging parents. She says the burden falls on women to do that work and they have to make a difficult choice re: leaving good-paying jobs. She says six months is necessary for the reality of today.

Liberal Democrats are going to love Harris’s answer and was probably her best moment on policy in all of the debates.

9:45: Yang calls for paid family leave. He says the U.S. should not be on a list with Papua New Guinea (countries without paid family leave policies.) Yang takes the opportunity to tout his freedom dividend proposal that will allow families to pay for childcare or stay at home to raise their kids.

9:43 PM: Biden says Democrats should not say “lock him up” because “it’s about civility” and we need to restore the soul of the country.

Sanders says more Americans are believing that Trump is in violation of the law after watching the impeachment hearings.

Biden says Trump has “indicted himself.” Biden says there are two questions–whether he should be impeached and removed and whether he should be prosecuted after he leaves office. He says the latter is a question for an attorney general.

9:41 PM: Maddow notes that people are now chanting “lock him up” at the World Series and campaign events. She says that chant has been heard at two of Sanders’ rallies and Maddow asks if Democrats should be okay with that.

Sanders says nobody is above the law and if he did break the law, he should be prosecuted.

9:40 PM: Booker is asked if Trump communicated with Americans and tweeting all of his thoughts is a norm that should have been broken. Booker says Trump demeans and degrades the nation. A bizarre question that seemed to set up Booker to highlight that he used Twitter to communicated to citizens well before Trump but Booker whiffed.

9:39 PM: Biden basically says he will be a good president because he knows the names of all of the world’s leaders. Sounds very establishment.

9:35 PM: Mitchell asks what Klobuchar meant when she implied Buttigieg would not be on the stage if he were a female. She says woman, though, are held to a higher standard and if not we would be able to play the game of naming our favorite female president.

Klobuchar says she has passed over 100 bills and frames herself a consensus builder. It’s misleading because she passes a lot of small bills that are often impossible not to get a consensus. Of course, moderators don’t call her out on that. What huge bill is Klobuchar associated with?

9:33 PM: Buttigieg claims he has the right experience to take on Donald Trump. He says he “comes from the kind of communities” that Trump claims he is helping. He says Trump claims to help people while traveling on private jets between golf courses.

9:32 PM: Yang finally gets a question. Parker says Yang has never served in the government and military and asks how he will be able to respond to terrorist attacks. Yang first praises Steyer for using his billions to fight climate change and says he should not criticized for doing so. Steyer replies: “Thank you, Andrew.”

Yang has says the next Commander-in-Chief should be focused on the threats of tomorrow. A good frame because Yang’s whole campaign theme is that today’s politician don’t understand threat of the future like AI, etc.

9:31 PM: Klobuchar, contrasting herself with Steyer, says

9:30 PM: Worth noting that Yang is the only person who has not gotten a question. Bad form for MSNBC after a year of very strange omissions that has prompted even fairly neutral observers to call out the network:

9:29 PM: Steyer gets a question. He talks about a broken government that is purchased by corporations. He says he has taken on a defeated tobacco companies, utilities, drug companies, etc. Will MSNBC ask him about his private equity deals?

9:25 PM: Gabbard is asked about what the “rot” she she’s in the Democratic party. Gabbard says the party continues to be influenced by the “foreign policy establishment” in Washington that Clinton represents along with the military industrial complex. She slams the Bush-Clinton-Trump foreign policy doctrine. Interesting omission of Obama. Gabbard says as president she will end the regime-change wars and the new cold war.

Harris is asked to respond and she says “it’s unfortunate that we have someone on this stage” who wants to be the party’s nominee who spent years on Fox News criticizing Obama and “buddying up to Steve Bannon.” Harris is months late on this comeback–and it shows how unprepared she and her team were when Gabbard telegraphed her attacks against Harris a couple weeks ago. A day late and a dollar short.

9:22 PM: Welker asks Sanders if Obama is right when he said Americans don’t want to tear the system down. Sanders says he isn’t and then talks about a health care system that is “cruel and dysfunctional.” He says “some of the people up here” think should not take on the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. He’s talking about Mayor Pete and Biden and maybe Booker. But he doesn’t mention them by name.

Dunce moderators do not ask Sanders which candidates he is talking about. Piss poor job of following up by this team so far. Out to lunch.

9:20 PM: Warren defends he Medicare for all plan. She says when people have had a chance to “feel it” and “taste it” after the third year, people are going to want it.

Sanders, when finally brought into the discussion, says: “Thank you, I wrote the damn bill.”

9:18 PM: Buttigieg says we are in a different environment than when Obama was president and claims that Democrats now have a majority on issues like guns and immigration if they can “galvanize” and not “polarize.” He pitches his “Medicare for all who want it” plan and says Democrats should not be “commanding” people to get Medicare.

9:14 PM: After Warren pitches her “two cents” wealth tax, Booker, backed by Wall Street, says he is for increasing the estate tax and does not agree with Warren’s wealth tax. Booker says he wants a more just tax system and says the country needs to give more people opportunities to grow wealth.

Booker, at the very end of the stage, gets a question before other candidates like Yang and Gabbard.

It seems like MSNBC is trying its best to make Booker seem like the “moderate” candidate Democrats should back. But there is a reason he is at the end of the stage.

Warren says she is “tired of freeloading billionaires” and repeats her stump speech about everything a two-cent wealth tax can help accomplish.

9:11 PM: Harris is next and she says “we have a criminal in the White House.” Harris is just a talking-point machine, re-upping some of her best anti-Trump lines from the trail.

9:08 PM: Mitchell asks Biden a good question. She mentions Biden has claimed Republicans will work again with Democrats if he becomes president. She asks how that will be possible when Republicans want him and his son investigated.

“Donald Trump doesn’t want me to be the nominee,” Biden says, adding that he also found out Putin doesn’t want him to be president from the hearings. Biden keeps stressing that he is the best person to beat Trump but never answers Mitchell’s question. Mitchell doesn’t follow up and lets Biden slide. Expect someone like Sanders to whack Biden on this later if given an opportunity.

9:07 PM: Buttigieg, asked the same question, says Trump’s conduct should be central and claims Trump has already confessed his crimes on television. He says he will confront Trump for his wrongdoings but says he is also running to govern after Trump. He says when Trump is defeated, it will be a “tender” moment in a country when the sun will come up. He says the country will be more divided than ever and big issues still need to be addressed.

9:06 PM: Sanders says Trump is a “pathological liar” who is the “most corrupt president” in modern history when asked how central Trump’s conduct should be in the campaign. Sanders, stealing a bit from Yang, says Democrats cannot be consumed with Trump or they will lose the election. He says the American people understand that Congress can “walk and chew bubble gum at the same time” by dealing with Trump’s corruption and standing up for working families and fighting the corrupt political system and the “rigged economy.”

9:04 PM: For some reason, Klobuchar is now given air time. She says she is for an impeachment inquiry but the jury is still out on the evidence. Won’t commit to convicting and removing Trump like Warren. Klobuchar seems a bit jittery.

9:02 PM: Maddow begins with an impeachment question. Maddow asks Warren if she is willing to convince her Republican colleagues to convict Trump. What a softball question. Warren says of course.

Warren now segues to money in politics, putting her against Democrats backed by big-money donors like Biden without mentioning anyone. Warren says ambassadorships should not be for sale.

9:00 PM: All candidates on stage as the debate is about to get started. Mitchell says they will cover a lot of topics, including “national security, race, and climate.”

8:50 PM: Candidates about to take the stage. Chris Matthews says the impeachment hearings have shown that the Democrats are simply, more than anything, an “anti-Trump” party. He says Democrats are more interested in bringing Trump down than they are about any of the presidential candidates and their platforms.

8:45 PM: A late entry into the race who obviously did not qualify for the debate:

8:39 PM: Can Mayor Pete take the heat tonight? Will his poll numbers hold after tonight’s debate?

Nina Turner of the Sander campaign, speaking for herself, ripped Buttigieg last night. And he’s going to face a lot more of that as Iowa gets nearer. Candidates like Harris and Warren who had polling surges going into the debates lost their momentum after the debates.

A message from Stacey Abrams, who is on stage firing up the crowd before the debate begins. She may fit today’s “woke” Democrats who want to leave no identity group behind as well as Ed Orgeron just fits LSU. She may regret years down the line that she didn’t get into a race that was hers for the taking. Opportunities like this do not present themselves often. Obama seized his chance.

Yang creates an all-female playlist featuring a Taylor Swift album on the day Ariana Grande, a Scooter Braun client, expressed her support for Bernie Sanders.

Ariana Grande for Bernie:

Creative fundraising pitch from Yang’s campaign:

Candidates will be debate on the Oprah Winfrey soundstage. Media in the Whoopi Goldberg Soundstage.

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