Seventh debate (January 14, 2020) Qualification A memo released by the DNC on December 20 indicated that the qualification period for the January debate started on November 14, 2019, and ended on January 10, 2020. A candidate needed to meet both polling and donor criteria. Candidates had to reach 5% or more in four polls approved by the DNC, or 7% or more in two DNC-approved polls conducted in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, or South Carolina. In addition, candidates must have received donations from 225,000 unique donors, including 1,000 unique donors in 20 different states, territories or the District of Columbia. The candidates who qualified were Biden, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Sanders, Steyer and Warren. At the end of the debate when candidates were shaking hands with one another, Warren was seen declining a handshake from Bernie Sanders; the two candidates then appeared to argue with each other. It was later revealed that Warren commented to Sanders, "I think you called me a liar on national TV." Sanders replied, "Let's not do it right now. You want to have that discussion, we'll have that discussion. You called me a liar."
Eighth debate (February 7, 2020) Qualification The qualifications for the eighth debate were similar to those for the January debate (5% nationally/early states, or 7% in early states, this time excluding Iowa) except for the added provision that all candidates who gained at least one pledged delegate in the
Iowa caucus (which is expected to apply only to candidates supported by at least 15% of the final votes statewide or in a district) would also automatically qualify for the debate. Candidates had until February 6 to qualify. The candidates who qualified included Biden, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Sanders, Steyer, Warren, and Yang.
Summary The '''Democratic Party's eighth presidential debate''' was held from 8–10:30 p.m. ET Emerging as frontrunners after the Iowa caucuses, Buttigieg and Sanders came under attack by other candidates. Klobuchar questioned Buttigieg on his lack of political experience, whereas Biden pressed Sanders to clarify how he would fund
Medicare For All and brought up his past stances on gun control, citing Sanders's votes against the
Brady Bill in the 1990s. Moderator Linsey Davis also inquired Buttigieg on the rise in marijuana-related incarcerations of African Americans in
South Bend during his tenure as mayor, which he attributed to "systemic racism". Candidates also voiced praise for Senator
Mitt Romney of Utah, who was the only Republican senator to vote against Donald Trump's acquittal in his
Senate impeachment trial two days earlier, and Lt. Col.
Alexander Vindman, who was fired from the
National Security Council by Trump after serving as a key witness on the trial. On the topic of campaign finance, Elizabeth Warren stated that political action committees had assisted all of the non-billionaire candidates except for Amy Klobuchar and herself. Another prominent issue discussed in the debate was abortion, with several candidates pledging to only support
Supreme Court nominees who will uphold abortion rights and pushed for the
codification of
Roe v. Wade.
Ninth debate (February 19, 2020) Qualification The DNC announced on January 31 that it was eliminating the donor threshold as a debate qualification requirement for any debate following the New Hampshire debate on February 7, which prompted criticism from several candidates as it was perceived to accommodate Bloomberg, who is not accepting individual donations. The polling thresholds were drastically increased since the last debate, with candidates now having to reach 10% in DNC-approved national polls or 12% in early state polls conducted in Nevada and South Carolina. Candidates who won at least one pledged delegate in the
Iowa caucuses or
New Hampshire primary were automatically qualified for the debate. Candidates had until February 18 to qualify. The candidates who qualified included Biden, Bloomberg, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Sanders, and Warren. Three candidates (Yang, Bennet, and Patrick) suspended their campaigns between the eighth and ninth debates. on Wednesday, February 19, 2020, at
Paris Las Vegas in
Paradise,
Nevada. It was hosted by
NBC News and
MSNBC, in partnership with
The Nevada Independent. was widely regarded by multiple news outlets as having performed poorly. Bloomberg's political and personal record came under heavy scrutiny by other candidates, including his previous support of
stop-and-frisk policies during his tenure as
mayor of New York City. The controversial program, which disproportionately targeted racial minorities, was referred to by Biden as "abhorrent" and "a violation of every right people have". Warren reprimanded Bloomberg for his recently resurfaced derogatory comments on women and called for him to rescind the
non-disclosure agreements he signed with several of
his company's former female employees over sexual harassment and workplace discrimination, accusing Bloomberg of attempting to "muzzle" them. Sanders's electability was also brought up in the debate, when moderator
Lester Holt mentioned the findings of a recent
NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll which showed that two thirds of American voters would not be comfortable with a socialist presidential candidate; Sanders retorted by touting his wide lead over other candidates in the same poll. Bloomberg criticized Sanders's advocacy of
democratic socialism by comparing it to communism, which Sanders dismissed as a "cheap shot", arguing that his economic policies were closer to
Nordic social democracy. Buttigieg, meanwhile, branded both Sanders and Bloomberg as polarizing figures who would further divide the party if one of them were to receive the nomination. Healthcare was another issue discussed by the candidates, in light of the
Culinary Workers Union's recent criticism that Sanders's
Medicare for All policy would replace their existing union healthcare in favor of a government plan. In response, Sanders defended his plan by saying that it would expand, rather than take away, healthcare benefits for union members. Warren attacked Buttigieg and Klobuchar on their more moderate healthcare plans, likening their lack of details to a "
PowerPoint" presentation and "
Post-it Note" respectively. On the other hand, Klobuchar argued that Sanders's Medicare for All proposal would be too radical to garner enough support in the Senate, whereas Buttigieg expressed disapproval at the idea of letting the government decide what healthcare plan is best for unions, calling it "condescension and arrogance". The televised debate drew a combined 19.7 million viewers on NBC and MSNBC, making it the most-watched Democratic primary debate of all time.
Tenth debate (February 25, 2020) Qualification The qualification criteria remained largely unchanged from the last debate, with candidates having to either garner at least 10% support in DNC-approved national polls or 12% in early state polls conducted in the remaining state of South Carolina in order to meet the polling threshold. Candidates could also qualify via the delegate threshold by winning at least one pledged delegate in
Iowa,
New Hampshire or
Nevada. The qualification deadline for the debate was February 24. All candidates still in the race at the time (Biden, Bloomberg, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Sanders, Steyer and Warren), except for Gabbard, qualified for the debate.
Summary The '''Democratic Party's tenth presidential debate''' was held from 8–10 p.m. ET on Tuesday, February 25, 2020, at the
Gaillard Center in
Charleston,
South Carolina. It was hosted by
CBS News and the
Congressional Black Caucus Institute in partnership with
Twitter, and aired on
CBS and
BET. However, his claim that "150 million people have been killed since 2007" by guns was fact-checked by
CNN as being incorrect, with a Biden campaign spokesperson suggesting that he might have intended to say 150,000. Sanders expressed regret at his decisions, admitting that he has "cast thousands of votes, including bad votes", and noted that he had a D-minus rating from the
NRA Political Victory Fund. Foreign policy was extensively discussed by the candidates, which took up about 25 minutes of the debate. Sanders and Bloomberg clashed over past comments they have made regarding foreign authoritarian leaders; Bloomberg emphasized recent allegations that Russian President
Vladimir Putin was trying to prop up the Sanders campaign. When Sanders's praise for
Fidel Castro's literacy programs in Cuba on
60 Minutes was brought up by Bloomberg, Sanders responded by calling out Bloomberg's refusal to call China's
paramount leader Xi Jinping a dictator in an interview, and pointed out that
Barack Obama had also previously praised Cuba's healthcare and education. This provoked a reaction from Biden, who said that while Obama did acknowledge Cuba's progress in increasing life expectancy during a 2016 town hall, he did not "in any way suggest that there was anything positive about the Cuban government" and proceeded to condemn the dictatorial regime. The debate moderators received staunch criticism for focusing too much on narrowly focused policy issues, failure to keep control of the candidates' speaking times, allowing candidates to interrupt other candidates during their allotted speaking times, applying the debate rules regarding giving candidates time to respond to personal attacks in a non-equitable way, and for permitting the audience to boo and jeer certain candidates without consequence. Both Biden and Sanders criticized the moderators on stage for failing to enforce the debate rules. The crowd's negative reception of Sanders led to the proliferation of rumors on social media that the debate audience had been "stacked against" him, pointing to the high entry costs which ranged from $1,750 to $3,200 as evidence. The
Democratic National Committee has denied this claim, explaining that the debate tickets were allocated among political organizations (DNC,
CBCI and
SCDP) and media entities (CBS and Twitter) hosting the debate as well as participating candidates' campaigns, with each campaign being given an equal quota. Tickets were guaranteed to sponsors, and the ticket costs referred to the cost of sponsorship.
Eleventh debate (March 15, 2020) CNN,
Univision, and the
Congressional Hispanic Caucus hosted the eleventh debate in
Washington, D.C., from 8 P.M. to 10 P.M. Eastern Time. Five candidates (Steyer, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Bloomberg, and Warren) suspended their campaigns between the tenth and eleventh debates. On March 6, the DNC announced that qualification would be based on "earning at least 20 percent of delegates awarded by March 15", as calculated by the
Associated Press or
CNN. The Democratic National Committee announced on March 10 that the debate would no longer allow a live audience, nor would press (beyond CNN and Univision) be allowed to attend, due to fears about the
spread of the coronavirus. On March 12, the Democratic National Committee announced that the March 15 debate, originally scheduled to take place at the
Arizona Federal Theatre in
Phoenix, Arizona, would instead be held at CNN's studio in Washington, D.C. It also announced that
Jorge Ramos was no longer a moderator because he had contact with a person with coronavirus. Both candidates also compared the pandemic to that of the
Ebola epidemic.
Cancelled twelfth debate In an interview with
Politico regarding the March 15 debate, a
DNC official confirmed a twelfth debate was still being planned. Two candidates (Gabbard and Sanders) suspended their campaigns between the eleventh and twelfth debates, leaving Biden as the only remaining major candidate. Prior to suspending his campaign, Sanders stated that he planned to participate in the debate. Biden dismissed the idea, however: "My focus is just dealing with
this crisis right now. I haven't thought about any more debates. I think we've had enough debates. I think we should get on with this." It is likely that the debate would have been hosted in an East Coast location, such as New York City. On April 8, 2020, Sanders dropped out of the Democratic primary, leaving Joe Biden as the presumptive Democratic nominee. In early June 2020, Biden passed the threshold of 1,991 delegates to gain the nomination at the
2020 Democratic National Convention. == Incidents and controversies ==