Democrats square off in contentious second round of first debate
Editor's Note: For coverage of the July 31 Democratic debate, follow our live coverage here.
The second night of the first Democratic debate featured the most dramatic confrontation of the primary season to date, with Sen. Kamala Harris taking on former Vice President Joe Biden over his comments about segregationist lawmakers and civil rights.
The exchange came shortly after the halfway mark on the second night of the first debate in Miami, with Harris looking Biden in the eye to tell him his comments had been "hurtful" to her and people of color.
"It was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and careers on the segregation of race in this country," Harris said. "And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing. And there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bused to schools everyday. And that little girl was me."
Biden mounted a defense of his comments and emphasized his work on civil rights over the course of his long career, saying Harris had mischaracterized his position and record. But the punch landed squarely, and Biden was on his heels for the rest of the debate.
The debate also saw Sen. Bernie Sanders defending his economic policies, Mayor Pete Buttigieg on the defensive over police relations in his community and lower-tier candidates like Michael Bennet and Eric Swalwell using their sparse speaking time trying to break through.
The 10 candidates on stage were Biden, Sanders, Harris, Buttigieg, Kirsten Gillibrand, Michael Bennet, John Hickenlooper, Eric Swalwell, Andrew Yang and Marianne Williamson.
Later, tweeting from the G20 summit in Japan, President Trump remarked that he "heard it was not a good day for Sleepy Joe or Crazy Bernie. One is exhausted, the other is nuts - so what's the big deal?"
The 10 candidates on stage included Biden, Sanders, Harris, Buttigieg, Kirsten Gillibrand, Michael Bennet, John Hickenlooper, Eric Swalwell, Andrew Yang and Marianne Williamson.
Here's a look at the key moments from throughout the night.
Watch CBSN for live coverage following the debate
Harris on Biden: "Everything I said on that stage is the truth"
11:58 p.m.: Speaking to MSNBC, Harris reaffirmed her criticism of Biden and said that she believes he needs to "acknowledge what was wrong about a perspective on busing."
"Busing was part of what was necessary to integrate the schools of America," Harris said.
She also said a woman came up to her after the debate and thanked her for challenging Biden on busing, telling Harris: "I'm glad that you brought that up because I was also bused, and it was also hurtful for me to hear those comments."
After being told by MSNBC's Joy Reid that she was the winner of the debate, Harris demurred.
"I am out here and will be out here working to earn the vote and the support of everyone. And this election will be given to no one. She who wins will have to earn it," she said.
-- Grace Segers
Sanders accuses critics of "ageism"
11:30 p.m.: Sanders addressed criticism from Swalwell onstage that older candidates need to "pass the torch" to a new generation. Sanders said that questioning a candidate's age was an example of "ageism," which was one of the kinds of discrimination that he was working to combat.
"Judge people on the totality of who they are," Sanders said.
-- Grace Segers
Biden addresses exchange with Harris
11:25 p.m.: Speaking to MSNBC after the debate, Biden addressed his exchange with Harris, arguing she had mischaracterized his position on busing.
"What we're talking about is whether or not the Department of Education, as opposed to the courts," could end segregations, Biden said. He believed busing was an imposition by the federal government, but said he "supported the court's ability to order busing."
He also argued the focus should not be on his past, but on addressing racial inequality in the future.
"It should be about the future and should be about what we're going to do," Biden said.
-- Grace Segers
Here's the total speaking time for each candidate
11:15 p.m.: This is total approximate speaking time for each candidate, including answers to direct questions, closing statements and time spent speaking over interruptions.
- Biden - 13:59
- Harris - 12:36
- Sanders - 11:40
- Buttigieg - 10:25
- Gillibrand - 7:42
- Bennet - 6:47
- Swalwell - 6:16
- Williamson - 5:01
- Hickenlooper - 4:56
- Yang - 3:00
-- Aaron Navarro
Candidates sum up campaigns in final statements
11:02 p.m.: Candidates took the opportunity in their final 45-second statements to sum up the themes of their campaign. Sanders leaned heavily on his promise to take on Wall Street and insurance companies. Harris cited her experience as a prosecutor to make the case that Democrats "need a nominee who has the ability who has the ability to prosecute the case against four more years of Donald Trump."
Gillibrand, who geared much of her answers in the debate towards women, said "women are on fire" and more engaged in politics than ever. Yang, whose candidacy has been propelled by a fervent internet following, said his appearance on the debate stage was "proof that our democracy still works."
Williamson characteristically invoked spirituality in her final statement, speaking directly to President Trump.
"This man has reached into the psyche of the American people and he has harnessed fear for political purposes," Williamson said. "I'm going to harness love for political purposes."
-- Grace Segers
Candidates talk about which international relationships they would work to repair
10:49 p.m.: In a rapid-fire question and answer, moderator Chuck Todd asked each candidate which international relationship they would choose to repair as president. Yang and Hickenlooper both said China, while Sanders recommended strengthening ties with the U.N.
Biden and Bennet talked about repairing relations with European allies, and Gillibrand said she would work to negotiate with Iran to stabilize the Middle East.
Swalwell put his answer most succinctly: "We're breaking up with Russia and making up with NATO."
-- Grace Segers
Williamson to New Zealand prime minister: "Girlfriend, you are so wrong"
10:30 p.m.: When asked what their first priority would be as president, most candidates focused on addressing climate change or economic inequality. Williamson, however, had a different plan.
She said that her first act as president would be to call New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who once said that New Zealand was the best place to raise a child in the world.
Williamson said she would tell Ardern: "Girlfriend, you are so wrong."
She explained the U.S. would be the best place to raise a child in the world under a Williamson administration.
-- Grace Segers
Sanders discusses abortion rights and the Supreme Court
10:18 p.m.: Candidates reasserted their support for a woman's right to an abortion, including protecting Roe v. Wade.
Sanders promised support for abortion rights would be a "litmus test," saying would not nominate any judge to the Supreme Court who didn't support Roe v. Wade.
Unlike other candidates onstage, like Buttigieg, Sanders said he did not believe the solution to gridlock in the court was to add more justices to the court, but said justices should be rotated.
-- Grace Segers
Harris confronts Biden on segregationist comments and civil rights
10:08 p.m.: Getting visibly emotional, Harris confronted Biden over his comments about working with conservative lawmakers who supported segregation based on race, as well as his past stance against busing to desegregate public schools.
Harris said she does not believe the former vice president is a racist but called his statement about finding "common ground" with segregationists personally "hurtful" to people of color like her. It was the most contentious exchange of the night so far.
"That's a mischaracterization of my position across the board," Biden told Harris, defending his support for civil rights and highlighting his work as a public defender.
In the 1970s, Biden opposed busing to desegregate public schools. As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he oversaw the contentious Anita Hill hearings during the confirmation process for then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas in 1991.
He also helped spearhead efforts to pass the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which many believe fueled a period of mass incarceration that disproportionately affected African Americans and other minority groups.
-- Camilo Montoya-Galvez
Buttigieg on diversifying police force: “I couldn’t get it done”
10:04 p.m.: Buttigieg was asked about the recent fatal shooting of a black man by a white police officer in South Bend, which has caused turmoil in his community. He was asked why the diversity of the city's police force has lagged far behind the demographics of the community.
"I couldn't get it done," Buttigieg said about the failure to adequately diversify his city's police force. He acknowledged that nothing he could say could bring back the life of Eric Logan, the man who was shot.
"My community is in anguish right now," Buttigieg said. "It's a mess and we're hurting."
The mayor said he's "not allowed to take sides until the investigation comes back," but he was swiftly challenged by Swalwell, who said Buttigieg should fire his police chief.
"You're the mayor," Swalwell said. "You should fire the chief."
-- Grace Segers
Here's how much speaking time each candidate had in the first half
9:59 p.m.: Harris led the way through the first hour, followed by Biden and Sanders:
- Harris - 6:36
- Biden - 6:29
- Sanders - 5:44
- Buttigieg - 5:33
- Bennet - 4:04
- Gillibrand - 3:21
- Williamson - 2:26
- Swalwell - 2:18
- Yang - 2:08
- Hickenlooper - 2:05
-- Aaron Navarro
Harris challenges Biden over Obama-era deportation policies
9:52 p.m.: Biden addressed the Obama administration's deportation policies, saying that he believed President Obama "did a heck of a job" on illegal immigration and that it was wrong to compare deportations in the Obama administration to Mr. Trump's policies.
Biden said a person whose only crime was not having the correct paperwork to enter the U.S. "should not be the focus of deportation."
However, Harris challenged Biden on deportation, saying that one of her few disagreements with the Obama administration was the policy of deporting illegal immigrants.
"The policy was to allow deportation of people who by ICE's own definition were non-criminals," Harris said, adding that she challenged the administration's position as the former attorney general of California.
-- Grace Segers
9 out of 10 candidates back decriminalizing border crossings
9:47 p.m.: Except for Bennet, all candidates on stage indicated they back a move to decriminalize border crossings -- a plan which gained steam on Wednesday night when Julián Castro pressed fellow Texan Beto O'Rourke on his opposition to it.
Defending his stance, Buttigieg slammed Republicans for touting Christian, family values while also supporting the president's hardline immigration agenda -- which he suggested hurt many immigrant families.
Under current U.S. law, crossing into the U.S. illegally is a misdemeanor offense. Castro and others have been calling for illegal entry to become a civil offense instead.
-- Camilo Montoya-Galvez
Candidates go after Trump for family separations
9:39 p.m.: When asked about how they would address illegal immigration as president, candidates quickly condemned Mr. Trump by name for his strict immigration policies.
Candidates specifically went after the family separation policy, and the detention of unaccompanied migrant children.
"In Colorado, we call that kidnapping," said Hickenlooper, the former governor of California, about family separation policies at the border.
Williamson also condemned the conditions at detention centers, calling it "collective child abuse."
-- Grace Segers
Trump reacts to question on immigrants and health care
All candidates say health care plans would cover undocumented immigrants
9:32 p.m.: All candidates raised their hands when asked if their health care plans would cover undocumented immigrants -- a recent progressive stance that was once seen as a politically dangerous position in the Democratic Party.
To justify his position, Buttigieg said some of the residents in South Bend who are undocumented pay property and sales taxes, and thus should have access to medical care. He stressed, however, that most undocumented immigrants in the country should have a legal status under comprehensive immigration reform -- a goal that has proved elusive for both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Biden, the other candidate allowed to explain his stance, said immigrants with access to health care services would lower costs for all consumers, and said everyone should have access. "You can't let people be sick," he said.
-- Camilo Montoya-Galvez
Biden issues strong defense of Obamacare
9:24 p.m.: Biden, who was one of the major architects of the Affordable Care Act as vice president, defended the law and suggested building upon the existing law by adding a public option.
"The quickest, fastest way to do it is to build on Obamacare, to build on what we did," Biden said. "Urgency matters."
Biden also said he was against any Democrat that opposed Obamacare, in a veiled jab at Sanders, whose Medicare for All plan would eliminate private insurance.
Biden addressed the issue from a personal perspective, mentioning the death of his first wife and daughter shortly after he became a senator, and the death of his son Beau in 2015.
"There's people right now facing what I've faced and we've faced without any of the help" that Biden and his family had, he said.
-- Grace Segers
Harris hits candidates for getting into a "food fight"
9:19 p.m.: After the issue of generational change devolved into crosstalk, with older candidates like Biden and Sanders arguing their age had no bearing on whether they could be president, Harris cut in with a sharp jab against her fellow candidates.
"America does not want to witness a food fight, they want to know how we're going to get food on their table," Harris said, to extended cheers.
-- Grace Segers
Swalwell gets cheers for telling Biden to "pass the torch"
9:16 p.m.: Swalwell was the first to take a swipe at the early primary frontrunner. The San Francisco area lawmaker said it was critical for Democrats to invest in young leaders and for the older statesmen in the party to "pass the torch."
"I was 6 years old when a presidential candidate came to the California Democratic Convention and said it's time to pass the torch to a new generation of Americans. That candidate was then-Sen. Joe Biden," Swalwell said. "Joe Biden was right when he said it was time to pass the torch to a new generation of Americans 32 years ago, and he's still right today."
Smirking, Biden replied, "I'm still holding on to that torch."
-- Camilo Montoya-Galvez
Bennet goes after Sanders on Medicare for All
9:11 p.m.: Referring to his Senate colleague as "Bernie," Bennet said he agreed with Sanders that income inequality was a serious issue in the U.S. However, Bennet said he disagreed with Sanders over "Medicare for All."
"I believe the way to do that is by finishing the work we started with Obamacare and creating a public option," Bennet said about obtaining universal health care.
He also challenged Sanders directly, noting that the Vermont rejected Medicare for All in 2014.
-- Grace Segers
Hickenlooper, Sanders, Gillibrand debate "socialism"
9:10 p.m.: Asked about concerns some in the electorate may have about nominating a self-proclaimed socialist, Sanders demurred and pivoted to rebuking the president, who he said is selling a false economic promise to struggling Americans.
"Trump is a phony," Sanders said, adding that he also believes the president is a racist.
Meanwhile, Hickenlooper, a former centrist governor of Colorado, warned that Democrats should not allow Republicans to brand them as fringe socialists.
Gillibrand tried to stake a middle-of-the-road position on the debate surrounding socialism, saying there's an important difference between regulated capitalism and crony capitalism where giant companies can exploit the system.
-- Camilo Montoya-Galvez
Biden takes aim at Trump in first answer
9:06 p.m.: In his first answer of the night, Biden went after a rival who wasn't onstage: President Trump. Biden bashed the tax cuts passed under the Trump administration and said that he would try to close tax loopholes for the wealthy.
"Donald Trump put us in a terrible situation," Biden said.
-- Grace Segers
Sanders says his proposals will be paid for by "tax on Wall Street"
9:05 p.m.: Answering the first question of the night, Sanders said his ambitious progressive proposals -- including a single-payer health care system, tuition free public college and the elimination of student debt -- will be financed by a "tax on Wall Street."
"We have a new vision for America," Sanders, the only self-described Democratic socialist on stage, told the crowd.
-- Camilo Montoya-Galvez
Candidates take the stage
8:55 p.m.: The 10 candidates participating took the stage just before the debate got underway. Biden and Sanders will occupy the middle two positions, flanked by Buttigieg and Harris.
-- Stefan Becket
De Blasio says he did not mean to quote Che Guevara
Although he will not be at the debate Thursday night, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's gaffe at a Miami rally has stirred controversy in Florida.
De Blasio says he did not mean to quote Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the iconic Marxist revolutionary who helped install Fidel Castro as Cuba's dictator, during an appearance in Miami on Thursday.
"Hasta la victoria, siempre!" de Blasio said at a rally for striking airline workers at Miami Airport. The quote, which translates to "Ever on to victory," is associated so closely with Guevara that it appears alongside his portrait on t-shirts and buttons sold as symbols of revolution.
De Blasio later said that he did not mean to quote Guevara.
"I did not know the phrase I used in Miami today was associated with Che Guevara & I did not mean to offend anyone who heard it that way. I certainly apologize for not understanding that history," de Blasio, who in his twenties was an outspoken supporter of Nicaragua's socialist Sandinista movement, tweeted Thursday afternoon.
De Blasio was quickly criticized by Florida GOP Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio for his comments.
Supreme Court decisions likely to be addressed in debate
Moderators may ask candidates about two major Supreme Court decisions which came down on Thursday morning.
In one decision, the court left the issue of drawing congressional districts to the states, ruling that federal courts do not have a role to play in partisan gerrymandering. The 5-4 ruling marked a major blow to efforts to limit the drawing of electoral districts for partisan gain.
On Thursday, the court also ruled that the proposed citizenship question for the 2020 U.S. census will not be added -- for now -- saying that the administration's explanation for adding it is insufficient.
Here's a recap of what happened last night
A different set of 10 Democrats vying to be the next president sparred over immigration, gun control and health care, among other topics, in the first debate of the 2020 primary season, offering a glimpse into issues that will divide and at times unite them in the months ahead.
In the briskly paced debate, candidates explained their differences on health care, climate change and LGBTQ issues. The debate revealed some of the key differences between the candidates, who sometimes talked over each other while trying to make an impression on a crowded stage.
Although there was no clear standout in the debate, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and Julián Castro received the most speaking time. In terms of questions, Booker, O'Rourke and Klobuchar each had eight directed to them, followed by Warren with seven and Castro with six.
The candidates did not fixate on President Trump, but his presence loomed over the stage, with each candidate using him as a foil to pitch their agendas. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was another Republican boogeyman on the debate stage.
Thursday night's debate likely to reveal factions within the party
Biden, the frontrunner who is positioning himself as one of the more moderate candidates and emphasizes how he wants to work across the aisle, will have to defend himself and his record from other candidates hoping to diminish his chances.
Sanders, arguably the most liberal candidate in the 2020 race who self-identifies as a Democratic socialist, is second in the polls at this point. He will likely have to defend how his positions on things like Medicare for All and free college are fiscally sustainable, as well as spar with Biden and more moderate Democrats on where the heart of the Democratic Party lies.
The debate will be make-or-break for some of the lesser-known candidates who have never stood on a national debate stage before -- like Yang and Hickenlooper. The lower-polling candidates are under pressure to raise their standing in the coming weeks, since the threshold to qualify for the third and fourth DNC debates will be more difficult to meet. Candidates will need to attract 130,000 donors and poll at a minimum of 2%.
Tonight will also be key for some like Harris, who many GOP operatives see as a strong contender but still doesn't pose a serious threat yet to Biden or Sanders in the polls.
A recent CBS News/YouGov poll querying voters' their first-choice nominee found Biden at 31%, Warren at 17%, Sanders at 16%, Harris at 10%, Buttigieg at 8%, O'Rourke at 5%, Booker at 2% and Klobuchar at 2%. Everone else clocked in at 1% or less.