Democratic debates: Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren among 10 candidates facing off – live | US news

Former Maryland congressman John Delaney has come out swinging by accusing candidates like Bernie Sanders of promising “free everything.”

Delaney also put out a statement just before the debate slamming Sanders for his health care proposals, so you can see a theme building here.

After a brief opening commercial break, the debate is on.

Moderator Jake Tapper went through the rules and issued the sure-to-be-disregarded instruction to the audience not to interrupt the discussion by cheering.

Opening statements have started with Montana governor Steve Bullock, who has unsurprisingly emphasized he won three elections in a red state.

The candidates are taking the stage, and the Guardian team is here to provide updates and analysis as we go.

Tonight’s debate will start at 8pm ET and go until around 10:30pm.

CNN is hosting and broadcasting the debate, but the network is allowing viewers to stream the debate without a cable subscription on their homepage.

The same three CNN anchors – Dana Bash, Don Lemon and Jake Tapper – will host both nights. The network has made the (wise) decision not to switch out moderators in the middle of the debate, which led to some very noticeable technical difficulties for NBC News last month.

Like the NBC debates, only one of the moderators (in CNN’s case, Jake Tapper) is a white man. But oddly, because of CNN’s random drawing to determine the debate line-up, all of the participants tonight are white.

The format of the debates is very similar to last month’s, with candidates getting 60 seconds to answer a moderator-directed question and 30 seconds for responses and rebuttals. Candidates who are attacked by name by an opponent will also get 30 seconds to respond. And a series of flashing lights – from yellow to solid red – will warn them when their time is running out.

CNN specifically ruled out the possibility of show of hands or one-word questions, much to the relief of many viewers and likely to the disappointment of NBC News’ Chuck Todd.

The network also warned candidates that anyone who consistently interrupts others’ answers will have his or her time reduced.

During last month’s debates, several candidates repeatedly interjected their own thoughts on questions that weren’t posed to them. But it’s hard to blame them when they’re trying to differentiate themselves from more than 20 other people.

DNC chairman Tom Perez addressed the debate crowd in Detroit and specifically called out Trump’s recent attacks on Baltimore and representative Elijah Cummings.

“We believe in Baltimore,” Perez told the crowd to applause. “We believe in Elijah Cummings.”

Over the weekend, Trump launched a racist attack on Cummings, the chairman of the House oversight committee, and his majority-black district by ridiculing Baltimore as a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested.”

“That’s not who we are as a nation,” Perez said.

One thing to keep in mind looking at the crowded debate stage tonight: this won’t be happening again this election cycle. Because of the Democratic National Committee’s heightened requirements for the fall debates, far fewer candidates are expected to qualify in September.

In order to make the cut for this week’s debates, candidates had to either attract at least 1 percent of support in three separate polls or receive contributions from 65,000 unique donors.

But for the September debate, the DNC has both doubled each requirement and made both of them necessary to qualify. So every candidate who debates in the fall has to have both registered at 2 percent or more in four polls and received contributions from 130,000 donors.

Only seven candidates have so far crossed both thresholds: Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Beto O’Rourke and Cory Booker.

Andrew Yang announced yesterday that he had met the polling requirement after already crossing the donor threshold, but the DNC threw cold water on that today by sending out an email saying it would not accept one of the polls Yang had cited.

Two other candidates – Julián Castro and Amy Klobuchar – have met one requirement but not the other. All other candidates have failed to clear either hurdle, so this could be the last debate for many of them.

That possibility is sure to weigh heavily tonight on the candidates who have failed to gain any traction in the race.

Former Maryland congressman John Delaney has started the sparring off early with a statement criticizing Bernie Sanders’ Medicare-for-all plan, noting that the Vermont senator “isn’t even a Democrat.”

“Senator Sanders’s plan to turn our health care system into a socialist experiment isn’t just bad policy, it’s bad politics,” Delaney said in a statement. “It would all but guarantee that Donald Trump gets re-elected. Senator Sanders isn’t even a Democrat and we shouldn’t let lead our party down a path that will mean we lose to Donald Trump.”

Delaney, who has so far failed to meet either requirement for the fall debate, is likely hoping attacking Sanders will buy him some extra camera time. This may, after all, be his last chance to leave an impression on voters. His staffers have asked him to drop out of the presidential race by mid-August, Axios reported earlier this month.

More candidates participating tonight are preparing for the debates with tunes and tributes to loved ones.

From Pete Buttigieg, the South Bend, Indiana, mayor:

And from former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper:

Here is the full list of candidates participating tonight:

• Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator who is trying to recreate the enthusiasm of his impressive 2016 bid by advocating for progressive policies like Medicare-for-all.
• Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator who has a plan for every problem and whose progressive bona fides could pose a threat to Sanders.
• Pete Buttigieg, the millennial mayor of South Bend, Indiana, whose bid enjoyed a burst of interest in the spring but has since somewhat stagnated.
• Beto O’Rourke, the former Texas congressman who was treated as a liberal darling when he ran against Republican senator Ted Cruz last year but has yet to find his footing in the presidential race.
• Amy Klobuchar, the Minnesota senator who has presented herself as the most pragmatic opponent against Donald Trump given her popularity in her Midwestern state.
• Marianne Williamson, the self-help author and spiritual guru whose “love over hate” message captured the Internet’s fascination during her first debate performance.
• John Delaney, the former Maryland congressman whose claim to fame is mostly that he’s been running for president the longest of the debate crowd (since July 2017, to be specific).
• John Hickenlooper, the popular former governor of Colorado who has been repeatedly urged to throw in the towel and run for the Senate instead.
• Tim Ryan, the Ohio congressman who stumbled in his first debate appearance during an exchange with Tulsi Gabbard over foreign policy.
• Steve Bullock, the Montana governor who is making his debate debut after narrowly failing to qualify last time around.

Sanders and Warren – and to a lesser degree Buttigieg – have a significant polling advantage compared to the other candidates, who will mainly be trying to have a “breakthrough” moment capable of launching them to the next debate. But more on that later.

Hi, live blog readers! This is Joanie Greve reporting from Detroit, where the next round of Democratic debates is set to start at 8pm EDT.

Ten of the 20 candidates participating in the debates, which are hosted by CNN, will appear on the debate stage tonight. The others will face off tomorrow night.

The blog will have more on each of the candidates as we prepare for the debate to start, but if you need more of a refresher on any of them (no one would blame you), Lauren Gambino and Sam Morris created this helpful graphic back in January.

In the meantime, here is Cardi B, who just threw her support behind Bernie Sanders, encouraging you to tune in:

Sanders’ Twitter account reshared that message, but the senator himself would not reveal his favorite Cardi B song to a Yahoo News reporter earlier today: