Democratic presidential primary debate (December 19, 2019)
Date: November 3, 2020 |
 Donald Trump Joe Biden Howie Hawkins Jo Jorgensen
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The Democratic Party held a presidential primary debate on December 19, 2019. It was the sixth of 11 Democratic primary debates that took place during the 2020 presidential election.
Candidates had until December 12 to qualify. They needed 200,000 unique contributors and at least 4 percent support in four eligible polls or 6 percent support in two eligible state-level polls. For the full list of requirements, click here.
Seven candidates qualified for the debate:
Former presidential candidate Kamala Harris also qualified for the debate before ending her presidential campaign.
This page provides an overview of the hosts, venue, moderators, qualifications, and participants.
Debate overview
Video and transcript
- Watch the debate on PBS NewsHour's YouTube channel here.
- Read The Washington Post transcript of the debate here.
By the numbers
Candidate highlights
This section includes highlights for each presidential candidate with a focus on policy. The following paraphrased statements were compiled from The Washington Post's debate transcript. A candidate's opponents are generally not mentioned in his or her summary unless there was a significant exchange between them.
Joe Biden discussed impeachment, the economy, climate change, foreign policy, immigration, and healthcare. Biden said it was a constitutional necessity to impeach Trump. He said under Trump, the middle class was getting crushed and the working class had no way up. Biden said transitioning to a green economy would provide more opportunity and higher-paying jobs for displaced energy workers. Biden said Guantanamo Bay should be closed and Israel and Palestine should reach a two-state solution. Biden said China has Uighurs in concentration camps and recommended the U.S. move 60 percent of its sea power to East Asia. He said he was running because of his experience. Biden would not commit to a one-term presidency. Biden said he had advocated keeping a small military footprint in Afghanistan and opposed the surge. He called for adding a public option to the Affordable Care Act. Biden was the fifth-most active participant, speaking for 15.5 minutes.
Pete Buttigieg discussed impeachment, the economy, tuition, climate change, foreign policy, fundraising, immigration, and reparations. Buttigieg said Americans should not grow cynical because of impeachment. He advocated raising the minimum wage. Buttigieg called for a carbon tax and renewable energy research. He said the U.S. was no longer considered reliable by its allies and the Trump administration was silent on human rights issues in China. Buttigieg said he was the only person on stage who wasn’t a millionaire or billionaire and that he welcomed support from all donors to defeat Trump. He said Elizabeth Warren could not denounce big-ticket fundraisers when she was still benefiting from them. Buttigieg said it was a moral obligation to give immigrant children separated from their families a fast track to citizenship. He supported investments in minority-owned businesses and HBCUs and a commission to review reparations. He said he would appoint judges who believe voting rights are human rights. Buttigieg was the fourth-most active participant, speaking for 19.4 minutes.
Amy Klobuchar discussed impeachment, trade, climate change, voter registration, foreign policy, electability, immigration, the Supreme Court, and healthcare. On impeachment, Klobuchar called Donald Trump’s actions a global Watergate. She said she supported the USMCA trade agreement because of its labor, environmental, and pharmaceutical provisions. Klobuchar said she would rejoin the Paris climate agreement and restore clean power rules and gas mileage standards. She said all Americans should have the right to vote and advocated automatic voter registration. Klobuchar said her foreign policy would be a return to sanity. She said there have not been enough women in politics and what matters in this race is the ability to win Midwestern votes and change policy. Klobuchar discussed her immigration record in Congress and said Pete Buttigieg dismissed the political experience of other candidates. She said Democrats should build on the Affordable Care Act rather than completely redoing healthcare. Klobuchar was the second-most active participant, speaking for 19.6 minutes.
Bernie Sanders discussed impeachment, trade, climate change, race, foreign policy, immigration, electability, education, and healthcare. Sanders said Trump’s administration was the most corrupt in modern U.S. history. He said he opposed the USMCA because it would not stop outsourcing and did not discuss climate change. He said inflation-adjusted wages showed the economy was not great. Sanders said a national emergency should be declared on climate change. He said black Americans were most negatively affected by climate change and economic exploitation. Sanders said the U.S. should be pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinean. He commented on the number of billionaire donations to Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg. He said Democrats needed to increase voter turnout by creating excitement for a progressive agenda. Sanders said the U.S. should cancel all student debt. Sanders said he was wrong to vote for the war in Afghanistan. Under Medicare for All, he said taxes would increase while premiums, copayments, and deductibles would be eliminated. Sanders was the most active participant, speaking for 20 minutes.
Tom Steyer discussed impeachment, tax policy, climate change, China, immigration, economic issues, and individuals with disabilities. Steyer said that Trump administration officials should publicly testify in the impeachment trial. On the economy, he supported a wealth tax and equilibrating taxes on passive investment income. He called on Pete Buttigieg to prioritize climate change more. Steyer said he would declare a state of emergency on climate change. He advocated wind and solar energy over nuclear energy. He said the U.S. needed to work with China as a frenemy on climate change. Steyer said Trump was corrupt and only he had the experience needed to defeat Trump on economic issues. He also said Trump was against immigration by nonwhite people. Steyer said tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations should be undone to help people with disabilities. Steyer was the sixth-most active participant in the debate, speaking for 11.7 minutes.
Elizabeth Warren discussed impeachment, corruption, taxes, energy, foreign policy, democracy, and disability policy. Warren said Donald Trump’s impeachment was a constitutional moment. She said the government works great for the wealthy and no one else, calling it corruption. She said a wealth tax would improve the economy, education, and childcare rather than stifle growth. Warren said she would not expand nuclear energy. She said she would close Guantanamo Bay and that America needed to treat allies better than it treated dictators. She discussed taking 100,000 selfies on the campaign trail and elevating the voices of the powerless. Warren criticized Pete Buttigieg for holding a private fundraiser and said she did not sell access to her time. She advocated increasing access to housing and education for people with disabilities. Warren said on her first day in office she would lower the cost of common drugs like EpiPens and insulin. Warren was the third-most active participant in the debate, speaking for 19.6 minutes.
Andrew Yang discussed impeachment, financial insecurity, climate change, race, China, technology, immigration, and disability policy. Yang said Democrats should address the issues that led to Trump’s election rather than obsess over impeachment. He said high GDP and corporate profits did not reflect increasing rates of suicide, overdoses, and financial insecurity. On the environment, Yang advocated relocating coastal residents affected by climate change and keeping nuclear energy on the table. He connected his status as the only candidate of color on stage to the average voters’ lack of disposable income to contribute to campaigns. Yang said an international coalition was needed to bring China to the table on technology standards. He said he would prioritize helping DACA recipients in his first 100 days. On integrating workers with disabilities, Yang said we need to stop confusing economic value and human value. Yang was the least active participant in the debate, speaking for 10.8 minutes.
Qualifications
Next debate: March 15, 2020 |
Debate 1: June 2019 in Miami |
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On October 25, 2019, the Democratic National Committee released the critiera for qualifying for the debate via polling and fundraising.[1]
Polling criteria
A candidate had two ways to meet the polling threshold to qualify for the December debate:
- Four Poll Threshold: Receive 4 percent support or more in at least four national or early state polls—Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and/or Nevada. The four polls must be sponsored by different poll sponsors or in different geographical areas if sponsored by the same poll sponsor.
- Early State Poll Threshold: Receive 6 percent support or more in at least two single state polls in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and/or Nevada. The two polls may be from the same geographical area and poll sponsor.
Eligible polls must be sponsored by one of the following poll sponsors:
- Associated Press
- ABC News/Washington Post
- CBS News/YouGov
- CNN
- Des Moines Register
- Fox News
- Monmouth University
- National Public Radio
- NBC News/Wall Street Journal
- NBC News/Marist
- New York Times
- Quinnipiac University
- University of New Hampshire
- USA Today/Suffolk University
- Winthrop University
Eligible polls must also meet the following requirements:
- Each poll must be publicly released between October 16, 2019, and December 12, 2019.
- Each poll’s candidate support question must have been conducted by reading or presenting a list of Democratic presidential primary candidates to respondents. Poll questions using an open-ended or un-aided question to gauge presidential primary support will not count.
- Each polling result must be the topline number—the aggregated result of the poll—listed in the original public release from the poll sponsor, whether or not it is a rounded or weighted number.[1]
Fundraising
Candidates must also provide verifiable evidence that they reached the following fundraising thresholds:
- Donations from at least 200,000 unique donors; and
- A minimum of 800 unique donors per state in at least 20 states.
Who qualified?
The following chart shows which Democratic presidential candidates qualified for the debate and how far each candidate was from crossing the polling and donor thresholds based on media reports.
Labor dispute at Loyola Marymount University
All seven qualifying candidates—Biden, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Sanders, Steyer, Warren, and Yang—said they would boycott the debate following a labor dispute between food service workers and a food service company. At the time, the union was in negotiations and the candidates said they would not cross a picket line to participate in the event.[2]
On December 17, 2019, a tentative agreement was reached and the Democratic National Committee announced the debate would take place.[2]
Democratic presidential primary debates, 2019-2020
- See also: Democratic presidential nomination, 2020
The following table provides an overview of the date, location, host, and number of participants in each scheduled 2020 Democratic presidential primary debate.
Democratic presidential debate participation, 2019-2020
History of televised presidential debates
Although the 1960 general election debate between John F. Kennedy (D) and Richard Nixon (R) is frequently cited as the first televised presidential debate, two came before it.
The first televised presidential debate took place on May 21, 1956, when an ABC affiliate in Miami broadcast a Democratic primary debate between Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver.[3] In the general election that year, Stevenson and incumbent President Dwight Eisenhower (R) used surrogates in a televised debate on November 4, 1956. They were represented by former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt (D) and Sen. Margaret Chase Smith (R), respectively.[4]
The Kennedy-Nixon debates that took place four years later showed the importance of television as a visual medium, "Nixon, pale and underweight from a recent hospitalization, appeared sickly and sweaty, while Kennedy appeared calm and confident. As the story goes, those who listened to the debate on the radio thought Nixon had won. But those listeners were in the minority. ... Those that watched the debate on TV thought Kennedy was the clear winner. Many say Kennedy won the election that night," TIME reported on the 50th anniversary of the event.[5]
While a handful of presidential primary debates were held between 1964 and 1972, the televised presidential debate did not become a staple of American politics until 1976.[6]
Overview
The following chart shows the number of presidential and vice presidential debates that took place in each election cycle between 1960 and 2024.
List of presidential debates, 1960-2024
The following table shows the date, location, and moderators for each presidential debate between 1960 and 2024.[7]
| Presidential debates, 1960-2024 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Date | Location | Moderator |
| September 26, 1960 | Chicago, IL | Howard K. Smith, CBS News |
| October 7, 1960 | Washington, D.C. | Frank McGee, NBC |
| October 13, 1960 | Los Angeles, CA / New York, NY | Bill Shadel, ABC |
| October 21, 1960 | New York, NY | Quincy Howe, ABC News |
| September 23, 1976 | Philadelphia, PA | Edwin Newman, NBC News |
| October 6, 1976 | San Francisco, CA | Pauline Frederick, NPR |
| October 22, 1976 | Williamsburg, VA | Barbara Walters, ABC News |
| September 21, 1980 | Baltimore, MD | Bill Moyers, PBS |
| October 28, 1980 | Cleveland, OH | Howard K. Smith, ABC News |
| October 7, 1984 | Louisville, KY | Barbara Walters, ABC News |
| October 21, 1984 | Kansas City, MO | Edwin Newman, formerly NBC News |
| September 25, 1988 | Winson-Salem, N.C. | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 13, 1988 | Los Angeles, CA | Bernard Shaw, CNN |
| October 11, 1992 | St. Louis, MO | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 15, 1992 | Richmond, VA | Carole Simpson, ABC |
| October 19, 1992 | East Lansing, MI | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 6, 1996 | Hartford, CT | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 16, 1996 | San Diego, CA | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 3, 2000 | Boston, MA | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 11, 2000 | Winson-Salem, N.C. | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 17, 2000 | St. Louis, MO | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| September 30, 2004 | Coral Gables, FL | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 8, 2004 | St. Louis, MO | Charles Gibson, ABC |
| October 13, 2004 | Tempe, AZ | Bob Schieffer, CBS |
| September 26, 2008 | Oxford, MS | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 7, 2008 | Nashville, TN | Tom Brokaw, NBC |
| October 15, 2008 | Hempstead, NY | Bob Schieffer, CBS |
| October 3, 2012 | Denver, CO | Jim Lehrer, PBS |
| October 16, 2012 | Hempstead, NY | Candy Crowley, CNN |
| October 22, 2012 | Boca Raton, FL | Bob Schieffer, CBS |
| September 26, 2016 | Hempstead, NY | Lester Holt, NBC |
| October 9, 2016 | St. Louis, MO | Martha Raddatz, ABC Anderson Cooper, CNN |
| October 19, 2016 | Las Vegas, NV | Chris Wallace, FOX |
| September 29, 2020 | Cleveland, OH | Chris Wallace, FOX |
| October 22, 2020 | Nashville, TN | Kristen Welker, NBC |
| June 27, 2024 | Atlanta, GA | Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, CNN |
| September 10, 2024 | Philadelphia, PA | David Muir and Linsey Davis, ABC |
See also
- Presidential candidates, 2020
- Democratic presidential nomination, 2020
- Republican presidential nomination, 2020
- Presidential debates (2015-2016)
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Democratic National Committee, "DNC Announces Details For Sixth Democratic Presidential Primary Debate," October 25, 2019
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 The New York Times, "Democratic Debate Will Go On, After Labor Agreement Is Reached," December 17, 2019
- ↑ Illinois Channel, "From 1956, the First Televised Presidential Debate," June 15, 2016
- ↑ United States Senate, "The First Televised Presidential Debate," accessed June 12, 2019
- ↑ TIME, "How the Nixon-Kennedy Debate Changed the World," September 23, 2010
- ↑ Center for Politics, "Eight Decades of Debate," July 30, 2015
- ↑ Commission on Presidential Debates, "Debate History," accessed September 28, 2020
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