Ten Democratic candidates are debating in Atlanta—including five of the senators who will serve as jurors if there is an impeachment trial for President Trump. Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and Amy Klobuchar are on stage, along with Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Tulsi Gabbard, Andrew Yang, and Tom Steyer. The first question at the debate, which is being hosted by the Washington Post and MSNBC, was on impeachment. Warren, asked if she would try to convince fellow senators to convict Trump, said: "Of course I will." More:
- Warren added that US Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland, who testified earlier in the day, should never have been appointed to the position in return for donating $1 million to Trump. Harris said the impeachment inquiry proves "we have a criminal in the White House," the Guardian reports. Sanders stressed that to defeat Trump, Democrats need to focus on issues beyond the inquiry, while Biden argued that the fact Trump and Vladimir Putin don't want him to be president helps make the case for his candidacy.
- Warren and Booker clashed over her proposed wealth tax. "I'm tired of free-loading billionaires," Warren said. Booker called the tax "cumbersome," saying: "We as Democrats need to fight for a just taxation system" but "Democrats also have to talk about how to grow wealth as well."
- Buttigieg argued that Democrats shouldn't turn off Republican and independent voters with massive social programs like Medicare for All, reports the New York Times. He invoked President Obama and said: "Even on issues where Democrats have been on defense, like immigration and guns, we have a majority to do the right thing, if we can galvanize, not polarize that majority." Sanders promised to pursue Medicare for All in his first week in office.
- Harris and Gabbard clashed after Gabbard slammed the "ongoing Bush, Clinton, Trump foreign policy doctrine of regime change war." Harris accused Gabbard of "buddying up" to Steve Bannon and said it was "unfortunate" that one of the candidates onstage was somebody who "during the Obama administration spent four years full time on Fox News criticizing President Obama."
- A line from Klobuchar is going viral: "If you think a woman can't beat Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi does it every single day."