New Hampshire debate: Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg clash, as Joe Biden seeks a come back
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Your support makes all the difference.After a tumultuous week gathering results from Monday's Iowa caucus, Democrats faced off in a New Hampshire debate before ahead of the state's first-in-the-nation primary next week to help determine the Democratic nominee in the 2020 presidential election. New Hampshire, neighbouring the home states of both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, will hold its primary on 11 February.
The debate saw intense clashes, with Mr Sanders and Pete Buttigieg defending their momentum out of Iowa, where the two candidates led the pack. Joe Biden was on the offensive as well, even as he recognised that a win in New Hampshire may be a long shot — and candidate Amy Klobuchar provided a strong night as she seeks a surprise moment in the race.
Following delays and reports of inconsistencies that could significantly alter the final results, Mr Buttigieg barely cracked a razor-thin lead over Vermont senator Sanders, who captured the most votes in both rounds of the caucus but captured two fewer state delegate equivalents in that contest. Massachusetts senator Warren came in a near-distant third, and former vice president Joe Biden fell to fourth place.
Following his disappointing showing, Mr Biden has shaken up his campaign, promoting Anita Dunn to lead his White House bid, while Mr Sanders criticised Mr Buttigieg's billionaire-funded campaign as well as billionaire candidate Michael Bloomberg. "He is spending hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars to buy the election", Mr Sanders said. "There's something wrong with that."
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The candidates are now coming out onto the stage. Joe Biden looks fairly happy. Bernie Sanders gets a big applause, as does Pete Buttigieg.
And, Andrew Yang gets a big applause!
Yang, it is worth noting, was the only candidate to make sure he shook everyone's hand on stage.
First question is to Joe Biden, who is being asked about his claims that Sanders and Buttigieg would be too much of a risk. What did Iowa miss, if they're so risky, he's asked.
"They didn't miss anything. It's a long race. I took a hit in Iowa. And I'll probably take a hit here. Bernie won by 20 points last time," Mr Biden says, projecting an optimism for the future of his campaign.
(He later references Sanders calling himself a democratic socialist, and reaffirms his critique of Buttigieg that he doesn't have much national experience)
Sanders being asked if the label "socialism" will actually derail him.
"Because Donald Trump lies all the time," Sanders said of his likely plan to attack on him.
He also notes that Trump has said ugly things about Biden and Warren.
"Everybody up here, by the way, is united. No matter who wins this thing, we're all going to stand together to defeat him."
Worth noting: Sanders is getting a lot of applause lines so far. He's always a crowd pleaser, but there seems to be some different energy.
Moderators ask the stage if anyone else is worried about having a democratic socialist on the ticket.
After a pause, Sanders said, "I'm not", while Klobuchar raised her hand.
Klobuchar then claimed she can bring in moderates, and that Trump's "worst nightmare" is someone who can bring people in form the middle (she says "that is me").
Steyer now up, bashing the Iowa caucus meltdown.
He agrees with Sanders that people need to be able to appeal to a "diverse" electorate.
Yang is now back up. Thanks everyone for letting him back onto the debate stage.
Now launches straight into his stump: the world's economic models are "out of date" he says.
He notes that corporate profits are at "record highs", and then ties that to things like substance abuse and debt, which are also high (and New Hampshire has one of the highest rates of opioid overdoses in the country).
A much more collegial vibe between Warren and Sanders today. Warren asked to describe differences between the two, and she didn't take the bait.
Instead, she, too, hit on some of her top issues, like ending corruption.
Buttigieg asked about his somewhat recent comments that the label socialism has lost its value as an attack, and he dodged.
He has a lot of pressure on him tonight — if he wins in New Hampshire, it'll be a big momentum booster.
"The way you bring people together is by presenting an agenda that works for the working people of this country, not for the billionaire class," Sanders says, in response to Buttigieg suggesting the Vermont senator's brand of politics excludes some.
Sanders then lists minimum wage increases, taxing major corporations and universal healthcare, as the ways to bring people together. Some of those got solid cheers.
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