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As it happenedended

Democratic debate: Who won? Candidates clash over healthcare, immigration, impeachment and more

Candidates clash over immigration, gun violence and the economy

Clark Mindock
Miami
,Chris Stevenson,Chelsea Ritschel
Thursday 27 June 2019 01:41 EDT
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Democratic debate: Best moments of night one

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The race to the White house has officially begun, with the first Democratic presidential debate in Miami now over.

Tonight's showdown featured: Cory Booker, Bill de Blasio, Julián Castro, John Delaney, Tulsi Gabbard​, Jay Inslee​, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O'Rourke, Tim Ryan and Elizabeth Warren.

The candidates clashed over immigration, gun violence and the economy - as well as getting in a number of digs at President Donald Trump.

The second 2020 debate will take place on Thursday evening with the remaining ten candidates having their chance to prove why they should be America's next president.

Follow how the debate progressed in the liveblog below

Please allow a moment for our liveblog to load

The president has seemingly dashed hopes that he will be live-tweeting the debate.

As he flies to Japan for the G20 summit, Mr Trump has said he is "off to save the free world". A man who makes such grandiose statements may not be able to hold himself back from commenting on the debate.

Chris Stevenson27 June 2019 00:32

Bernie Sanders is appearing at tomorrow's debate, but he is making sure he is put out his platform before tonight's starts.

Chris Stevenson27 June 2019 00:46

From Clark Mindock in Miami:

The “Trump train” — a group of supporters who literally travelled to Miami by train — has arrived. They are protesting socialism on one side but have been by some folks preaching on the other side of the road.

To be clear: Neither side is pro Democrat - but they are both angry with each other, and police have been sent out to keep them apart."

Chris Stevenson27 June 2019 00:56

Donald Trump is now attacking Joe Biden who is debating tomorrow,. about a 1994 crime bill that has become a mill around his neck.

The 1994 crime bill led to increased incarceration rates across America – especially within African-American and Latino communities. Mr Biden has played down his role, especially as Democrats are now pushing for criminal justice reform.

Chris Stevenson27 June 2019 01:12

Here is a photo of the scene around the Democrat debate, showing what Clark was describing a couple of posts earlier.

Chris Stevenson27 June 2019 01:19

Donald Trump is now trumpeting Australia's hardline immigration policy and says "much can be learned!"

At least two of the images below are from Australian government campaigns from 2014.

Chris Stevenson27 June 2019 01:28

The threshold to qualify for tonight's debate was to poll at at least one per cent in three national polls and have more than 65,000 individual donations.

If the polling cut-off was slightly higher, we would be looking at nine candidates, not 20 over the two nights.

Chris Stevenson27 June 2019 01:37

The president is clearly trying to steal the thunder of his Democrat rivals:

"Donald Trump has bought some of the web's most prime real estate to fundraise for his 2020 re-election campaign - apparently hoping to capitalise on two nights of Democratic debate.

Campaign ads currently appear across YouTube's homepage masthead, a few hours before the site livestreams tonight's Democratic debate.

"At 9pm tonight [the debate start time] my campaign team is bringing me an updated list of my supporters," Trump says in one ad. "I hope I'll see your name on the list." The ad then ask supporters to send a text message to a phone number to be added to the list."

Chris Stevenson27 June 2019 01:45

The debate begins and Elizabeth Warren is first up - she hits her usual campaign line of "structural change".

Chris Stevenson27 June 2019 02:05

Senator Amy Klobuchar is into the issue of student debt - she talks about ensuring people can use community colleges.

Chris Stevenson27 June 2019 02:06

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