The third Democratic presidential debate took place Thursday, Sept. 12. Here are the highlights from Houston.
All times local.
9:55 p.m. – Biden took on the most fire during debate
Early front-runner Joe Biden took on the most fire at Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate, and former Obama Housing Secretary Julián Castro was the most explicit in arguing it was time for a new generation.
Castro also seemed to allude to speculation about the 76-year-old Biden’s mental acuity during an exchange about health care. When Biden denied that his health plan required people to buy into Medicare, Castro exclaimed, “Are you forgetting what you said two minutes ago?”
Sen. Bernie Sanders faced sharp criticism about his universal health care plan from several candidates, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren was more in the background than in prior debates but didn’t damage herself.
The likely result is little change in a primary that has been remarkably static for months.
9:30 p.m. – Candidates discuss plans for fixing U.S. education
Democratic presidential contender Andrew Yang says he supports a mix of options, including charter schools, in trying to fix the nation’s education system.
The former tech entrepreneur said at Thursday night’s debate that he is “pro-good school.” Yang also said that his proposed “Freedom Dividend” would help lower-income families support their children’s educational needs while alleviating teachers already overburdened because many are going beyond classroom instruction, compensating for support some students aren’t getting at home.
Several candidates, including Pete Buttigieg (BOO’-tuh-juhj), Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, advocated for raising teacher salaries — something Cory Booker noted that “we actually did it” as mayor of Newark, New Jersey.
Both Warren and Bernie Sanders promoted student debt cancellation plans. Harris, a graduate of a historically black university or college, noted her proposal to put $2 billion toward the institutions’ teacher training programs, drawing applause from the audience at Texas Southern University, a Houston HBCU.
9:20 p.m. – Sanders refuses to call Maduro a dictator
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is again refusing to call Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro a “dictator,” calling him instead “a vicious tyrant” at Thursday night’s Democratic primary debate.
Sanders, who identifies as a democratic socialist, is also calling a question from the moderator asking him to contrast his vision of socialism with Maduro’s government “deeply unfair. He says he supports Canada’s and Scandinavia’s policies of universal health care and offering paid family leave and a living wage, as well as wresting control over major institutions from a small number of wealthy Americans.
Maduro’s 2018 reelection has been disputed, and the United States has recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the legitimate leader of Venezuela. His leadership has seen the country fall into economic and political upheaval, with residents facing food shortages and the Venezuelan currency losing value.
9:15 p.m. – Buttigieg slams Trump treating ‘troops as props’
The only combat veteran on the Democratic presidential debate stage in Houston is reminding the audience that many new military inductees were newborns when the U.S. was attacked 18 years ago.
South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s comments on Thursday came the day after the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The debate was an opportunity for him to bring up his proposal to seek an authorization for the use of military force with a built-in three-year sunset that Congress would be required to renew.
Buttigieg says, “We have got to put an end to endless war.”
Buttigieg also says that President Donald Trump treats “troops as props, or worse, tools for his own enrichment.” That final dig is an allusion to the Trump administration’s rerouting of U.S. military personnel to overnight stays at his Trump Turnberry golf resort in Scotland.
8:45 p.m. – Buttigieg jabs Trump over trade war with China
Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg says President Donald Trump “clearly has no strategy” in his trade war with China.
The South Bend, Indiana, mayor and other candidates were asked during Thursday’s debate in Houston about the tariffs Trump has imposed on China. The country has retaliated with tariffs that have hit U.S. farmers and some other industries hard.
Trump has scoffed at Buttigieg’s candidacy, often saying he’d like to see the 37-year-old make a deal with Chinese leader Xi Jinping (shee jihn-peeng).
Buttigieg says, “I’d like to see him make a deal with Xi Jinping.” He says, “Wasn’t that supposed to happen in, like, April?”
Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar also was critical of Trump, saying he’s treating farmers and workers “like poker chips in one of his bankrupt casinos.”
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8:35 p.m. – Several candidates say they would loosen Trump immigration restrictions
Several of the Democrats seeking their party’s presidential nomination say they would loosen restrictions on immigration put into place under the Trump administration.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said at Thursday’s debate that she would expand pathways to citizenship, blaming current problems on the United States’ withdrawal of aid to Central America. She says “a crisis that Donald Trump has created and hopes to profit from politically.”
Former tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang noted his status as the son of immigrants and called immigration “positive for our economic and social dynamism” and pledged to return immigration levels to those of the Obama administration.
Asked if President Donald Trump’s supporters are racist, given the president’s references to Mexican immigrants as rapists and criminals, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg said, “Anyone who supports this is supporting racism.”
8:25 p.m. – Biden: ‘I stand with Barack Obama all 8 years’
Former Vice President Joe Biden is dismissing questions about the Obama administration’s record of deportations by touting the former Democratic president’s effort to open doors to immigrants.
Instead of answering whether the deportations were a mistake, Biden noted Thursday during the Democratic presidential debate Obama’s support of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and a path to citizenship for people in the country illegally.
Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro pounced on Biden, accusing him of standing by Obama when it suits him but sidestepping the administration’s blemishes.
Castro says, “He wants to take credit for Obama’s work, but doesn’t want to answer any questions.”
Biden shot back angrily, “I stand with Barack Obama all eight years, good, bad, indifferent.”
8:20 p.m. – Will O’Rourke mandate gun buybacks? ‘Hell yes’
Former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke says “hell yes” he will institute mandatory buybacks for some machine guns if elected president.
In one of the biggest applause lines of the Thursday night presidential debate, O’Rourke described in vivid detail how bullets shot by semi-automatic rifles are designed to “shred everything inside your body.”
He said that if a gun is meant to “kill people on a battlefield … hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15s, your AK-47s.” While O’Rourke supports mandatory gun buybacks, other candidates believe such a program should be voluntary.
8:15 p.m. – Candidates praise O’Rourke
Several of Beto O’Rourke’s fellow Democratic presidential hopefuls are praising him for the support he showed for residents of his hometown following a massacre there last month.
Former Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday on the debate stage that how the former Texas congressman “handled what happened in his hometown is meaningful,” a line that drew applause from the Houston crowd.
A white nationalist killed 22 people and wounded about two dozen others in the Aug. 3 mass shooting in El Paso, Texas. Following the violence, O’Rourke stepped away from the campaign trail for nearly two weeks to spend time supporting the community.
California Sen. Kamala Harris also said, “Beto, God love you for standing so courageously in the face of that tragedy.”
8:10 p.m. – Biden says no one should be jailed for drug problems
Former Vice President Joe Biden says “nobody should be in jail” for nonviolent crimes or for drug problems.
At the Democratic presidential debate in Houston on Thursday, Biden is touting his criminal justice reform plan, which would exonerate drug possession offenders and put drug rehabilitation ahead of jail time for such offenders.
Biden is also touting his role in the 1994 crime bill, often used as a strike against him by his rivals, for its introduction of drug courts aimed specifically at minor drug offenses.
And when the debate turned to mass shootings, Biden said he defeated the National Rifle Association by leading the 25-year-old crime bill’s ban on assault weapons.
8:05 p.m. – Trump says more people probably watching his speech than debate
President Donald Trump says more people are probably tuning into his speech in Baltimore than are watching Democratic presidential hopefuls on the debate stage in Texas.
Trump said people “should be watching the debate, but they’re probably watching this.” His speech was aired on CSPAN, while ABC aired the debate.
The candidates in Texas have mentioned him frequently, including on issues of racism and shootings. Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke called Trump “a mortal threat” to people of color in the United States and accused him of inspiring the actions of the El Paso gunman who killed 22 people.
8:05 p.m. – Harris defends criminal justice record
Kamala Harris is vocally defending her criminal justice record during Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate in Houston.
The California senator has taken flak since beginning her campaign for what some activists have described as an insufficiently progressive record during her prosecutorial career, culminating with service as the state’s attorney general. But Harris has since rolled out a detailed criminal justice reform proposal, including the elimination of federal mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders — a policy blamed for increasing mass incarceration.
Harris said on Thursday that, as she became a prosecutor, “I made a decision that if I was going to have the ability to reform the system, I would try to reform it from the inside.”
8 p.m. – Candidates outline plans to address racism
Democratic presidential candidates are outlining their plans to address racism in the nation and attacking President Donald Trump as they do so.
At Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate, Beto O’Rourke called Trump “a mortal threat” to people of color in this country as he calls on Congress to pass a bill giving reparations to the descendants of slaves.
Julián Castro says white supremacy “is a growing threat to this country,” and he adds, “we have to root it out.”
And Pete Buttigieg (BOO’-tuh-juhj) says the nation’s issues of systemic racism ” preceded this president, and even when we defeat him, it will be with us.”
7:55 p.m. – Some candidates call on rivals to stop attacking one another
Ten candidates are meeting Thursday in Houston for the third presidential primary debate.
The night kicked off with sometimes-fiery exchanges about “Medicare for All,” the health care overhaul backed by Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and some other candidates.
Former Vice President Joe Biden says it’s too expensive. He wants to build on “Obamacare” to expand coverage to those who want it.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar agreed, saying, “A house divided cannot stand.”
7:50 p.m. – Castro accuses Biden of fumbling comments
Former Obama Housing Secretary Julian Castro has accused former Vice President Joe Biden of fumbling comments on his own health care reform plan.
During Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate in Houston, Castro said Biden was “forgetting already what you said just two minutes ago” when he claimed that 10 million people would not be left in a coverage gap under his health care reforms but would be automatically enrolled.
Castro says President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act vision “was not to leave 10 million people uncovered.”
7:45 p.m. – Biden and Sanders sharply battle over Medicare for All
Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders are sharply battling over “Medicare for All” at Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate in Houston.
Biden says, “For a socialist, you’ve got a lot more confidence in corporate America than I do.”
When Sanders pushed back, invoking cancer treatment, Biden replied that “I know a lot about cancer — it’s personal to me.” Biden’s son Beau died of brain cancer in 2015.
7:40 p.m. – Biden targets Warren
He said Thursday at the third Democratic debate that “This is about candor, honesty,” suggesting Warren’s plan to increase income taxes on wealthier Americans by 2% falls far short of the estimated $30 billion the plan would cost.
Biden says it’s not a bad idea if you like it. But he says, “I don’t like it.”
Warren is responding by saying people will pay premiums to the government instead of to health insurance companies, adding, “I’ve never actually met anyone who likes their insurance company.”
7:35 p.m. – Affordable Care Act vs. Medicare for All
Joe Biden is evoking former President Barack Obama and his signature policy achievement as a contrast to rivals Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.
Biden is committing to building on the Affordable Care Act with a public option, while both Warren and Sanders have championed the farther-reaching “Medicare for All” policy goal.
7:25 p.m. – O’Rourke says El Paso shooter was “inspired” by Trump
Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke claims the perpetrator of last month’s mass shooting in his hometown of El Paso, Texas, was “inspired to kill by our president.”
O’Rourke made the comment during his opening statement in the Democratic debate Thursday.
Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh replied on Twitter that O’Rourke is “as desperate as he can be.”
But the words echoed some of the views Trump has expressed on immigration, Democrats and the media.
7:10 p.m. – Andrew Yang announces giveaway
Yang said during Tuesday night’s Democratic primary debate that he will randomly choose 10 families to receive $12,000 over the next year that will come from his campaign funds. If elected president, Yang has proposed what he calls a “Freedom Dividend,” which would give every citizen 18 and older $1,000 each month, something Yang says would address poverty and help Americans cover basic needs.
7:05 p.m. – Harris’ message for Trump
7 p.m. – Debate kicks off
The third debate of the Democratic presidential primary is underway with the top candidates sharing the debate stage for the first time.
The three have not been on stage together during previous debates, which were split over two nights. Tougher requirements to qualify for the debate stage winnowed the number of candidates this time, resulting in a one-night debate.
Also debating are Sens. Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar and Cory Booker, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg (BOO’-tuh-juhj), former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro and businessman Andrew Yang.
5:20 p.m. – Trump weighs in
Trump said Thursday that he thinks he’ll face former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren or Sen. Bernie Sanders next year. He says, “It’s going to be one of those three.”
Trump says he’s going to catch up on the Democratic debate once he returns from Baltimore, where he is traveling to address congressional Republicans on Thursday evening.
He says, “It’s going to be very interesting. I’m going to have to watch it as a rerun.”
4:30 p.m. – Harris seeks to find her lane
Kamala Harris will seek to affirmatively define her lane in the Democratic presidential primary at the Thursday debate in Houston, an adviser said hours before it began.
The preview is a tacit acknowledgment of one of Harris’s struggles. After a strong first debate late June, the California Democrat has had a rough summer and fallen to a distant fourth place in the polls amid questions about what her political philosophy is. She has sought to court ultra-progressive voters as well as moderates in the primary.
12:18 p.m. – Warren asks Amazon to drop contractors
Elizabeth Warren is calling out Amazon.com Inc. for “ignoring labor laws and fostering work conditions that are detrimental to the safety and basic humanity of its workers.”
The presidential candidate and Massachusetts senator on Thursday demanded that Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos drop contractors that violate labor laws and enforce safety standards to protect delivery drivers and the general public.
“Amazon’s pursuit of larger profit margins, increasingly unsustainable delivery expectations, and methods to avoid regulatory and legal oversight are alarming,” Warren said in a letter co-signed by Democratic Senators Richard Blumenthal and Sherrod Brown. The letter cited news reports, including a joint investigation by ProPublica and New York Times, that said Amazon contractors were involved in more than 60 accidents since June 2015, causing multiple deaths.
Warren asked Bezos to respond with details on Amazon’s policy on third-party drivers as well as whether the e-commerce giant has tried to thwart creation of a union. Warren last year, along with Bernie Sanders, criticized Bezos after reports of anti-union efforts at the company’s Whole Foods chain.
11:50 a.m. – Biden appears in digital ad
Just hours before Thursday night’s debate in Houston, former Vice President Joe Biden went up with a digital ad aimed at deflecting criticism of President Barack Obama’s administration.
Biden is shown saying in footage from a campaign event that Obama “was a president our children could and did look up to.” Biden says he was “proud to serve as his vice president, but never more proud than the day we passed health care.”
Other Obama administration accomplishments appear on-screen, including “protected dreamers” and “led on marriage equality.”
Some Democrats in early voting states like South Carolina, which holds the first primary vote in the South next year, have listed Biden’s proximity to Obama as among their top reasons for supporting him.
8:36 a.m. – Top contenders will be on one stage
The top Democratic presidential contenders will finally be on one debate stage Thursday in Houston as Joe Biden tries to solidify his early lead over Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
The ABC News debate has 10 candidates altogether and will air on a broadcast network with a post-Labor Day uptick in interest in the race. That could give candidates their largest audience yet as the campaigning heads into the fall.
It’s also the first time Warren and Biden will appear on the same stage.
But the campaigns say that doesn’t necessarily mean the three-hour debate will end up being a direct clash between the progressive Massachusetts senator and the more centrist former vice president.
8:13 a.m. – Trump Tries to Upstage Debate With Banner, Ads
The president’s re-election campaign plans to deploy an aerial banner and full page ads in the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News ahead of the third Democratic primary debate at Texas Southern University.
The ads will contrast Democrats’ “disastrous plans for America with President Trump’s clear record of accomplishments,” according to a campaign release.
The newspaper ads take on some of the Democrats’ positions on private health insurance, the fossil fuel industry, and regulation.
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