Sanders and Clinton trade barbs at Democratic debate over foreign policy, race relations – as it happened

In an exchange over the future of Obamacare and potential for universal health care, Hillary Clinton cites her history of fighting for that program in the early 1990s. “Having been in the trenches, fighting for this, I believe strongly that we have to guarantee health care,” but, Clinton cautions, “We are not England, we are not France, we inherited a system that was set up in World War II.”

12 Feb 201621.12 EST

Scott Bixby

The introductions of tonight’s debates highlight what will likely be a focus of the entire night: structural economic inequality and its impact on the electoral system.

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“We have today a campaign finance system which is corrupt, which is undermining American democracy, which allows Wall Street millionaires and billionaires to pour money” into a corrupt campaign system, opens Bernie Sanders. “Aligned with a corrupt campaign finance system,” Sanders says, “is a rigged economy, an economy where ordinary Americans are working longer hours for shorter wages and yet they are seeing almost all new income and new wealth.”

African Americans receive the brunt of this structural inequality, Sanders argues: “They see kids getting arrested for marijuana, getting imprisoned, getting a criminal record, while they see executives on Wall Street pay millions of dollars in settlements and get no prosecution at all.” Americans, Sanders concludes, “are tired of establishment politics, tired of establishment economics - they want a political revolution.”

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Hillary Clinton piggybacks on Sanders’ inequality narrative. “I’m running for president to knock down all the barriers that are holding Americans back,” Clinton says, “especially those who have been left out and left behind.”

“Yes, the economy is rigged in favor of those on top,” Clinton continues, echoing a standard part of Sanders’ platform and stump speech. “We have to do much more to ensure that Wall Street never wrecks Main Street again.” Clinton pays close attention to racial minorities: “African Americans who face discrimination in the job market, education, housing and the criminal justice system” are in particular need of help.

A quick note on tonight’s programming: This is the first all-female moderated presidential debate in Democratic campaign history, as well as the first all-female moderating team of this campaign cycle on either side.

Here. We. GO.

A hint of the possibility of fireworks at tonight’s debate: Bernie Sanders telling Stephen Colbert that both Democratic and Republican voters have a reason to be angry.

12 Feb 201620.34 EST

David Smith

In non-Clinton v. Sanders news, the Guardian’s David Smith reports from Columbia, South Carolina, where Jeb bush has detailed his older brother’s new role in his foundering presidential campaign:

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Jeb Bush has spoken about his brother George W Bush’s decision to make a long-awaited campaign debut in South Carolina on Monday.

“I’ve never had this problem that you all apparently thought I had: I’m a Bush, proud of it,” he told reporters after an event in Columbia tonight. “I love my brother, love my dad, love my mother. It’s part of who I am. I have a record that I share obviously as governor of the state of Florida and I’m focused on the detailed plans I’ve laid out to lift our economy up and keep us strong.

“My brother will be part of that story and I’m proud of the fact he’s coming and honoured. This is the first time that he’s really stepped out in the political realm since he was president. I think there’ll be a lot of interest in what he has to say.”

The former president will speak at a rally at the North Charleston Coliseum and Convention Centeron Mondayevening. After disappointment in Iowa and mediocrity in New Hampshire, Jeb Bush is hoping his brother will help capitalise on the family’s traditional strength in South Carolina. The toxic legacy of the Iraq war, which many analysts blame for the rise of Isis, does not appear to have dented the 43rd president’s popularity in some circles.

Bush said: “He’s the last Republican that was president. He is the most popular Republican alive. He is my brother. He has made tough decisions as president. All of that I think is important for people to be reminded of and for him to come do this warms my heart and I think it’s important.”

The former governor also dismissed Florida rival Marco Rubio’s claim that he has more foreign policy experience. Bush said: “He goes to committees and passes amendments and talks about amendments to bills that never happen. I’ve been a CEO of the fourth largest state in the country, the head of the national guard – 12,000 men and women – I’ve lived overseas, I’ve travelled overseas, I’ve done business overseas, I have developed relationships with leaders overseas.

“... I’m pretty fluent on the issues of foreign policy and Marco can say he has a record but what would it be? That he goes to committee hearing and talks to people? That’s fine, that’s the job of a senator, but what is the record of accomplishment?”

Bush, who turns 63 today, was greeted with a chorus of “Happy birthday” when he arrives at a bare brick hall with paper lanterns and concrete floor in Columbia. Most visitors were forced to stand due to a lack of chairs at the chilly venue, which was far from full.

Bush once again attacked Donald Trump, deriding his “profanity, vulgarity and narcissism” and telling the audience: “He goes bankrupt four times and brags about playing the system. Yeah, tell that to the people who lost their jobs and the vendors who got stiffed.”

But he got the biggest applause of the night for this more optimistic line: “It’s not about me, it’s not about Donald Trump, it’s not about Hillary Clinton, it’s not about Bernie Sanders. It’s about people being able to pursue their dream as they see fit.”

12 Feb 201620.34 EST

Lauren Gambino

One hour before the Democratic candidates are to take the stage in Milwaukee, dozens of fast food workers staged a strike just outside the press filing center at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where the sixth debate will be held, demanding a $15 per hour minimum wage and union rights.

Raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour is one of Bernie Sanders’s core policy proposals. Hillary Clinton, however, has said she supports raising “the federal minimum wage to $12”, but has also commended the Fight for 15 movement.

Carrying signs and banging, they chanted: “you want our vote, come get our vote.” There were also protester carrying signs that read “Immigrant Justice” and “Black Lives Matter”.

This is the group’s second time protesting in Milwaukee. After they protested outside the GOP debate in here in November, the first question directed at candidates that night was about the fast-food workers demands. They have also protested in Iowa during the caucuses and New Hampshire during the primary.

12 Feb 201620.34 EST

Lauren Gambino

The Guardian’s Lauren Gambino files from Milwaukee, where a powerful new advertisement in support of Bernie Sanders just dropped:

Erica Garner appears in a powerful new ad for Bernie Sanders. The ad was released on Thursday, hours after civil rights leader and US congressman John Lewis formally endorsed Hillary Clinton and downplayed Sanders’ activism in the movement.

In the ad, the daughter of Eric Garner, a black man from Staten Island who died after being placed in a police chokehold, explains to her young daughter that the fight to end racial injustice is still not over.

“Recently she just learned about Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King,” Erica Garner explains. “She asked me, ‘Did Rosa Parks not give up her seat for a white man?’ And I said yes. She said, ‘But those were in the old days, right mommy?’ And I had to explain to her that it’s not really over.”

Clinton’s campaign recently announced that Eric Garner’s mother – Erica Garner’s grandmother – will campaign for her in coming weeks. Carr joins a group of mothers who have lost children to gun violence, including the mothers of Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis and Sandra Bland.

12 Feb 201620.34 EST

What you need to know about tonight's Democratic presidential debate

Scott Bixby

Good evening!

If you’re joining us tonight, that only means one thing: you’re as excited as we are about the first Democratic presidential debate since the New Hampshire primary highlighted major fault lines within the party!

(Well, that, or you’ve already caught up on both American Crime and American Crime Story, the ostensible similarities and crucial differences between which are actually a pretty good metaphor for this Democratic campaign cycle, if you squint at them.)

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This debate was originally intended to be the first face-to-face meeting between former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and Vermont senator Bernie Sanders since the Iowa caucus (victor: Clinton) and the New Hampshire primary (victory: Sanders), until pressure from grassroots liberals upset with the Democratic National Committee pushed for more debates - and for debates that weren’t scheduled on holiday weekends. (Speaking as one of the ink-stained scribes who documents these debates for posterity and who would occasionally like to go home and feed his goldfish, we curse those squeaky wheels for their gumption but applaud them for their fervor.)

Before we get into the he-said, she-said, let’s establish the Whos, the Whats, the Wheres, the Whens and, if at all possible, the Hows of tonight’s debate.

• Who’s debating/moderating/hosting? It’s not a crowded field tonight: Just Clinton and Sanders, whose two hours’ traffic on our stage will be moderated by Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff, co-anchors and co-managing editors of PBS NewsHour. PBS will host the debate, which will be simulcast by CNN and promoted with a partnership with Facebook. Yes, that means that Facebook-submitted questions will be asked of the candidates, and that the more thirsty debatewatchers amongst you (and us) will argue over which questioner is the cutest.
• What number debate is this? This is the sixth. (Sigh.)
• Where is the debate being held? Why, in the beautiful Helen Bader Concert Hall on the main campus of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in Milwaukee, Wisconsin! The concert hall contains 760 seats, an orchestra pit and was originally a synagogue.
• When is the debate? The debate will begin at nine p.m. Eastern Standard Time, and is expected to last two hours, although if Ifill and Woodruff take a cue from MSNBC’s Brian Williams, they’ll just tell the audience that it’s a 90-minute debate and cackle malevolently as those at home slowly realize that they’re going to have to pay their babysitter time and a half.
• How’s this gonna go? Aggressively, we think! The last Democratic debate was arguably the most intense and policy-focused of the 2016 election cycle, with high-minded arguments about the nature of progressivism punctuated by accusations of “smearing” from both sides. Clinton maintains a much easier path to the nomination, particularly ahead of a slew of Southern states that might not take so kindly to Sanders’ Yankee socialism, but the Vermont senator’s success in New Hampshire laid bare some serious demographic challenges facing the Clinton campaign, particularly with young people, liberals and women.

We’ll be liveblogging the whole thing, so sit back, relax, pop some corn, read our non-debate campaign liveblog from earlier today for context, and get ready for a Democratic Götterdämmerung of epic proportions.