NEW: Sen. Elizabeth Warren arrives at Texas Southern University in Houston for ABC News' DemDebate.
The 10 highest-polling candidates will appear for a single night of debate in Houston hosted by ABC News and Univision -- the smallest roster yet in the third matchup of Democratic National Committee-sanctioned primary debates, with a field that still counts 20.
Biden's team downplayed the suggestion that his recent missteps on the trail were having an impact, and repeated their belief that voters know who he is, and that they will watch him on the trail and make their own determination on whether his age is an issue. "If you look at past primaries, This is exactly what happens on the Republican and the Democratic side. I'm very excited about tonight, what I know will happen tonight is we're going to talk about issues. No one's nobody's gonna be talking about hand size tonight. We're going to talk about how we reduce, how we address the gun epidemic, we’lll have a number of victims and family members there.
"You know, we have a president, as everybody has acknowledged here, every day is ripping at the social fabric of this country, but no one man has the capacity to rip that apart," former Vice President Joe Biden said in his opening pitch at the second Democratic debate."It’s too strong. We’re too good … Mr. President, this is America. And we are stronger and great because of this diversity, Mr. President, not in spite of it.
Much like in 2008, the 2020 contest could see a state-by-state battle for the nomination -- with each caucus and primary bringing a different front-runner and resetting the path to victory. "Medicare for All will fix that and that's why I'll fight for it," said Warren about the legislation introduced by Sanders and seen by some as a more comprehensive replacement for Obama’s signature piece of legislation, the Affordable Care Act.
Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, too, challenged Biden over Obama-era immigration policies on that stage, without using Obama’s name. South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg echoed Biden’s sentiment to reporters in Las Vegas days after the debate, saying,"[I’m] a little puzzled that when we're all running against President Trump, some folks felt the need to run against President Obama.
Buttigieg, who touts a refrain fueled with urgency, said over the weekend in New Hampshire,"None of us can afford to wait to act on our current problems, because they're becoming a crisis … It's not enough to think up a good policy. We have to unify Americans around these solutions or nothing will actually get done."
Booker, who is looking to assemble support by inspiring his audience, told the New Hampshire Democratic Party state convention over the weekend:"Beating Donald Trump is the floor it is not the ceiling. Beating Donald Trump gets out of the valley, but it does not get us to the mountaintop. I want to go to the mountaintop."
"I don't want to be the president for half of America, I want to be the president for all of America," she said Saturday after her speech to the New Hampshire Democratic Party.
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