Primary Debates

Sixth Debate: PBS NewsHour/POLITICO Thursday, December 19, 2019 in Los Angeles, CA.

Yang | Buttigieg | Warren | Biden| Sanders | Klobuchar | Steyer   Screen Grab from PBS

8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PST) at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA.

Sponsor:  PBS NewsHour and POLITICO.

Candidates:  Biden, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Sanders, Steyer, Warren, Yang.

Moderators:  PBS NewsHour anchor and managing editor Judy Woodruff, POLITICO chief political correspondent Tim Alberta, PBS NewsHour senior national correspondent Amna Nawaz and White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor.

Audience:

Broadcast:  On PBS stations nationwide, with simulcast on NPR and Westwood One. It will also be simulcast live on CNN, CNN International and CNN en Español, live-streamed online at CNN.com and will be available across mobile devices via CNN’s apps for iOS and Android, via CNNgo apps for Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire, Chromecast and Android TV, and SiriusXM Channels 116, 454, 795.  Additionally, the debate will be streamed across PBS NewsHour’s and POLITICO’s digital and social platforms...

Format:  No opening statements; opens with moderator questions for the candidates. 1:15 for responses to moderator questions and :45 for rebuttals and follow ups. 1:00 closing statements for each candidate.  Three breaks during the broadcast, totaling 11 minutes.

Overview:  Impeachment has dominated the news recently, as the House voted for two articles of impeachment yesterday (+) and the Senate began to grapple with its process earlier today (+).  Also setting the stage were a couple of labor disputes; the first forced a move away from the initial venue at UCLA and the second required intense negotiations to resolve so the debate could proceed at LMU. Seven candidates qualified and were on stage, the fewest thus far.  The podium order put the youngest two candidates on the left, the oldsters in the middle, and the in-their-60s candidates on the right.  There were some sharp exchanges between the candidates.  The most memorable barb came when Warren pointed out that Buttigieg "just recently had a fundraiser that was held in a wine cave full of crystals and served $900 a bottle wine."  Sanders had the most speaking time, just over 20 minutes, closely followed by Klobuchar, Warren and Buttigieg; Steyer and Yang trailed.

	Sanders	Klobuchar	Warren	Buttigieg	Biden	Steyer	Yang
ABC News	20:02	19:48	19:28	19:18	16:08	11:26	10:44
CNN	20:18	19:54	19:23	19:12	15:28	11:46	10:47
NYTImes	20:30	19:53	19:36	19:33	15:28	11:50	10:56

Viewership was the lowest of the six debates, a "combined television audience of 6.171 million viewers," one-third on PBS stations and two-thirds on CNN; there were as well 8.4 million total live streams.

Post-Debate  |  Video  |  Transcript