How to Watch the November Democratic Debate

Is anyone learning anything new from the Democratic debates? Does anyone even know the full list of candidates who are still in this historically large race? Are 90-second prepared speeches any way to educate a national audience on the intricacies of health care policy? Is there a worse word to bring to political analysis than “zinger”? Did I have any idea what I was getting myself into when I volunteered to write these posts in early summer?

The answer to all these questions is no. And yet we press on with the fifth—fifth!—Democratic presidential primary debate. There are seven more after this.

Tonight’s debate will once again feature 10 of the top Democratic candidates, who will be taking the stage in Atlanta at 9 pm Eastern. MSNBC and The Washington Post cohost the festivities this time around.

Who’s On Stage

The Democratic National Committee last week announced 10 candidates had met the qualifying criteria for tonight’s debate, which have expanded yet again since last month. Regardless, the thresholds are meaningless if Tom Steyer can buy his way onto the stage with Facebook ads.

The 10 candidates that made the cut are, in alphabetical order:

  • Joe Biden, former vice president
  • Cory Booker, US senator from New Jersey
  • Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana
  • Tulsi Gabbard, US representative from Hawaii
  • Kamala Harris, US senator from California
  • Amy Klobuchar, US senator from Minnesota
  • Bernie Sanders, US senator from Vermont
  • Tom Steyer, billionaire
  • Elizabeth Warren, US senator from Massachusetts
  • Andrew Yang, tech entrepreneur

There are still other candidates in the Democratic field, technically. In fact, two more people, for whatever reason, have decided to throw their names into the hat since last month’s debate: Michael Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor, and Deval Patrick, the former Massachusetts governor.

How to Watch

Unlike the presidential debates, which are simulcast across all the major networks, primary debates—for either party—are hosted by a rotating cast of news organizations. The fifth Democratic debate is being cohosted by MSNBC and The Washington Post at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta. The moderators are MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Andrea Mitchell, and Kristen Welker, as well as the Post’s Ashley Parker.

The debate will be broadcast live on MSNBC, and it will stream for free on msnbc.com and washingtonpost.com starting at 9 pm Eastern. Note that you will not need a cable or other subscription login to watch online tonight—the DNC’s partners for all these debates have agreed to make them as accessible as possible.

To that end, there are still more options for watching the debate live. It will be available on mobile devices via the respective NBC News and Washington Post apps for iOS and Android. The NBC News app is also available on Apple TV, Roku, and Amazon Fire TV. Finally, you can listen to live audio of the debate on SiriusXM Channel 118 and TuneIn, a radio streaming service.

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