The third Democratic presidential debate is coming tonight, and while there will still be 10 candidates on stage, this time all of the top candidates will be together. That means no suffering through former Rep. John Delaney and his ilk, but it also means that the moderators will be able to use cheap gotcha questions to try to pit any of the front-runners against each other.
Former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren will be at center stage. Biden and Warren have yet to share a debate stage, which has had reporters salivating to set them up to attack each other, and Biden’s team has been suggesting he may go for it. Next will be Sens. Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders, then Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Andrew Yang (who is promising some big stunt), Sen. Cory Booker and former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, and, at the outside, former HUD Secretary Julián Castro and Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
Moderators have dominated the two previous debates to a sometimes unseemly extent (looking at you, Chuck Todd), so a key question is whether ABC and Univision's moderators will follow in the CNN and NBC moderators’ footsteps that way. George Stephanopoulos, David Muir, Linsey Davis, and Jorge Ramos should feel free—encouraged, even—to forge new ground by keeping it brief and by asking questions about the issues as issues, rather than framed as “[Opponent] says [mischaracterization of what opponent actually says]. Why do you think that’s dangerous?” or “Some people [Republicans] say [policy] is socialism. Please respond.” But that may be a lot to hope for, and in any case, with 10 candidates on stage, we can’t expect much in the way of actual debate. Instead, many of the candidates will be looking for a single breakout moment to boost themselves.
The debate airs 8 PM to 11 PM ET on ABC and Univision. It will stream on ABCNews.com and its apps, plus Hulu Live, The Roku Channel, Facebook Watch, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube, Apple News, and Twitter.