Night one of the second Democratic presidential debate is in the books, and it’s time to get ready for night two. Wednesday night’s debate will again feature an assortment of frontrunners and lower-tier candidates trying to achieve a breakthrough. Former Vice President Joe Biden will take center stage, flanked by Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory Booker. The outer edges of the lineup will include former HUD Secretary Julián Castro, Andrew Yang, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Michael Bennet, Gov. Jay Inslee, and Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Pre-debate speculation—and most likely the moderators’ efforts to get the candidates to savage each other—has focused on the fact that Harris and Booker have both been critical of Biden’s record and recent rhetoric on race, with Harris bringing those issues to the fore in the previous debate. Biden’s advisers are presumably working to get him to respond more effectively this time around.
Other candidates will be most focused on finding a way to get the attention needed to help them qualify for the next round of debates. Biden, Harris, and Booker have all qualified, while Castro and Yang have met the donor qualification but need more qualifying polls: two in Castro’s case, one in Yang’s. In the previous debate, Castro used former Rep. Beto O’Rourke as a foil. With O’Rourke having debated Tuesday night, the question is whether Castro will train his sights on a different competitor or change strategy.
Once again, the debate will begin at 8 PM ET and go on altogether too long (two and a half hours) after starting with too much padding and filler material, and will feature way too much of the moderators cutting people off to meet the absurdly short answer times. It will be aired on host network CNN and can be streamed from CNN.com without a cable login.