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Seven candidates were on stage for the sixth Democratic debate: <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/candidates/joe-biden/" target=_blank>former vice president Joe Biden</a>; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/candidates/pete-buttigieg/" target=_blank>South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg</a>; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/candidates/amy-klobuchar/" target=_blank>Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)</a>; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/candidates/bernie-sanders/" target=_blank>Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)</a>; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/candidates/tom-steyer/" target=_blank>investor Tom Steyer</a>; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/candidates/elizabeth-warren/" target=_blank>Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)</a>; and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/candidates/andrew-yang/" target=_blank>entrepreneur Andrew Yang</a>.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/12/19/winners-losers-december-democratic-debate/?itid=lk_inline_manual_4" target=_blank>Winners and losers from the debate</a>

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/12/19/fact-checking-sixth-democratic-debate/?itid=lk_inline_manual_5" target=_blank>Fact-checking the sixth Democratic debate</a>

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/12/19/democratic-debate/#link-652NS7ARTM73JLZCIMQ4GM3CCY?itid=lk_inline_manual_6" target=_blank>Warren and Buttigieg clash sharply on money in politics</a>

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/12/19/democratic-debate/#link-BFQMC6I2QE5QLENH3TOHBJIHPM?itid=lk_inline_manual_7" target=_blank>Klobuchar challenges Buttigieg on accomplishments, electability </a>

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/12/19/democratic-debate/#link-DFQNBC54UQYNRBJOLPFXPBVUNY?itid=lk_inline_manual_8" target=_blank>Biden defends actions on Afghanistan</a>

Chris Carlson

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/policy-2020/quiz-which-candidate-agrees-with-me/" target=_blank>Answer policy questions to see which candidate agrees with you most</a>.

Warren and Sanders delivered similar closing remarks, weighing in on combating income inequality and fighting for working-class Americans. Warren touted her signature calls to combat corruption.

Biden ended by portraying himself as a the most electable candidate.

"Who has the best chance, the most likely chance, of defeating Donald Trump?" Biden asked. "Who can help elect Democrats to the United States Senate in states like North Carolina and Georgia?"

Yang closed by saying his campaign is growing because "we are laser-focused on solving the real problems that got Donald Trump elected in the first place."

Sean Sullivan

Asked what gift they'd give or whose forgiveness they'd ask for among the people on the stage, there was a stark gender divide.

Both of the women on the stage asked for forgiveness. "I know that sometimes I get really worked up," said Warren. She said the reason is the people she meets on the campaign trail — including a group she met in Nevada who are splitting a single insulin prescription three ways.

Klobuchar, too asked for forgiveness, for any one of the people on stage who might be upset with her.

Biden became emotional and appeared to reenact his childhood stutter as he quoted the problems that he says suffering people bring to him on the campaign trail. Yang said he would give out his book: "Elizabeth has done me the honor of starting to read my book. I would love to give you all a copy of my book," he said. And Steyer offered "the gift of team work."

Annie Linskey

Just moments after Sanders and Biden got into a heated exchange over health care, Sanders found himself at odds with Klobuchar on the same topic.

"If you want to cross a river over some troubled waters, you build bridge, you don't blow one up," said Klobuchar, arguing that Sanders's Medicare-for-all plans amounted to destruction of Obamacare.

Klobuchar also made a political case against Medicare-for-all, arguing that moderate House members and other centrist Democratic elected officials are not convinced it is the way to go.

"She took my name in vain," replied Sanders, somewhat lightheartedly, before defending his plan. He said his fight was not with the Democratic governor of Kentucky, whom Klobuchar mentioned, but with big and powerful pharmaceutical companies.

Sanders was asked if he would be in favor of smaller, focused health-care measures short of his Medicare-for-all. Warren, who had said she backed Sanders’s plan, has recently said she would be in favor of similar measures as a bridge to a single-payer plan.

But Sanders was steadfast. He said he would make the case to the American people about why his plan is needed.

"We're going to have the American people behind us, we will have Congress behind us."

But Biden said he doesn’t think Sanders is being realistic.

"Now tell me, you’re going to add 84% more, and there’s not going to be higher taxes? At least before, he was being honest about it," Biden said.

Cleve R. Wootson Jr.

Buttigieg focused on his own experience as a veteran of the war in Afghanistan when he was asked about the United States’ military commitments. "I thought I was one of the last troops, turning out the lights when I left, years ago," Buttigieg said.

But he said that there might have to be a small, special operations footprint left in some countries. He used the answer to argue that current authorizations for use of force should be re-authorized. "The folks that I served with deserve that," Buttigieg said. "They deserve the clarity of members of Congress, being able to summon the courage to take an [up] or down vote on whether they ought to be there in the first place."

And he committed to handling wars differently if he’s elected president: Authorizations to go to war would have a three-year sunset, he said. That would force Congress to regularly go on the record about staying in the fight.

Biden faced a question about the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/afghanistan-papers/afghanistan-war-confidential-documents/?itid=lk_inline_manual_37" target=_blank>The Washington Post’s "Afghanistan Papers,"</a> which detail the ways in which U.S. officials misled the public on the war in Afghanistan. The question prompted him to defend his divergence from others in the Obama administration who advocated a troop surge and more expansive operations in the country.

"I was on the opposite side of that from the Pentagon," Biden boasted.

Biden also drew criticism on national security policy from Sanders, who attacked him for voting to authorize the war in Iraq. Sanders then faced scrutiny for his initial support for military action in Afghanistan. Sanders said it was a mistake.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/afghanistan-papers/afghanistan-war-confidential-documents/?itid=lk_inline_manual_40" target=_blank>Read the Afghanistan Papers here</a>

As questions turned to how candidates would nominate federal judges, Buttigieg said the Supreme Court is personal for him because "my marriage exists by the grace of a single vote on that body." He said he’d appoint judges who believe in reproductive rights and reproductive freedom. He said he also expects them to understand "that voting rights are human rights."

"And I expect a level of respect for the rule of law that prevents this body from coming to be viewed as just one more partisan battlefield," he said.

The line of questioning began with Amy Klobuchar speaking about a federal judge she’d voted for who recently ruled on a pivotal piece of the Affordable Care Act.

"I think it is very important when we look at these judges to acknowledge that there are some of these judges that you think are going to be okay and they aren’t," Klobuchar said.

Yang offered a personal story when the debate turned to how each candidate would treat people with disabilities, jumping in to say that he has a son with special needs. He asked the audience members to raise their hands if they too have a family member or know families with members who have disabilities.

"Special needs children are going to become special needs adults in many cases," Yang said, arguing that the federal government needs to make them a priority. "We’re going to take this burden off of the communities and off of the schools — you do not have the resources to support kids like my son — and make it a federal priority, not a local one."

Warren also chimed in, leaning on her biography to explain that she was once a special-needs teacher and is therefore particularly interested in the issue. Warren taught for about a year in a New Jersey school and was asked to leave after she became pregnant. And, Warren said, she has a plan to increase funding for programs for disabled people.

Buttigieg and Warren, who have clashed sharply throughout the evening, traded blows about how far to go with tuition assistance.

Warren defended her plan to offer free tuition at public colleges and universities. "This is about money, but this is also about values," she said.

Buttigieg disagreed, saying, "I do think that if you're in that lucky top 10 percent, I still wish you well, I just want you to go ahead and pay your own tuition."

Warren shot back, charging that Buttigieg wants the wealthy to pay tuition for their children, while she wants them to underwrite the educations of all children.

For the second time Thursday evening, Klobuchar seized an opportunity to challenge Buttigieg, with whom she is competing for support in all-important Iowa. This time, she challenged his assertions that work his opponents have done in Washington hasn’t led to progress. She catalogued the achievements of Biden and her Senate colleagues, citing Warren’s creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Biden’s fundraising to cure cancer.

"So while you can dismiss committee hearings, I think this experience works. And I have not denigrated your experience as a local official. I have been one," Klobuchar said, and the audience gasped and chuckled, seemingly interpreting the line as Klobuchar denigrating Buttigieg’s experience as a local official.

"You know, I just think you should respect our experience when you look at how you evaluate someone who can get things done."

Buttigieg said Klobuchar had, indeed, denigrated his position as a local official. Then he revisited a point he wanted to make when Klobuchar first challenged him by arguing that his defense of the First Amendment was built on mere "talking points."

"You seemed to imply that our relationship to the First Amendment was a talking point, as if anyone up here has any more or less commitment to the Constitution than anybody else up here," Buttigieg, a veteran of the Naval Reserve, said. "Let me tell you about my relationship to the First Amendment. It is part of the Constitution that I raised my right hand and swore to defend with my life. That is my experience. And it may not be the same as yours, but it counts. Senator, it counts."

The argument swung back to Klobuchar, who argued that the Democratic nominee should be someone who "has actually won and been able to show that they can gather the support that you talk about, moderate Republicans and independents, as well as a fired up Democratic base-- and not just done it once."

"If you just go by vote totals, maybe what goes on in my city seems small to you. Want to talk about the capacity to win? Try putting together a coalition to bring you back to office with 80 percent of the vote as a gay dude [in] Mike Pence’s Indiana," Buttigieg said. Klobuchar then pointed out that when Buttigieg ran statewide (in his 2010 race for state treasurer) he lost by 20 points. The moderators turned the conversation elsewhere.

Chelsea Janes

"The idea of a two-cent tax on great fortunes in this country. Fifty million dollars and above for two cents …. I have a two-cent wealth tax proposed for millionaires and billionaires." — Warren

Warren twice pitched her "two-cent tax" on wealthy Americans, but she did not mention that for the richest Americans, the tab keeps getting higher.

<a href="https://elizabethwarren.com/plans/ultra-millionaire-tax">Warren’s "Ultra-Millionaire Tax"</a> would apply to households with a net worth of $50 million or more, essentially the wealthiest 75,000 households. (She misspoke when she said $50 billion.) They would be charged 2 percent of every dollar of net worth above $50 million, unless they’re billionaires.

Households with $1 billion or more in assets would start paying 3 percent on assets above $1 billion. At least that was in Warren’s first iteration of her tax plans. She said this tax would raise $2.75 trillion over 10 years. But to help fund her plan for universal health care, she recently announced that she would also charge another 3 percent to billionaires, for a total of 6 percent. So that’s six pennies.

"By asking billionaires to pitch in 6 cents on each dollar of net worth above $1 billion, we can raise an additional $1 trillion in revenue," <a href="https://elizabethwarren.com/plans/paying-for-m4a">Warren said</a> in explaining how she would fill the $20.5 trillion hole created by her Medicare-for-all proposal. While 6 percent a year may not seem like much, over 10 years it would quickly add up.

Glenn Kessler

"Your presence here, your campaign right now as we speak, is funded in part by money you transferred having raised it at those exact same big-ticket fundraisers you now denounce. Did it corrupt you, senator? Of course not." — Buttigieg

Fireworks were spotted at the debate when Warren attacked Buttigieg for courting high-dollar donors in the Democratic primary, something she has eschewed this year, decrying the influence of money in politics. ("Billionaires and wine caves should not pick the next president of the United States," she said, alluding to a Buttigieg event that apparently featured both.)

Buttigieg responded by noting that Warren seeded her presidential campaign with a sizable financial transfer from her 2018 Senate campaign. For that prior race, Warren did not have the same restrictive fundraising practices in place that she does now.

As we've reported, Warren did seek out contributions from high-dollar donors when she last ran for Senate. Then, after winning reelection, she transferred $10.4 million from her Senate committee to her presidential campaign, which allowed her to get a head start in the primary race.

A search of Warren's FEC records for the 2018 Senate race showed max contributions of $5,400 from the chief executives of DreamWorks and Yelp, media mogul Haim Saban, philanthropist Alexander Soros, Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, hedge fund owners and wealthy investors, and some donors who have given millions to the Democratic Party. Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, film director Steven Spielberg and actress Barbra Streisand each donated $2,700 to Warren’s Senate campaign.

We previously gave <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/09/30/are-sanders-warren-grassroots-funded/?itid=lk_inline_manual_75">Two Pinocchios to Warren</a> for claiming her presidential campaign was "100% grassroots-funded."

Salvador Rizzo

After heated exchanges over gender, age and fundraising that involved several of the candidates, Yang was asked a question on a new topic: immigration. He said he would move toward a permanent solution to help young undocumented immigrants known as "Dreamers."

Then, he quickly brought the conversation back to earlier topics.

"If you get too many men alone and leave us alone for a while, we kind of become morons," said Yang, voicing support for more female leadership.

He also referenced Buttigieg’s recent wine cave fundraiser, which has gotten a lot of attention in the debate, arguing that spreading more wealth to the American people would enable more women to run for office because they wouldn’t have to go "shake the money tree in the wine cave."

In tackling a question on immigration, Steyer said racism is at the heart of President Trump’s immigration policies.

In doing so, Steyer agreed with a constant stump-speech refrain of Bernie Sanders, that Trump is playing on Americans’ divisions for political benefit.

"I think it's important to note that this president is not against immigration, he's against immigration by non-white people," Steyer said.

Trump, he said, has "been trying to inflame his base and scare them that if in fact white people lose control of this country that they’re going to lose control of their lives."

"This is why three people have more wealth than the bottom half." — Sanders

Sanders is drawing on <a href="https://inequality.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/BILLIONAIRE-BONANZA-2017-Embargoed.pdf">a 2017 report</a> from the left-leaning Institute for Policy Studies, which said that three billionaires — Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos (who owns The Washington Post) and Warren Buffett — had total wealth of $248.5 billion, compared with $245 billion for the bottom 160 million of the United States. The wealth of the three men has gone up even more since then.

But people in the bottom half have essentially no wealth, as debts cancel out whatever assets they might have, according to <a href="https://eml.berkeley.edu/~saez/">Emmanuel Saez</a>, the University of California-Berkeley professor who is the pioneer in this field of research.

"The real scandal here is that the bottom half of the U.S. families owns essentially no wealth on net, because debts cancel out whatever small assets they may have, on average," he said in an email. "If you exclude cars (consumer durables), the wealth of the bottom 50% is actually slightly negative according to the most recent <a href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.federalreserve.gov_releases_z1_dataviz_dfa_distribute_chart_-23quarter-3A118-3Bseries-3ANet-2520worth-3Bdemographic-3Anetworth-3Bpopulation-3A1-2C3-2C5-2C7-3Bunits-3Alevels&d=DwMFaQ&c=RAhzPLrCAq19eJdrcQiUVEwFYoMRqGDAXQ_puw5tYjg&r=JaPko_GoFtqYYVPRFAaxQy_V_VnvgOAnOKzzBetdW-g&m=BoTZpa4WengSN715qRurFyA4WYiNG9AeVjaY1xOyuuQ&s=raA_UdJeO_dn4ZxIcvhV_C75QX6rN2nVk4uR_WMyw8I&e=">distributional Fed statistics. </a>You don’t even need to be a billionaire to actually own more than what the bottom half of Americans own! Billionaires in the Forbes 400 owned slightly less than 1% of total wealth back in 1982, they now <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-economics-080218-025852?journalCode=economics">own about 3.5% of total wealth</a>. That’s another alarming trend."

Warren, Buttigieg argue about wine caves, fundraising

The sharpest exchange of the evening so far came with Warren and Buttigieg arguing over fundraising practices. Warren noted that she is not headlining big-dollar fundraisers for herself, drawing a contrast with unnamed others in the field. Buttigieg noted the comment was directed at him and fired back, saying she’s pushing purity tests that are unhelpful.

The two have been trading jabs about previous corporate work and how their respective campaigns are funded for the past few weeks.

Warren described one of Buttigieg’s recent fundraisers, which was held in a wine cave in California that featured a massive crystal chandelier. "Billionaires in wine caves should not pick the next president of the United States," Warren said. Warren also accused him selling access to his time and stressed that he has not joined her in pledging not to appoint ambassadors who were donors.

Buttigieg noted that he’s the poorest candidate on the stage. "I’m the literally the only person on this stage who’s not a millionaire or a billionaire," he said. He asked Warren if he should turn down a hypothetical donation from her because she’s rich. "We need the support from everybody who is committed to helping us defeat Trump," he said.

And he noted that Warren used to raise money in the traditional way with large-dollar fundraisers behind closed doors. Warren transferred more than $10 million of funds from her Senate account to her presidential coffers including money raised at high dollar events.

"This is the problem with issuing purity tests you cannot yourself pass," Buttigieg said, adding at one point that former President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also raise money behind closed doors.

Biden (again) said he would not commit to run for just one term.

"No, I’m not willing to commit one way or another," said Biden, who is 77. If elected, he would be 82 years old when running for reelection. "I’m not even elected to one term yet, and let’s see where we are."

A Politico article earlier this month said that Biden had signaled to aides that he would only serve a single term. Shortly afterward, both Biden and his aides said he had never said that. He repeated that sentiment on the debate stage.

Former president Barack Obama’s recent comments that women make stronger leaders than men and that old men, in particular, cause problems when they don’t step aside, drew some blowback from Sanders, the oldest candidate in the field.

"I've got a lot of respect for Barack Obama," said Sanders, 78. "I think I disagree with him on this one. Maybe a little self-serving, but I disagree."

He went on to tout the importance of the policy platform he is running on and added, "The issue is not old or young, male or female. The issue is working people standing up."

Biden, who is 77, also had some thoughts on what his former boss said. "I’m going to guess he wasn’t talking about me either, number one," said Biden.

"Ninety-five percent of our customers are outside of our borders." — Klobuchar

This line from Klobuchar is a bit deceiving. Biden has used it, too, though not in this debate.

The U.S. population, standing at more than 320 million, rounds out to nearly 5 percent of the world population. Going only by this metric, yes, 95 percent of all the theoretical consumers of U.S. goods are “outside of our borders.”

But trade doesn’t work that way. As PolitiFact reported when Biden delivered the same line in July, "The vast majority of people across the world are quite poor and will not generally be in the market for American products." They rated the claim "<a href="https://www.politifact.com/global-news/statements/2016/jul/15/joe-biden/touting-trade-joe-biden-says-95-percent-worlds-con/">half true.</a>"

Near the end of a long discussion about China, Klobuchar suggested that one of the biggest problems with President Trump’s leadership abroad is his thin skin, as evidenced by his frustration when he heard other foreign leaders were laughing at him. When Klobuchar wrapped up her answer and moderators asked Buttigieg for comment, he made a subtle jab at the senator from Minnesota.

"I’m actually not worried about the president’s bad sense of humor when being made fun of. I’m worried that he’s echoing the vocabulary of dictators around the world," Buttigieg said. "When the American president refers to unfavorable press coverage as the product of the enemy of the people, democracy around the world gets weak. Freedom of the press, not just here at home, but around the world, gets weaker. It's one more reminder of what is at stake, not just here at home, but for world history."

As moderators prepared to move to a commercial break, Klobuchar asked to respond, implying that Buttigieg was merely parroting "talking points."

“I just want to make very clear, Mayor, that the freedom of the press is deep in my heart. My dad was a newspaperman,” said Klobuchar, who pointed out that she asked both of Trump’s attorneys general if they would commit to protecting journalists. “So, this is not just talking points. To me, this is the real world, and I think that experience that I will bring to the White House with protecting the First Amendment is worth more than any talking points.”

The conversation turned to China, and how candidates would handle the U.S. relationship with the other superpower. Buttigieg was asked if he would consider boycotting the 2020 Olympics, which are set to take place there.

"I think that any tool ought to be on the table, especially diplomatic, economic, and social tools like what you're describing," Buttigieg said. He also made a strong argument for potential isolation from the country. He said if the country becomes overly aggressive with Hong Kong protesters, he will send a message that "they will be isolated from the free world, and we will lead that isolation diplomatically, and economically."

Steyer went next and had a very different view. “We actually can’t isolate ourselves from China,” he said. The country will be a “frenemy” — and the United States, he said, must work with it, particularly if the United States wants to tackle climate change.

Biden also offered a nuanced answer. The United States needs to be ready to show power — and should move 60 percent of its sea power to the area, he said. "We have to be firm. We don’t have to go to war," Biden said.

Warren and Buttigieg, who have been attacking each other in recent weeks, agreed on at least one point: that Trump has embarrassed the United States on the world stage and his foreign policies have been harmful.

"I never want to see the American president looked at that way," Buttigieg said, arguing that foreign leaders do not respect the president.

Warren followed up on a question about whether she would close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility — she said she would — with a lengthy riff on how America has lost its standing across the globe because of Trump.

"We have to be an America that understands the difference and recognizes the difference between our allies … and the dictators who would do us harm," said Warren.

Biden turned a question about not closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, into an attempt to showcase his knowledge of foreign affairs. In recent weeks, Biden has tried to paint himself as the candidate who is best prepared to represent American issues on the international stage.

"The fact is that we in fact think it's the greatest, it is an advertisement for creating terrorists," Biden said in answer to the question about Guantanamo Bay, before pivoting to his stance on Israel.

This month, Biden was endorsed by former secretary of state John F. Kerry, who joined Biden in Iowa and touted the former vice president’s foreign policy bona fides.

In the first foreign policy question of the night, moderators asked Sanders how Israel’s expansion of settlements in Gaza would affect the way his would-be administration sent aid to the longtime U.S. ally. Sanders, who is Jewish and has been outspoken about the need to work for the security of Palestinians as well as Israel, reiterated that position.

"Israel has the right not only to exist, but to exist in peace and security. But what U.S. must be about is not just being pro-Israel. We must be pro-Palestinian as well," he said.

Sanders criticized Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he called a racist. He rued high unemployment rates in Gaza.

"What my foreign policy will be about is human rights, is democracy, is bringing people together in a peaceful way, trying to negotiate agreements, not endless wars with trillions of dollars of expenses," Sanders said.

Buttigieg, presented with the same question, called the situation in Gaza and elsewhere the result of the failure of President Trump’s leadership.

"This president’s refusal to lead is particularly disturbing in the case of Israel because he has infused domestic politics," Buttigieg said. "Making U.S. foreign policy choices in order to effectively interfere in Israeli domestic politics, acting as though that somehow makes him pro-Israel and pro-Jewish while welcoming white nationalists."

Yang was asked a question that’s been hanging over the debate for weeks: What message does it send that he is the only nonwhite candidate on the stage?

"It’s both an honor and disappointment to be the lone candidate of color on the stage," Yang said. He mentioned Sen. Kamala D. Harris, who recently dropped out. And, to applause, he predicted that Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) will participate in a subsequent debate.

Yang went on to note that black people and Latinos “have something much more powerful working against them than words, they have numbers.” He noted that both groups have low net worth. And that black women disproportionately die in childbirth.

A reason: Only the rich, those with disposable incomes, can donate to politicians, he said. That, he said, could be addressed with his proposed "freedom dividend" of $1,000 a month to families. Sanders, who has at times struggled to attract support from minorities, was asked the same question. But he tried to instead talk about climate change. A moderator pressed him to focus on race. "People of color will suffer the most if we do not deal with climate change," Sanders offered.

Biden defended himself from critics who said he was naive to believe that he could reach across the aisle and work with Republicans. It was a slight swipe at Warren, who said earlier this month that she didn’t have "naive hope" about interparty cooperation.

"I refuse to accept the notion, as some on this stage do, that we can never, never get to a place where we have cooperation again," Biden said, repeating language he has used on the campaign trail. "If that's the case, we're dead as a country."

Biden insisted he was taking the high road, as Trump and other Republicans have gotten personal and attacked his family. Republicans have attacked the Bidens over Hunter Biden’s job on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma during his father’s time as vice president.

"If anyone has reason to be angry with Republicans, and not want to cooperate, it’s really me, the way they’ve attacked me, my son, my family," he said. "I know we have to … be able to get things done."

Klobuchar, a Minnesotan who is competing aggressively in Iowa, heavily emphasized her Midwestern roots in the first hour of the debate.

"It's not flyover country to me. I live there," said Klobuchar, answering a question on climate change with a response about flooding.

Klobuchar also sought to use her geography as a pitch for electability. She talked about the importance of bringing in Midwestern votes, concluding that the best way to do so is to nominate a Midwesterner.

Klobuchar, who won positive reviews for her last debate performance, has started to gain more notice in Iowa and has shown some progress in the polls.

After moderator Tim Alberta, a Politico correspondent, asked candidates if they would sponsor a government-funded program to relocate families living in areas affected by climate change and queried Biden whether he would be willing to sacrifice oil and natural gas production to transition to a green economy, Sanders weighed in. His face reddened and his voice rose.

"Tim, in all due respect, your question misses the mark," Sanders said. "The issue now is whether we save the planet for our children and our grandchildren."

Sanders has proposed the most sweeping and costly climate-change plan in the field, one that would cost somewhere around $16 trillion. He has held climate rallies with fellow high-profile Green New Deal advocate Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). He argued that the moderators and his opponents were looking at the issue on too small a scale.

"You’re talking about the Paris agreement. That’s fine. Ain’t enough. We have got to — and I’ve introduced legislation to do this — declare a national emergency. The United States has got to lead the world," Sanders said.

“And maybe, just maybe, instead of spending $1.8 trillion a year globally on weapons [of] destruction, maybe an American president — i.e. Bernie Sanders — can lead the world instead of spending money to kill each other. Maybe we pool our resources and fight our common enemy, which is climate change.”

"We have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major country on earth." — Sanders

There are various ways to frame this, but note that Sanders says "almost any major country." That’s generally code for members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, a group of the 36 wealthiest countries. But Sanders appears to be operating off stale data. (His staff has previously pointed to a 2012 UNICEF report that showed the United States just behind Romania.)

The OECD, in a report updated in November, lists the United States sixth from the bottom. Chile, Spain, Israel, Turkey and Brazil had higher rates of child poverty in 2016.

A 2017 UNICEF report also places the United States sixth, but with a different group of OECD countries with higher rates of child poverty: Spain, Mexico, Turkey, Israel and Romania ranked lower.

"Five hundred thousand Americans, including thirty thousand veterans, are sleeping out on the streets today in America."

The way Sanders frames this is exaggerated. His number came from a<a href="https://files.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/2018-AHAR-Part-1.pdf"> single-night survey</a> done by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to measure the number of homeless people. For a single night in January 2018, the estimate was that 553,000 people are homeless.

But the report also says that two-thirds — nearly 360,000 — were in emergency shelters or transitional housing programs; the other 195,000 were "unsheltered" — i.e., on the street, as Sanders put it. The number has been trending down over the past decade. It was 650,000 in 2007.

As for veterans, the 2018 figure for all homeless veterans was nearly 38,000 in 2018. But fewer than 15,000 were unsheltered. The rest – 62 percent – were in sheltered locations.

Democrats sharpen messages at first debate after impeachment

Steyer pegged himself as the candidate who would place the highest priority on climate change, declaring a state of emergency on the day he’s inaugurated. But in the process, he initiated the first conflict of the December debate. He called out Buttigieg, saying the South Bend, Ind., mayor’s plans don’t go far enough to tackle climate change.

"I would call on Mayor Buttigieg to prioritize this higher, because the people in his generation understand that this is a crisis … but it’s also the greatest opportunity to rebuild and be inventive," he said.

Buttigieg countered that he is indeed paying attention, because, "I live right by the river. My neighborhood flooded." In fact, he said, South Bend had two "once-in-a-millennium floods" in two years. That, he said, was part of the reason he wants to get America carbon neutral by 2050.

The moderators asked Warren to defend what they estimated to be $8 trillion in new taxes that she’s proposed to pay for much of her agenda outside of health care. The question was: How do you answer critics who say the taxes will stifle growth and investment? Warren appeared delighted. "Oh, they’re just wrong," said the former Harvard Law professor. She went on to outline the many programs her wealth tax, the annual levy of 2 percent levy on wealth over $50 million and 6 percent on fortunes over $1 billion that she has proposed.

Steyer, the only billionaire on the stage, said he agreed that people like himself must pay more. But he chimed in that Democrats should nominate a person — like himself — who can make a convincing case that they know how to build wealth.

Buttigieg went next — and didn’t directly take on Warren, though they’ve been sparring on the campaign trail. "Yes, taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations are going to have to go up," he said, and then added that Democrats have to be "smart" about how to do it.

Although recent indicators have shown the U.S. economy gaining steam, the candidates firmly rejected the notion that it is working for average Americans, seeking to undercut a core argument Republicans are advancing to secure a second Trump term.

Democratic debate highlights Candidates discuss money in politics, foreign wars, health care

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