After several days of negotiation, the campaigns of Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton agreed to a formal debate taking place tonight in New Hampshire on MSNBC. The event will be moderated by Chuck Todd and Rachel Maddow. The agreement for this debate, which has the sanctioning by the Democratic National Committee, is based on an deal for more debates along the process between Clinton and Sanders.
Thursday, February 4, 2016
MSNBC Democratic Debate
9pm ET (8pm CT, 7pm MT, 6pm PT)
Live Stream: MSNBC.com
Candidates: Clinton, Sanders
Moderators: Chuck Todd and Rachel Maddow
Report from MSNBC:
Democratic Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will face off one-on-one in a debate for the first time Thursday, after their campaigns officially agreed to participate in an MSNBC debate moderated by Chuck Todd and Rachel Maddow in New Hampshire.
After refusing to commit to participate in the debate as recently as Tuesday evening, Sanders said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Wednesday that he would be there. “The answer is yes,” Sanders said.
The debate, at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, will be the first time the two Democratic front-runners have gone head-to-head. The third candidate in the race, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, suspended his campaign Monday night after the Iowa Caucuses.
The Democratic National Committee had for months refused to reconsider its official debate schedule, which featured only six sanctioned debates, and threatened that any candidate who participated in an unsanctioned debate would be barred from future official events.
The fact that this debate was added to the schedule with the agreement and support from the Clinton campaign speaks to the nature of the race. For months, Hillary Clinton ran as the inevitable front-runner for the nomination. At this point, she barely won Iowa and is staring at a likely loss in New Hampshire. South Carolina may be her chance at a strong victory but clearly her campaign is getting nervous.
We’ll have the full debate video after it airs on Thursday night.
