PREVIEW - Dems Set To Kick Off First Presidential Primary Debate With Biden In Crosshairs

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th June, 2019) A crowded field of Democratic presidential candidates kickoff debate season in Miami on Wednesday and Thursday with 2020 frontrunner Joe Biden potentially bracing for an onslaught over recent controversial remarks.

The debates, which include 10 different candidates per night, will begin at 9:00 p.m. EST (1:00 a.m. GMT the next day). Both debates will be moderated by three anchors from NBC News, one from MSNBC and another from Telemundo, a US-based Spanish-language network.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has said the contest in Miami will be one of 12 Primary debates, six of which are scheduled to take place this year.

On June 13, the DNC announced that 20 candidates met the debate criteria by registering at least one percent of support in three polls from recognized organizations or campaign contributions from 65,000 unique donors including at least 200 donors from 20 different states.

The DNC then randomly drew Names from two hats - one with candidates with less than 2 percent of support on average in polls and the other with more than two percent to determine the lineup for each night.

The committee has been tight-lipped about the debate topics although NBC news has an online form for voters to submit questions to ask the contenders. Many experts, however, have said immigration, socialism and climate change are likely to be among the top issues discussed.

The first Democratic debate of the 2016 campaign included only five candidates. The New York Times calculated that during the first debate, held in October of 2015, Hillary Clinton had three times as much speaking time as former Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee, who had the least.

The DNC will likely try to avoid mistakes made in the 2016 race especially after being accused of favoring Clinton who won the nomination over Senator Bernie Sanders.

Drexel University Professor of Political Science William Rosenberg, a debate expert and co-author of "News Verdicts, the Debates and Presidential Campaigns," believes the DNC may be overcompensating this time around to accommodate such a large field.

"We should note that the Democratic Party is going perhaps way overboard as a result of the 2016 campaign where some argue that Hillary Clinton had a favorable advantage over Bernie Sanders due to the closeness with some leaders of the Democratic Party," Rosenberg told Sputnik.

The two-night event provides greater visibility of several candidates who probably should not even be on the debate stage, he added. Rosenberg warned that while there is a long road ahead the candidates must rise to the competition given they will soon face a higher bar to qualify in debates.

"Not too far off, the candidates will need to get 2 percent in four approved polls and need to receive 130,000 donors, with 400 donors in 20 states," Rosenberg said. "This is designed so that the candidates will have to show they have made progress."

Recent polling has former Vice President Joe Biden, Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren as clear frontrunners. Biden has led three of the most recent major polls, garnering from 26 to 39 percent of voter support, with Sanders getting from 12-15% and Warren 10-16%.

Biden will be the most experienced debater among the entire field given he has 16 presidential and/or vice presidential debates under his belt.

However, the former vice president has recently drawn criticism for comments he made at a fundraiser earlier in June about working with segregationist lawmakers with "civility" to get things done.

The biggest name on the stage for Wednesday will be Warren, a senator from Massachusetts who taught law for more than 30 years.

The senator has been targeted early on by President Donald Trump who dubbed her "Pocahontas" because she once, controversially, claimed Native American ancestry on a job application.

Beto O'Rourke, a former congressman who lost a tight contest to Republican Senator Ted Cruz in November's mid-term election, will be the next most popular candidate to participate on Wednesday, based on recent polling.

The rest of the field for Wednesday includes Senator Corey Booker (New Jersey), Senator Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota), former Housing Secretary Julian Castro, Representative Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii), Representative Tim Ryan (Ohio), state of Washington Governor Jay Inslee, and former congressman John Delaney (Maryland).

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio will also participate and although well-known he has little support from Democratic voters, according to recent poll numbers.

On Thursday, Biden and Sanders are the frontrunners among the ten slated to appear followed by up-and-coming South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who would be the party's first openly-gay nominee.

Buttigieg, however, has come under fire for his handling of a recent police shooting in South Bend that left one African-American man dead.

Senator Kamala Harris, a former California Attorney General, will be the next most popular in Thursday's contest.

The remainder of the participants for Thursday have all polled below five percent including Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (New York), Senator Michael Bennet (Colorado), Representative Erick Swalwell (California), Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, author Marianne Williamson and entrepreneur Andrew Yang.

Rosenberg said with the debates limited to two hours some lesser known contenders may feel the need to make the debate a "game-changer."

"Some of the more prominent candidates, those with more support, may become either direct or inadvertent targets by perhaps less supported candidates trying the break out from the lower end of the pack, without much justification as a serious contender," Rosenberg cautioned. "If they are not viewed as sincere, principled, and viable they are likely to harm their own chances and perhaps who they attack."

Overall, however, given the candidates will not have much speaking time their primary goals may be to "show well" and "not stumble," Rosenberg said.

Warren, he added, has the highest expectation for the first night but may face a deficit given the Thursday night debate has the stronger cast of candidates including Biden, Sanders, Harris and Buttigieg.

"Biden probably has the highest expectations in Debate 2 as the front-runner and the weight of this on him to outdistance the others is large. He does not have to widen his lead but he needs to demonstrate why he has this lead. However, Sanders, Harris and Buttigieg are likely to try to get the spotlight in Debate 2," Rosenberg predicted.

Sam Husseini with the Institute of Public Accuracy told Sputnik that Biden benefits from the large stage because it might mitigate a clear head to head confrontation with Sanders.

"Biden is the front runner, so in a sense he has the most to lose, but Sanders has high expectations in that he was favored by so many in 2016 and was effectively denied the nomination largely because of the machinations of the DNC. The establishment media have a history of taking gratuitous shots at Sanders and so any stumble from him will be magnified many fold," Husseini said.

Yet Biden is vulnerable, Hussein explained, especially because of his recent remarks about race relations.

"His recent remarks on working for segregationists have drawn attention, but not the underlying fact that he was the leading northern Democratic opponent of desegregation, as the noted author and education specialist Jonathan Kozol has noted," Husseini claimed. "Biden's vulnerable on that, though he'll viciously attack any candidate that would raise that history."

Although Biden clearly benefits from having been President Barack Obama's vice president, Husseini said, his corporate ties and vote for the Iraq war make him vulnerable.

"Other candidates should press Biden on his history and record of subservience to corporate interests, but with such a crowded stage, Biden might come through remarkably under-scrutinized," Husseini said. "It's not clear that any on the stage will have the nerve to bring up such issues."

Husseini said Warren can benefit by putting forward her strong policy proposals while casting herself as a "compromise" candidate who is not as radical as Sanders.

Meanwhile, Sanders must contrast his idea of "democratic socialism" with "corporate socialism" to stem the benefits afforded Biden from name recognition, he said.

Entrepreneur Andrew Yang, Husseini speculated, should push his idea of a guaranteed national income while Harris may try to make her law and order background an asset by targeting Trump.

Tulsi Gabbard, he added, could make a strong showing if she presents a serious foreign policy critique of both the Republic and Democratic establishments.

"She [Gabbard] has been a lonely voice on issues like the Trump administration going after WikiLeaks with the Espionage Act - a first in US history," Husseini said.

The candidates, he predicted, will attack Trump on immigration and the Russia probe but should hit him on foreign policy.

"Trump is likely skillfully attempting to regain his non-interventionist facade that helped him win in 2016 in spite of the fact that his administration is packed with interventionists and is escalating the continuing but virtually invisible wars in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia and elsewhere. His policies in those countries, on Israel, Venezuela and elsewhere should be attacked," Husseini concluded.