- Opponents seek to slow Sanders’ momentum before Super Tuesday
- Bloomberg needs strong showing after last week’s poor performance
- Full story: Sanders braced for onslaught from rivals
Asked about his declining support among African American voters, Joe Biden expressed confidence he would win Saturday’s South Carolina primary.
Biden noted polls indicate he still leads the Democratic field with black voters. “I’ve worked like the devil to earn the vote of the African American community,” Biden said.
Elizabeth Warren has taken aim at Bernie Sanders tonight. It’s not the first time she’s tried to contrast herself with him, but it’s definitely her sharpest rebuke of the senator yet. And it hasn’t gone unnoticed:
That’s the most direct criticism @ewarren has ever laid at @BernieSanders: “I dug in, did the work, and Bernies team trashed me for it.”
Warren has had to figure out how to deal with Sanders for the entire length of the campaign — contrast without alienating mutual supporters. This answer tonight is the first true, direct attempt at that. This was a huge moment, no question. #DemDebate
Wow. Big moment.
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Elizabeth Warren has seemed to drop her truce with Bernie Sanders. She just said she did the work to fight banks and figure out how to pay for Medicare for all and Bernie’s supporters “trashed me for it.”
“I would be a better president than Bernie,” she said.
Guardian World News
Nevada caucuses: crucial ‘first in the west’ Democratic contest kicks off – live
Saturday’s vote could be a make-or-break moment for candidates in the first state with a diverse electorate
- Bernie Sanders has invested big in Nevada. Will it pay off?
- Health, heat and deportations: the issues voters care about
At Sparks high school outside Reno, a group of Sanders supporters were the first to arrive hours before the caucus, encouraging voters to back the Vermont senator as they lined up.
Essie Richard, 73, one of the first voters to arrive. Supporting @JoeBiden. “I’m Biden all the way. He was Vice President for eight years. He has the experience.” Protecting social security and Medicare are most important to her: “I’m barely surviving.” pic.twitter.com/Ibb8YF6fVb
Naomi Zamarripa, 18, high schooler voting for first time: “I love his commitment. He’s been around for so long, he keeps fighting + stays true to his beliefs.” @BernieSanders will win, she said: “Nevada is the first state that has a diverse makeup, he appeals to a lot of groups” pic.twitter.com/btVEPFiCV6
As the caucuses get underway, social media streams are starting to fill with “first alignment” results from individual caucus sites. But what about the actual, official results?
Tom Perez, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, told reporters today that results will be released as soon as possible, but that the priority is, “first and foremost, to get it right,” according to the AP.
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Controversy rages over Trump interference in Roger Stone case – live updates
- Attorney general to testify before congress
- Chuck Schumer warns of ‘crisis in the rule of law in America’
- Help us cover the critical issues of 2020. Consider making a contribution
This morning, Trump had some insults to throw at Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg, who is using his vast personal fortune to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on campaign ads.
Mini Mike Bloomberg is a LOSER who has money but can’t debate and has zero presence, you will see. He reminds me of a tiny version of Jeb “Low Energy” Bush, but Jeb has more political skill and has treated the Black community much better than Mini! https://t.co/qIef5VhjDr
.@realDonaldTrump - we know many of the same people in NY. Behind your back they laugh at you & call you a carnival barking clown. They know you inherited a fortune & squandered it with stupid deals and incompetence.
I have the record & the resources to defeat you. And I will. https://t.co/fO4azmZaUg
The Democratic establishment is worried about Bernie Sanders becoming the party’s nominee, as the New York Times, the Hill, Politico and others report today.
We are spending twice as much per capita on healthcare as do the people of any other country. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the healthcare industry last year made $100 billion in profit. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we are wasting $500 billion a year trying to administer thousands and thousands of different plans. What Medicare for All will do is save the average American substantial sums of money.
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Biden calls for Sanders to disown ‘doctored’ video on Social Security
- A long-standing philosophical fissures between the candidates
- A Very Stable Genius review: at the court of King Donald
Joe Biden has called for Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign to “disown” what he calls “doctored video” that some Sanders supporters say shows the former vice-president endorsing Republican calls to cut Social Security and Medicare.
Related: 'The red wall is cracking': Buttigieg gets ovation after expecting protests
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Democratic debate: Warren challenges Sanders over electability – live
- ‘The only people on this stage who have won every single election that they’ve been in are the women,’ Warren says in final debate before Iowa caucuses
- Help us cover the critical issues of 2020. Consider making a contribution
After the first commercial break of the debate, Bernie Sanders had spoken more than any other candidate, taking up about twice as much time as Tom Steyer.
DEBATE AIR TIME: Who’s spoken the most? Here’s the @CBSNews tally through the first commercial break of the #DemDebate: pic.twitter.com/AoDQhVpZjb
The Democratic debate has returned from a commercial break, and the conversation has turned to healthcare.
Bernie Sanders defended his Medicare for All proposal, which he has centered his presidential campaign around.
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US briefing: Trump impeached, Obamacare and Australia fires
Thursday’s top story: House votes to impeach president for only third time in US history. Plus, the Cats movie lives down to its disturbing trailer
Good morning, I’m Tim Walker with today’s essential stories.
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Trump impeachment: House prepares for crucial vote amid whistleblower row – live
Fury erupts over Republican naming the alleged whistleblower who triggered the congressional investigation into Trump and Ukraine
- Help us cover the critical issues of 2020. Consider making a contribution
The House has passed a major piece on healthcare legislation during the Judiciary committee impeachment hearing break.
The bill, HR 3, passed by 230 votes to 192 mostly along party lines. It would lower the cost of prescription drugs by allowing government to negotiate prices with manufacturers. It makes major changes to the US government’s Medicare program by capping out of pocket drug cost expenses under to the program to $2,000 and creates new dental and vision benefits.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s bill would cap Medicare recipients’ out-of-pocket costs for medicines at $2,000 a year. It would use about $360 billion of its projected 10-year savings from lower drug costs to establish Medicare coverage for dental care, hearing, and vision, filling major gaps for seniors.
But the legislation has no chance of passing the Republican-controlled Senate, and the White House has issued a veto threat. Still, Democrats saw a victory in the message their bill sends to voters.
Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren on Thursday accused her more moderate rivals of failing to stand up to the rich and pledged to fix a “rigged” US economy, as she sought to re-energize her stalled campaign.
Warren delivered pointed criticisms aimed at several others vying to win the Democratic nomination to face Donald Trump in the 2020 election, including former Vice President Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Reuters writes.In a speech to the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, Warren also faulted unnamed Democrats for soft-pedaling their rhetoric for political reasons.
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Labor condemns ‘disgraceful’ Westpac as Hartzer stands down – politics live
Westpac chief executive’s resignation draws little sympathy on all sides of politics. All the day’s events, live
Sarah Hanson-Young has written about her defamation court victory against David Leyonhjelm in the Guardian today:
Related: David Leyonhelm tried to publicly shame me – I had to call him out | Sarah Hanson Young
Chris Bowen is responding to this story
(As reported by Melissa Davey)
Private health insurance will continue its slow death spiral unless unnecessary private hospital costs and exorbitant specialist bills are reined in, a Grattan Institute report has found.
The report, written by health economists Stephen Duckett and Kristina Nemet, said a small minority of greedy specialist doctors billed their patients at more than twice the official Medicare benefit schedule fee. Patients were not being told about the fees in advance.
Related: 'Greedy specialists' charging exorbitant fees a major cause of private health's strife
Greg Hunt is fiddling while private health insurance burns and across Australia people know it is broken and not working for them and they are voting with their feet. Greg Hunt has been warned and warned and warned and he’s refused to act and he’s told us he’s delivered the biggest reforms in history.
Newsflash, Greg, all of Australia knows they haven’t worked and today we have another report pointing out that private health insurance needs big reform. What is Minister Hunt’s answer?
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Pete Buttigieg: race is between me and Warren – as new poll puts him fourth
- Buttigieg: Senator’s Medicare for All plan is ‘polarising’
- Opinion: Goodbye, Beto. A sad end to a pointless campaign
Pete Buttigieg is fourth in a four-strong pack clear of the Democratic presidential field, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. But he thinks the final choice of who will challenge Donald Trump will be between him and Elizabeth Warren.
Related: Liberty and Justice for Democrats in Des Moines – but no clear Iowa star
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Third Rudy Giuliani associate arrested at JFK airport – live
David Correia was detained in a campaign finance case involving associates of Trump’s personal lawyer with Ukraine links
joe biden: i did it, you owe me everything.
elizabeth warren:
pic.twitter.com/UTUVtiUzUnElizabeth Warren having to talk slow and quiet to Biden like you do the aggressive asshole at your job who is all, "I MADE YOU" is making my PTSD act up.
The fact that Biden yelled at Warren, “I got you the votes!” speaks to everything we know about peak white male fragility. #DemDebate
Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg is on the attack following last night’s debate – a shift in position for the mayor who largely avoided attacking his rivals.
Pete Buttigieg, continuing his criticism of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, says his 2020 rival has been "more specific and forthcoming about the number of selfies she's taken" than about laying out details of how she'd pay for "Medicare for All." https://t.co/nzy3E5BYfV
Buttigieg got a lot of early interest by saying things like “the compromise position is single payer” and “Republicans are going to call us socialists anyway.” It’s a real question whether the same voters who liked that approach will like his new one. https://t.co/Yu2tQfbUSr
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