The debate will be held at University of New Hampshire in Durham at 9 p.m. ET and will be moderated by MSNBC anchors Chuck Todd and Rachel Maddow. | AP Photo DNC expected to sanction Feb. 4 debate in New Hampshire MSNBC says the organization will formally allow the additional debate before the N.H. primary.

DES MOINES, Iowa — The Democratic National Committee will formally sanction the Feb. 4 debate in New Hampshire, hosted by MSNBC, the network announced on Sunday.

The debate will be held at University of New Hampshire in Durham at 9 p.m. ET and will be moderated by MSNBC anchors Chuck Todd and Rachel Maddow. All three Democratic presidential candidates, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Gov. Martin O’Malley are expected to attend.


Despite MSNBC's announcement, the DNC has not made a public statement officially sanctioning the debate. That's expected to come after the Iowa caucuses, when the committee hopes details about additional debates will be agreed upon by the campaigns.

"Our Democratic candidates have agreed in principle to having the DNC sanction and manage additional debates in our primary schedule, inclusive of New Hampshire this week. However, absent agreement on the details, we will give our campaigns the space to focus on the important work of engaging caucus goers in Iowa. We will reconvene negotiations and finalize the schedule with the agreement of our campaigns on Tuesday morning," DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said in a statement. “Any additional debates will be held on top of our existing February 11th debate with PBS News Hour and our March 9th debate with Univision and the Washington Post. We have consistently worked with our campaigns to ensure a schedule that is both robust and allows our candidates to engage with voters in a variety of ways, whether through debates, forums, or town halls, while also leaving them the flexibility to attend county fairs and living room conversations for the direct voter contact that matters so much in the early states. Those principles will continue to guide these negotiations.”

The Sanders and Clinton camps have publicly sparred over the schedule and accused each other of trying to avoid the debate, which will come just days before the New Hampshire primary on Feb. 9. Initially, the DNC fielded accusations that it had limited the number of debates and scheduled them during low viewership periods to minimize the chances of Clinton tripping up and to prevent her rivals from getting national prime-time exposure. But now that Sanders has made the Democratic primary a tight race, Clinton's camp has been eager to participate in more showdowns.

By the end of Saturday, the New Hampshire debate was still up in the air, as the Sanders camp said it would not agree to that event unless the entire schedule was set with the Clinton team.

The sides sparred over the locations, among other details: Clinton proposed a debate in Flint, Michigan, while Sanders publicly proposed another event in Brooklyn, NY — Sanders’ hometown and the home of Clinton’s campaign.

The idea for a Democratic debate began with the Union Leader, which asked MSNBC to partner with them. But in order to sanction the debate, the DNC wanted the Union Leader out of the picture because they had already co-sponsored a Democratic debate with ABC.

Instead, the Union Leader said on Sunday their readers will participate by asking questions during the debate on Thursday.

“Our readers have demanded a debate to help them see who is most fit to be the Democratic nominee for President,” Joseph W. McQuaid, president and publisher of the Union Leader said in a statement on Sunday. "We were concerned that this would have been the first time in 32 years without a Democratic debate before the New Hampshire primary. We aren't sponsoring because, for reasons not clear to us, the DNC insisted MSNBC be the sole sponsor. MSNBC has asked our readers to participate by asking questions during the debate, in keeping with an important tradition of voters being able to directly get answers from candidates. Our goal has always been to make sure Granite Staters have the information they need to vote on Feb. 9. While our name will not be on the banner, we say: Mission accomplished."

CNN on Sunday also announced a Democratic candidate town hall the night before the debate on Feb. 3 in Derry, New Hampshire. All three candidates will attend the event, which will be moderated by CNN anchor Anderson Cooper. It will air on CNN at 8p.m. ET.

Hadas Gold reported from Washington.