Debate comes hours after a US ambassador gave testimony directly implicating Trump in quid pro quo deal with Ukraine

This article is more than 10 months old

This article is more than 10 months old

Democratic 2020 candidates tore into Donald Trump at the fifth presidential debate in Atlanta on Wednesday night, hours after a senior US diplomat gave explosive testimony during impeachment hearings that directly implicated the president in a quid pro quo deal with Ukraine.

Impeachment hearings: key witness to reject claim Ukraine meddled in US election – live Read more

Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the European Union, stunned Washington with bombshell evidence that blew a hole in the White House’s defences, implicated numerous senior officials and left the US president facing probable impeachment.

In a two-and-half-hour debate that featured 10 candidates and raced through a wide range of issues from healthcare, housing and race to climate change and white nationalism, Elizabeth Warren argued it was Democrats and Republican senators’ “constitutional responsibility” to remove Trump from office.

“We have a criminal living in the White House,” said Kamala Harris. “Ambassador Sondland by his own words told us that everyone was in the loop. That makes it a criminal enterprise.”

Referring to the fact that Sondland was appointed to his position after making a $1m donation to Trump’s inaugural fund, Warren focussed her criticism on corruption: “We are not going to give away these ambassador posts to the highest bidder.”

Bernie Sanders, by contrast, warned that the party must not become “consumed” by Trump and the impeachment inquiry or risk losing the election to him again in November 2020.

Joe Biden, in a reply riddled with verbal stumbles, argued that the impeachment inquiry is evidence that Trump fears him more than any other candidate. At the heart of the impeachment inquiry is whether Trump abused the power of his office by attempting to enlist Ukraine to open an investigation into Biden and his son, Hunter.

Biden has continued to maintain his status as frontrunner in the crowded field of 2020 Democratic candidates, based in large part on his enduring support from African American voters.

Play Video 0:29 Joe Biden's boast of African American voter support backfires – video

But in the month since the last presidential debate, rising star Pete Buttigieg, the South Bend, Indiana, mayor has emerged as a threat to “top tier” candidates Biden, Warren and Sanders in the key early voting state of Iowa, while Warren has seen her lead slip as she faces sustained attacks over how she would pay for her sweeping policy proposals.

The evening’s debate was moderated by an all-female panel for only the third time in US history. Between the moderators – NBC News White House correspondent Kristen Welker, Washington Post White House reporter Ashley Parker and MSNBC hosts Rachel Maddow and Andrea Mitchell – and the four female candidates there were more women on stage than men. It was a striking image that reflects the diverse base of the Democratic party, which is increasingly led by women and people of color.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Democratic presidential candidates participate in debate in Atlanta, Georgia, on 20 November. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Harris and Cory Booker, the two black senators on the stage tangled with Biden during a discussion on how the party can appeal to African American voters.

Booker said he has plenty of experience with this black voters: “I’ve been one since I was 18.” He then rebuked Biden for his recent comments objecting to the legalization of marijuana. “I thought you might’ve been high when you said it,” Booker quipped of Biden’s argument that research hasn’t shown it is not a gateway drug.

In his response, Biden said he believes marijuana should be decriminalized and that “everyone anyone who has a record should be let out of jail. Their records expunged”.

Biden then started boasting about his enduring support among African American voters. “I come out of the black community in terms of my support,” Biden said and listed some of his prominent endorsements. “Three former chairs of the Black Caucus. The only black African-American woman who had ever been elected to the United States Senate.”

Harris threw her hands in the air, laughing: “Nope. That’s not true. The other one is here.”

The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) Biden misspeaks and says he had support from "the only African-American woman that had ever been elected to the United States Senate," before correcting that he meant "first."



Harris's reaction:pic.twitter.com/oIL1hcMfWS

Carol Moseley Braun, the first African American woman to be elected to the Senate, has endorsed Biden. But the second, Harris, was standing right next to him.

The issues of voting rights, paid family leave and climate change received a rare substantive exchanges.

“It is the number one threat to humanity, it is an existential issue,” Biden said, after billionaire candidate Tom Steyer accused him of not addressing the crisis with an appropriate level of urgency.

The tone was far less confrontational than past debates as candidates mostly argued for a united front on issues like abortion while distinguishing themselves on healthcare, taxes and foreign policy.

It was widely anticipated that Buttigieg, 37, would be a prime target for the other candidates after he emerged this week as the frontrunner in Iowa, but the attacks mostly came in the final moments.

“I think experience should matter,” Amy Klobuchar said, noting the young mayor’s lack of a governing record. Earlier in the evening, the three-term senator lamented the double standard women face when running for office.

Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard also took a swipe at Buttigieg, the only other veteran on the stage, in one of the sharpest clashes of the evening.

She said military experience alone wasn’t enough to qualify someone for the presidency. The mayor retorted that Gabbard’s decision to sit down with the “murderous dictator” Syrian president Bashar al-Assad showed a lack of judgement.

In another exchange Harris, who Gabbard assailed in an earlier debate, was given the opportunity to respond to Gabbard’s critique of the Democratic party’s foreign policy. Harris unloaded, saying it was a shame to share a stage with a candidate who spent Barack Obama’s presidency criticizing him on Fox News, “buddied up” to former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and would not criticize a war criminal.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ten Democratic presidential hopefuls were chosen from the larger field of candidates to participate in the debate hosted by MSNBC and the Washington Post. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images

There were lighter moments. Asked what he would say to Vladimir Putin if he was to win the election, tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang said he might begin by saying: “Sorry I beat your guy.”

Black voters move center stage as Democrats take debate to Atlanta Read more

Of the candidates who qualified for the October debate in Ohio, only Julián Castro, the former housing secretary, failed to meet the required polling threshold for this one. Beto O’Rourke, the former Texas congressman, dropped out of the race earlier this month.

The former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick entered the race last week and the former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has filed to appear on the ballot in a handful of Super Tuesday states, in a sign that he intends to run.

Six candidates – Biden, Sanders, Warren, Buttigieg, Harris and Klobuchar – have so far qualified for the sixth Democratic debate due to be held on 19 December in Los Angeles.﻿