Tuesday's 2020 Democratic presidential debate in Charleston, South Carolina is the tenth of the campaign season and will feature seven qualifying candidates of the eight who remain in the race, as well as five CBS News moderators.
The 8 p.m. ET debate, which CBS News will co-host alongside the Congressional Black Caucus Institute, will feature a series of network veterans: CBS Evening News anchor Norah O'Donnell, CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King, Face the Nation senior foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan, chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett and 60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker. The only addition to the candidate debate stage from last week's Nevada debate is billionaire philanthropist Tom Steyer, who qualified after strong polling numbers in a CBS News/YouGov poll released Sunday.
CBS News' live post-debate coverage set for 10:15 p.m. ET will be hosted by Elaine Quijano, who is also the anchor of CBSN's Red & Blue program. She will be joined by political correspondent Ed O'Keefe as the two interview candidates and members of their campaigns for reactions.
The South Carolina debate comes just four days before the Palmetto State's crucial Saturday primary, which former Vice President Joe Biden has touted as a make-or-break campaign cornerstone after being usurped as frontrunner by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
Steyer is set to return to the debate stage after a CBS News/YouGov poll released Sunday showed he had risen to third place among all the candidates among South Carolina voters. The billionaire had been excluded from the previous debate in Nevada and will be the only additional candidate on the stage given that Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard is unlikely to meet any of the necessary thresholds.
The debate will also be a chance at redemption for former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who was widely criticized for his performance in the pre-Nevada caucus last week - his first ever on the presidential campaign trail.
Sabrina Singh, Bloomberg's senior national spokesperson, told Fox News Monday morning that the billionaire candidate will tout his appeal to moderates among the Democratic Party. "I think you'll see a little bit more of a force with Mike, the race is coming down to Bloomberg and Bernie Sanders and we know we have to defeat Donald Trump in November and the only candidate who can do that is Mike," she said.
Eight candidates still remain in the presidential race but Gabbard has not met the polling criteria yet for qualifying - she has until 11:59 p.m. ET Monday night to meet the required thresholds. Under Democratic National Committee rules, candidates can only participate in Tuesday's debate if they won at least one delegate in the first three state contests or hit a double-digit target in the CBS News/YouGov poll.
