Welcome to a Special Edition of Words Matter – Joe previews the first Democratic debates held this week on MSNBC in Miami. 20 candidates, 5 moderators, 4 hours total.

The Moderators will be Lester Holt, Savannah Guthrie, Chuck Todd, Rachel Maddow and José Díaz-Balart. 

The first group of 10 appearing on Wednesday:

·      Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey

·      Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts

·      Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke of Texas

·      Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota

·      Former Rep. John Delaney of Maryland

·      Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii

·      Former Housing Secretary Julián Castro

·      Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio

·      New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio

·      Washington Gov. Jay Inslee

The second group of 10 appearing on Thursday:

·      Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont

·      Sen. Kamala Harris of California

·      Former Vice President Joe Biden

·      Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana

·      Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado

·      Author Marianne Williamson

·      Rep. Eric Swalwell of California

·      Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York

·      Entrepreneur Andrew Yang

·      Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado.

To qualify, candidates had to receive more than 65,000 individual donations — including from 200 unique donors per state in at least 20 states — or at least 1 percent in three polls approved by the Democratic National Committee. More than a dozen candidates crossed both thresholds, with at least 20 hitting at least one of them.

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