Live blog of the Democratic presidential debate

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton won unexpected support from chief rival Bernie Sanders for her use of a private email server as USA secretary of state, helping to defuse an issue that has overshadowed her campaign.

The hype going into the first Democratic debate mostly centered on whether Bernie Sanders could put Hillary Clinton sufficiently on the defensive from the left.

But Anderson pushed Sanders on the issue, saying that a Republican attack ad practically writes itself with regard to the candidate’s socialist views.

Lars: but as it got more indepth with the policy a few of the other candidates came along too, such as Governor Martin O’Malley, especially on the gun debate.

An impressive performance by Clinton would help her seal the frontrunner position, or else Sanders might further close the lead, experts said ahead of the debate.

“The scientific community is telling us, if we do not address the climate change, transform our energy system away from fossil fuel, the planet we’ll be leaving our kids and our grandchildren may well not be habitable”. “Our greatest day-to-day threat is cyber warfare against this country”.

While Clinton campaigned she was asked about the Keystone XL pipeline; she would defer to her time as secretary of state, where she had launched a review.

Asked by the moderator if she wanted to respond, Clinton answered, to applause, with one word: “No”.

Clinton interrupted to slam Sanders. “Everybody has to be held accountable, but not the gun manufacturers”, she said, “and we need to stand up and say enough of that, we’re not going to let that continue”.

“Senator Sanders did vote five times against the Brady Bill”, she continued.

Sanders argued that “there is a consensus” to strengthen instant background checks and eliminate the so-called gun show loophole.

At the debate, there was a podium ready for Joe Biden, but the vice president said he’ll watch from Washington and has not said if he will or will not run.

Morris, a Newsmax contributor, said that while “all eyes will be on Hillary” during the debate, which is being televised on CNN, the “really important performance” will be given by her challenger, Sen. Jim Webb had a long and storied military career.