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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