happening right behind us between very ardent biden supporters and warren supporters that have gone here extra early. but meanwhile, former vice president joe biden and senator kamala harris who s skewered by issues of race and bussing in the first race, they ll be in the second debate tomorrow. a new national poll shows biden bouncing back to where he was before the first debate, he leads his nearest competitor, elizabeth warren by 20 points. biden has surged, support for kamala has slipped a bit. let s begin our coverage with cnn s athena jones. she is live on the stage inside the debate hall. is that even allowed, athena? reporter: well, it s allowed for me. good morning, alisyn, this is, as you said it, the big night, the second major opportunity for these candidates to make their case to voters on a national
to take the stage, to get an explainer of really the movements of what will happen tonight, where they will be introduced, for instance. they ll see where the moderators are. they ll get a sense of all of the lighting and the sound there in the room. and we see senator bernie sanders now behind the podium in the center of the stage, which is where he will be tonight next to elizabeth warren. we re going to keep monitoring what is going on live there at the debate hall in detroit. but this is senator sanders walk-through right now. we re awaiting others, including mayor pete buttigieg of south bend, indiana. another story that we re covering here, a group of black state legislators in virginia boycotting president trump s event today in jamestown because of the president s persistent racist attacks on minority lawmakers. the virginia legislative black caucus says that trump s presence there tarnishes today s commemorations, which are being held to honor the 400th anniversary of represe
they re attacked by another candidate how many seconds they ll have to rebut and then they ll try to interfere. the moderators usually, and i can speak with some authority on this, they ll try their best to make sure that the interference isn t too much. but there will be there will be some of that. and i m sure we ll be seeing some of that going on. i don t think there will necessarily be a lot of interference between elizabeth warren and bernie sanders, but some of the other candidates who are fighting for their political lives as far as being democratic presidential candidates are concerned, i suspect they re going to be coming out very, very tough. they re going to be swinging and they re going to be going after, at least tonight, i suspect, bernie sanders and elizabeth warren. i definitely agree. wolf blitzer, thank you so much in detroit there for us. you can catch wolf s special coverage which is going to be starting at 4:00 p.m. today. we do have more arrivals. any moment t
alongside dana bash and d. lemon. wolf, so many candidates on stage. pressure has to be on, because let s be honest, if you don t break through tonight and get into the main dialogue, you may not get another chance. so as we ve seen in past debates, you want to make a name or a move, often it is going to be an attack. what will that be? we ll know in just a couple of hours. so right now let s start to get into our coverage of what is going on. the clock is ticking. let s get right to cnn s jeff zeleny inside of the debate hall. so, jeff, for the leaders and laggards alike, tonight very big. reporter: chris, no question about it. this is a the last debate for some of the candidates. we don t know which candidates those will be. but all eyes will be on the center of the stage as you said where bernie sanders and elizabeth warren are going to be. and they will be flanked by other candidates with moderate positions. that is going to be the heart of this debate. the ideological divide i
mccomb county, no, no, it s the white working class people who voted for obama and then switched and went for trump. the question is is it an either/or for the party or is there a candidate that convince you i can do both. you do have some candidates trying to make that argument. even the moderate candidates aren t saying i m a moderate, let me bring over a lot of republicans. but they say i m a progressive and pragmatic and looking at things that we can get done on day one, not big pie in the sky big plans that may not get through the senate. so you see these candidates making the argument it s not just about having a big plan but actually affecting people s lives in a progressive way but doing it in a way that s pragmatic and i think you ll hear more of that on the stage tonight. debate days are great no matter what your political party is. campaign staffers coming to put their signs up. helicopters. the debate hall is beautiful. as we continue the conversation, we ask cnn.co