Bill de Blasio hasn’t always been Bill de Blasio.
He was born Warren Wilhelm Jr. and changed his name twice. Once in 1983 to Warren de Blasio-Wilhelm, and then once more in 2002 to Bill de Blasio.
CNN Democratic debate night 2
By Veronica Rocha, Meg Wagner, Amanda Wills and Elise Hammond, CNN
Updated 11:59 PM ET, Wed July 31, 2019
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This was Bill de Blasio's name at birth
Here's your behind-the-scenes look at tonight's debate
CNN's Democratic debates will be held at the historic Fox Theatre in Detroit tonight.
But hours before the debate started, protesters and supporters with varying platforms gathered outside the venue.
Take a look at what it looked like today outside the debate arena:
Jay Inslee writes books for his grandkids
For the last 10 years, Jay Inslee has written and illustrated one children's book a year for his three grandkids. A number of the books focus on nature, the climate and the effects the warming Earth has on the environment.
The Washington state governor is running on a single issue: climate change. He’s also been a vocal opponent of Trump, including suing the President after he tried to ban US immigration from several Muslim-majority countries. Prior to being governor, Inslee served in the US House and the Washington state House.
These are Joe Biden's guests tonight
From CNN's Arlette Saenz
A campaign aide provided a following list of Joe Biden’s guests at tonight's debate. They are...
- Nevada State Sen. Yvanna Cancela
- Sen. Chris Coons
- Rep. Cedric Richmond
- Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms
- Flint, Michigan, Mayor Karen Weaver
- Rev. Wendell Anthony, the president of the Detroit NAACP
Biden is also hosting the winners of a fundraising contest. Kellie Nelson and Amanda Bolt are from Charlotte, North Carolina.
Here's a glimpse of the candidates practicing earlier today
The candidates walked through the Fox Theatre and checked out the stage before tonight's debate in Detroit.
This is what it looked like:
Julián Castro
Joe Biden
Andrew Yang
Tulsi Gabbard
Bill de Blasio
Michael Bennet
Kamala Harris
Kirsten Gillibrand
Jay Inslee
Cory Booker, a Baptist, led a Jewish student group in college
Cory Booker, a Baptist, was co-president of L’Chaim Society, a Jewish group, at Oxford. He later co-founded a Jewish group at Yale Law.
Cory Booker's football past made his political future:
Flint-based choir performs soulful version of "America the Beautiful"
Dee Dee Bridgewater and the Flint City Wide Choir performed a soulful rendition of "America the Beautiful" for the audience inside the Fox Theatre ahead of tonight's debate.
A native of Flint, Michigan, Bridgewater and the choir received a warm welcome and roaring applause from the crowd.
Bridgewater is a multi-Grammy Award winning jazz singer.
Watch the performance:
Here's where each candidate will stand on the debate stage
Twenty Democratic candidates will face off for the second time this summer at the presidential primary debates in Detroit.
Tonight, ten more candidates take the stage.
Take a look at tonight's stage lineup:
Biden, Harris and Booker will be on the same stage. Here's why there's going to be confrontation.
From CNN's Eric Bradner and Arlette Saenz
Joe Biden is preparing for confrontation in the second Democratic debates.
Several advisers encouraged Biden to be "more aggressive" earlier in the campaign, one adviser said. But after rewatching the last debate, the former vice president told aides he felt he needed to fight back more.
Leading up to tonight's debate: His rivals, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and California Sen. Kamala Harris, have been criticizing Biden on the campaign trial.
After Biden released his criminal justice reform plan, Tuesday Booker called him "architect of mass incarceration" and said his plan was "inadequate."
"For a guy who helped to be an architect of mass incarceration," Booker told reporters in Detroit, "this in an inadequate solution to what is a raging crisis in our country -- that we have 5% of the globe's population but 25% of the globe's prison population, we have the over-incarceration of low-income folks, veterans folks, addicted folks, mentally ill folks and disproportionally black and brown folks."
Biden fired back by pointing to Newark police practices during Booker's time as mayor.
"His police department was stopping and frisking people, mostly African American men," Biden said, adding that Booker "objected to federal interference" at the time.
Regardless, Booker has signaled that he intends to continue to attack Biden's record on criminal justice including his role in the passage of the 1994 crime bill, which incentivized states to implement tough sentencing laws with mandatory minimums.
Biden also criticized Harris, without naming her, for backing a Medicare-for-All proposal while claiming she would enact it without raising taxes on middle-class Americans.
"Come on. I mean, what is this? Is this a fantasy world here?" Biden told reporters after a campaign stop in Dearborn, Michigan.
The last debate: Harris climbed in the polls after launching a withering attack during the first debate on Biden over his previous opposition to federally-mandated busing and his comments about getting along with segregationist lawmakers.
What we can learn from Biden's past debate performances: