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Here are the 9 biggest moments from the fifth Democratic debate in Atlanta

On November 20, ten presidential candidates gathered in Atlanta, Georgia, for the fifth Democratic primary debate co-hosted by MSNBC and The Washington Post.

2020 debate
  • With less than three months out before the first primary contests take place in Iowa and New Hampshire, the race is quickly heating up.
  • But after two marathon days of explosive impeachment hearings, Wednesday's debate was relatively subdued, with Democrats mostly focusing on the issues and refraining from attacking each other directly.
  • Here are the nine biggest moments from the debate.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories .

On November 20, ten presidential candidates gathered in Atlanta, Georgia, for the fifth Democratic primary debate co-hosted by MSNBC and The Washington Post.

In order to qualify for the November debate, candidates needed both 165,000 individual donors and to earn either 3% in four DNC-approved national polls or 5% in two approved early-state polls from Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, or Nevada.

In all, ten candidates made the stage, down from 12 who participated in the October debate. The November debate was moderated by veteran NBC correspondent and host Andrea Mitchell, MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow, NBC News White House correspondent Kristen Welker, and Washington Post White House reporter Ashley Parker.

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With less than three months out before the first primary contests take place in Iowa and New Hampshire, the race is quickly heating up.

While former Vice President Joe Biden leads most national polls and has a massive lead among both African-American and Latino voters, he's facing fierce competition in Iowa and New Hampshire from Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and especially from Mayor Pete Buttigieg in the moderate lane.

But after two marathon days of explosive impeachment hearings, Wednesday's debate was relatively subdued, with Democrats mostly focusing on the issues and refraining from attacking each other directly.

Still, the candidates took some shots at each other. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Sen. Kamala Harris traded sharp criticisms over each other, and Sen. Cory Booker brought down the house with a zinger against Biden's lack of support for national marijuana legalization.

Here are the nine biggest moments from the debate:

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Christopher Aluka Berry/Reuters

The House of Representatives is currently pursuing an impeachment inquiry into allegations that the Trump administration leveraged a $400 million military aid package to Ukraine in exchange for the Ukrainian government announcing investigations into the Bidens.

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Biden's son Hunter Biden served on the board of Burisma Holdings , a Ukrainian oil and gas company, from 2014 to 2019. Trump's administration and the GOP have falsely argued that Biden acted improperly by calling for the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor who they incorrectly claim was investigating Burisma at the time.

After a dramatic day of hearings detailing the extent to which the Trump administration tried to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, the former vice president made a powerful case arguing that he is so formidable that neither Trump nor Russian President Vladimir Putin wants him to be president.

AP Photo/John Bazemore

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Warren and Sen. Cory Booker had a remarkably polite exchange over the details of Warren's wealth tax, which would place a 2% tax on individuals with assets over $50 million and a 6% tax with individuals who hold over one billion in assets.

While Warren asserts that a wealth tax is justified based on the fact that almost every Americans build their wealth based on public resources, Booker said that public policy should focus more on helping Americans become entrepreneurs and build up wealth of their own.

MSNBC/Screenshot

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Gabbard and Harris reignited a feud initially sparked during the September Democratic debate, when Gabbard took aim at Harris over her controversial record on criminal justice.

In the November debate, Harris attacked Gabbard for her frequent, pointed criticism of the Democratic party's foreign policy doctrine, which Gabbard casts as promoting dangerous interventionism.

"It's unfortunate that we have someone on this stage who during the Obama administration spent four years full-time on Fox News criticizing President Obama," Harris said.

In turn, Gabbard accused Harris of "trafficking in lies, smears, and innuendos because she cannot challenge the substance of the argument I'm making."

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AP Photo/John Bazemore

Just a few days after the Trump administration controversially announced it would no longer condemn illegal Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory as "inconsistent with international law," Sanders called out the Israeli government at the debate.

"It is no longer good enough for us to be simply pro-Israel. I am pro-Israel, and we must treat the Palestinian people with the respect and dignity they deserve. The situation in Gaza where youth employment is above 70% is unsustainable. We need to be thinking about who our allies are," Sanders said.

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AP Photo/John Bazemore

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AP Photo/John Bazemore

In an exchange with Buttigieg, Harris called out the Democratic party, for, in her view, taking black voters and especially black women for granted in its electoral politics.

"Candidates have taken certain constituencies for granted, and when it gets near election time they show up to a black church they've never been before.....at some point black women get tired of saying 'thank me for showing up' and say 'show up for me," Harris said.

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Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

Screenshot via MSNBC

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AP Photo/John Bazemore

Buttigieg and Gabbard, the only two military veterans on stage, had a contentious back-and-forth about their respective visions for the US military going forward.

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After Gabbard accused Buttigieg of wanting to place US troops in Mexico to fight drug cartels, Buttigieg claimed that Gabbard had taken his remarks out of context, and shot back at her: "I have enough judgment not to sit down with Bashar al Assad," referencing Gabbard's infamous 2017 meeting with the Syrian dictator.

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See Also:

SEE ALSO: Today is Joe Biden's 77th birthday here are the ages of all the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates

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