By NICHOLAS RICCARDI and JUANA SUMMERS

MIAMI (AP) — The roster for Thursday night’s Democratic presidential debate demonstrated some of the party’s major divisions — even before candidates started talking.

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BAD MOMENT FOR BIDEN

Former Vice President Joe Biden entered Thursday’s debate with the most to lose. In one powerful moment, it did not go well. Kamala Harris of California, a former prosecutor, invoked race and identity, challenging Biden to apologize for working with segregationist senators and for opposing aspects of school busing in the 1970s.

Biden did not apologize, and Harris then made it personal, saying she benefited from busing as a young girl in California.

She did tell Biden, “I do not believe you are a racist.”

Throughout the debate, Biden had a mostly subdued presence and did little to draw bright distinctions between his policies and those of top-tier challengers like Harris and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

His high points were his invocations of his alliance with President Barack Obama and his record on getting tough legislation on guns passed.

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DUMPING ON TRUMP

During Wednesday’s debate, candidates generally shied away from talking about President Donald Trump. On Thursday they came out swinging.

Biden answered a pointed question about speaking at a high-dollar fundraiser by saying, “Donald Trump thinks Wall Street built America.” Harris slammed the president’s tax cut.

But no one struck harder than Sanders, who called Trump a fraud and a “pathological liar.”

The more prominent candidates want to demonstrate they can take on Trump directly — an essential criterion for many Democratic voters.

All the candidates piled on Trump’s immigration policy. But they evoked him on other topics: When Harris was asked about her climate plan, she called Trump the top global threat.

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THE NEXT GENERATION?

Generational appeals have been an animating force in presidential politics as voters often embrace a call for change — think Bill Clinton in 1992 and Barack Obama in 2008.

Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, tried to make the case that he should be next. The contrast between him and two of the leading contenders, Biden and Sanders, both in their late 70s, is dramatic.

California Rep. Eric Swalwell, 38, recalled how Biden said decades ago it was time to pass the torch to a new generation. Swalwell said Biden should now hand it off.

“I’m still holding onto that torch,” Biden said.

Sanders tried to make the case that ideas matter more than age, and his ideas would benefit younger Americans.

But Buttigieg isn’t short on ideas of his own. He has tried to make the case for a health care plan that stops well short of Sanders’ “Medicare for All.” He has argued for a dramatic reversal of President Donald Trump’s immigration policy. And while calling for student debt restructuring, he has also pushed the party to focus on young adults who have not gone to college.

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LEAPING OVER THE GENDER GAP

For the second time in history, more than one woman appeared on a presidential debate stage — and they did not hesitate to venture into the raucous crosstalk.

Rather than waiting for their turn to speak, Harris and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York repeatedly made their voices heard, even when they were not asked to respond by a moderator.

Gillibrand cut off Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet to make a point and gave a fiery defense of women’s reproductive rights.

Discussing immigration, Harris said, “I will ensure that this microphone that the president of the United States holds in her hand is used in a way that is about reflecting the values of our country and not about locking children up, separating them from their parents.”

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THE FRINGES STAY FRINGE

The crowded stage also included Marianne Williamson, a bestselling spiritual author, and Andrew Yang, a technology entrepreneur — two fringe candidates who have built enough of a following to make the debate. But their performance showed why they remain on the fringes.

Yang talked in a rapid monotone about his plan for the government to pay every U.S. resident $1,000 a month. But he rarely engaged in the rest of the debate.

Williamson inserted herself into some discussions. But she rambled, usually tapering off mid-idea after introducing non sequiturs — for example, bringing the 1969 moon landing into an argument about climate change and generational differences.

Neither candidate seemed to increase his or her reach.

By JUANA SUMMERS and STEVE PEOPLES

MIAMI (AP) — Ten Democrats railed against a national economy and a Republican administration they argued exist only for the rich as presidential candidates debated onstage for the first time in the young 2020 season, embracing inequality as a defining theme in their fight to deny President Donald Trump a second term in office.

Health care and immigration, more than any other issues, led the first of two debates on Wednesday, with another to follow Thursday night. And Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, more than anyone else, stood out — on her own at times — in calling for “fundamental change” across the nation’s economy and government to address a widening gap between the rich and the middle class.

The debate marked a major step forward in the 2020 presidential campaign as Democrats fight to break out from a crowded field that has been consumed by one question above all: Who’s best positioned to defeat Trump? The candidates will spend the next eight months before primary voting scrapping over that question and the broader fight for the direction of their political party.

Among the 10 Democratic candidates set to debate Thursday is early front-runner Joe Biden.

While Trump is the ultimate target of many Democratic voters, the president wasn’t a major feature for most of Wednesday night. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee was one of the few to go hard after Trump, declaring, “The biggest threat to the security of the United States is Donald Trump.”

Instead of Trump, Democrats leaned into the issue that helped deliver the party the House majority last year: Health care. All supported the concept of providing universal health care, but they differed on how they would reach that goal.

Warren and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio backed abolishing private health insurance. Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota favored preserving the private insurance market.

O’Rourke said people who like their health care plans should be able to keep them: “We preserve choice,” he said.

The exchange is almost certain to be revived on Thursday when Bernie Sanders is among the candidates who will be on stage. The Vermont senator has proposed a “Medicare for All” system without private insurance while Biden, who will also be debating, hasn’t gone that far.

Immigration was also on the candidates’ minds as they pointed to the searing photos of a drowned Salvadoran father and his toddler daughter at the Rio Grande and blamed Trump and his policies concerning migrants crossing into America illegally.

“Watching that image of Oscar and his daughter Valeria was heartbreaking,” said former Obama administration housing chief Julián Castro. “It should also piss us all off.”

He also assailed O’Rourke for not calling for fully decriminalizing crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally.

“I just think it’s a mistake, Beto,” he said, adding that O’Rourke would agree with him “if you did your homework on this issue.”

O’Rourke says he doesn’t support fully decriminalizing such border crossings because of fears about smugglers of drugs and people.

Castro told MSNBC on Thursday that his performance “showed that I can more than handle myself” at a time when voters are seeking a Democrat who can take on Trump.

Other than those skirmishes, Democrats waged a largely civil debate with few instances of the type of bitter confrontation that has dominated politics in the Trump era. The candidates — at least for one night — were content to focus on their views of what America is and should be. No one openly stumbled.

Absent the ugly attacks or missteps of debates in past elections, the two-hour discussion allowed the party to show off its extraordinary diversity. Wednesday’s lineup featured three women — Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard in addition to Warren and Klobuchar — one black man and another man of Mexican heritage. Three candidates and a moderator spoke Spanish at times, while New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, who’s black, talked about the violence that left seven people in his own urban neighborhood shot last week.

Inslee boasted that he alone among the 10 had signed a bill on reproductive rights for women.

Klobuchar spoke up for the women on stage: “I just want to say there’s three women up here who have fought pretty hard for a woman’s right to choose.”

Warren spent the evening at center stage, a top-tier candidate whose campaign has gained ground in recent weeks. She was flanked by several candidates, including O’Rourke and Booker, who needed a breakout moment. That proved elusive on a crowded stage with moderators pressing candidates to stick to strict time limits.

The sober policy discussion underscored a much louder internal fight over how aggressive Democrats should be on the nation’s most pressing issues.

On one side: candidates like Warren who are demanding dramatic change that includes embracing liberal policy priorities like government-run health care, debt-free college, a forgiving immigration policy and higher taxes on the rich. On the other: pragmatic-minded Democrats like Biden — and little-known former Maryland Rep. Delaney — who are calling for modest policy solutions that could ultimately attract bipartisan support.

Trump, the elephant not in the room, was in the air traveling to Japan for a round of trade talks as Democrats faced the nation for the first time in the 2020 campaign. From Air Force One, he tweeted his take on the night: “BORING!”

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Peoples reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Laurie Kellman and Elana Schor in Washington, Sara Burnett in Chicago, David Bauder in New York and Alexandra Jaffe in Miami contributed.