Tonight, we are coming to you live!

[ Cheers and applause ]

Live! Whoa!

And this is very special -- our entire audience

is filled with Democrats who are running for president.

So, unbelievable. [ Cheers and applause ]

Fantastic. Congratulations.

Yeah, just like the debate, everyone here

gets 10 seconds to talk. [ Laughter ]

And since it's NBC, if you go past your time,

you're gonna hear this.

[ Dramatic tone ]

Okay. That's the way it works.

Now, the debate was right here at NBC,

and there was a lot of excitement in the building.

It felt just like the Super Bowl,

you know, if 20 teams played the game over two nights

and the winner wasn't decided for another year.

But besides that...

But it's true -- we're live,

and we just watched the first Democratic debate down in Miami.

If you missed it, here's what happened.

There were 10 Democrats on stage, and to qualify,

all a candidate needed was to poll at 1% or higher.

[ Laughter ]

That's it?

One per-- I mean, even O.J. is at 2%.

-Oh. [ Laughter ]

-But once it got under way,

something very interesting happened.

In his first question of the night,

Beto O'Rourke decided to start speaking Spanish.

Watch this.

-And it's gonna take all of us coming together

to make sure that it does.

[ Speaking Spanish ]

[ Laughter ]

-Cory Booker's face. [ Laughter ]

Oh, Cory B-- yeah.

Trump was watching like, "Crap. Did I hit the SAP button?

What is it? What is it?"

[ Laughter ]

[ Cheers and applause ]

Then, when they called on Bill de Blasio, he was like,

"Uh, thank-a you-o. I'm-a happy to be here-o."

[ Laughter ]

Meanwhile, Cory Booker saw Beto speaking Spanish

and decided to join in, too. Watch him.

-[ Speaking Spanish ]

[ Laughter ]

-He sounds like Arnold Schwarzenegger

learning Rosetta Stone.

He's like... [ Speaking Spanish loudly ]

[ Laughter ]

[ Speaking Spanish loudly ]

[ Cheers and applause ]

Meanwhile, over on Telemundo, they were speaking English.

-Really? -It was unbelievable tonight.

-Wow! -Yeah, Beto and Booker

both spoke Spanish, but it's not that crazy

because Miami has a large Spanish-speaking community.

I just hope that the next debate is in Boston

so I can hear them say,

"We need free college for anyone who is wicked smart."

[ Laughter ]

Later on, we got our first look at one of the underdogs,

former Maryland Congressman John Delaney.

Take a look at this guy. Yeah.

[ Laughter ]

He looks like a talking thumb. [ Laughter ]

Well, as expected, Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker

did well tonight, but I actually thought

Bill de Blasio did a pretty good job, too.

The New Yorkers are like,

"Where the hell's this friggin' guy been?

Hey, whoa, hey!"

Meanwhile, later on -- [ Feedback ]

-Welcome back to "Today" -- -Sorry, sorry.

That's a mic.

Can someone turn Savannah Guthrie's

microphone off? Thank you. Appreciate it.

So, during the debate,

there were some technical difficulties.

Take a look at this.

-Should there be a role for the federal government --

-The mics are on. -Everybody's mics are on.

Think we had a little mic issue in the back.

-Control room, we've got contrary audio.

-We had the -- I think we heard --

Yeah, we have the audience audio.

-What's happening?

[ Laughter ]

-Then Vladimir Putin was like, "Is too easy."

[ Laughter ]

"Is too easy."

[ Laughs ]

Now, get this -- Trump tweeted and called the debate boring.

But he still watched even though he also said

it was a "very unexciting group of people."

As opposed to the rock stars he usually hangs out with,

like Mike Pence and Steve Mnuchin.

[ Laughter ]

But I think I know why Trump's upset.

He's probably jealous of the Democrats.

You know, if you think about it, they got to be on TV,

they got to talk about themselves,

and they got to be in Florida.

It's like, "These are my three favorite things!

I can't believe it!" [ Laughter ]

There's a lot going on in the race,

and there's so many Democrats running,

it's hard to keep up, so we thought we'd help you out.

Enjoy.

♪♪

-♪ Bernie Sanders ♪ -♪ Tulsi Gabbard ♪

-♪ Julián Castro ♪ -♪ Beto O'Rourke ♪

-♪ Elizabeth Warren ♪ -♪ John Delaney ♪

-♪ Kirsten Gillibrand from New York ♪

-♪ Cory Booker ♪ -♪ Andrew Yang ♪

-♪ I'm Bill de Blasio ♪ -♪ Tim Ryan ♪

-♪ Michael Bennet ♪ -♪ I'm Eric Swalwell ♪

-♪ Marianne Williamson ♪ -♪ Joe Biden ♪ [ Laughs ]

-♪ I'm Jay Inslee ♪ -♪ Kamala Harris ♪

-♪ My name is Pete Buttigieg ♪ -♪ I'm Amy Klobuchar ♪

♪ And I approve this message ♪ -Yay!

-♪ I'm John Hickenlooper ♪

♪ Skinny kid with a funny last name ♪

-♪ Now, who the hell's gonna beat me? ♪

♪ Their policies are just insane ♪

-♪ Gun control ♪ -♪ Equality ♪

-♪ Climate change ♪ -♪ Voting rights ♪

-♪ Campaign finance ♪ -♪ Free tuition ♪

-♪ Living wages ♪

-♪ Will not deny social justice ♪

-♪ Join the fight ♪ ♪ Identify ♪

-♪ A woman's right ♪ -♪ It's true ♪

-♪ No excuse ♪ -♪ We can't afford to lose ♪

-♪ Democratic candidates are here to change the world today ♪

-♪ I'm gonna change my slogan ♪

♪ We'll sell many, many more hats that way ♪

-♪ Focus on the future ♪

-♪ There is nothing we can't overcome ♪

-♪ Democratic candidates are not afraid of Donald Trump ♪

-♪ When people come after me ♪

♪ That's really, really, really dumb ♪

-♪ Democratic candidates will never defeat Donald Trump ♪

-♪ Extreme radical Democrats ♪

-Thank you very much. -There you go.

[ Cheers and applause ]

I hope that helps.

[ Applause ]

And did you see the stage tonight?

All the candidates were standing in front of a fake White House.

Take a look at this. Yeah.

[ Laughter ]

Meanwhile, inside the real White House,

Trump was looking out the window like,

"Why can't I see them? Am I in the wrong --

Am I in the Upside Down?"

[ Laughter ]

Earlier today, each candidate got to spend a few minutes

doing a walk-through on the stage

just to check out the mics and all that stuff.

Most of them wore suits and dresses,

but Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan did things a little differently.

Watch this. -All right, 2020 contender

Tim Ryan is on the debate stage right now

doing his walk-through. That's gonna be happening

through the course of the day.

-He's like, "Hurry up, dude!

I got to get to the quad for Frisbee golf!

I mean, what's going on?!" [ Laughter ]

Guys, it seems like there's so much going on

in the news right now.

The Democratic debates are this week,