Who talked the most and the least in ABC News' Democratic debate

Sen. Bernie Sanders led the previous debate in speaking time.

By
Lauren Effron
February 7, 2020, 10:40 PM ET
2 min read

Former Vice President Joe Biden came out on top in terms of total speaking time at Friday night's ABC News Democratic debate -- the first of the 2020 primary contest -- whereas tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang spoke the least, according to ABC News' calculations.

Over the course of the roughly two-and-a-half-hour debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, ABC News calculated that Biden spoke for approximately 19:35 minutes.

Yang, on the other hand, spoke for only 7:43 minutes.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders trailed Biden by just 30 seconds, according to ABC News' calculations.

Here are the approximate speaking times for all seven candidates:

  • Former Vice President Joe Biden -- 19:35 minutes
  • Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders -- 19:05 minutes
  • Former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg -- 18:16 minutes
  • Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar -- 16:21 minutes
  • Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren -- 15:59 minutes
  • Tom Steyer -- 12:19 minutes
  • Andrew Yang -- 7:43 minutes
    • MORE: ABC News Democratic debate: FULL COVERAGE

    In terms of the number of words spoken at the debate among the candidates, as of 10:33 p.m. ET on Friday, Biden led the pack with 3,990 words spoken, followed by Buttigieg with 3,276 words spoken, according to an ABC News transcript of the debate.

    Here's the full list of how many words the candidates had spoken on stage by that time, according to an ABC News transcript. (The preliminary transcript may contain counting errors.):

  • Biden -- 3,990 words
  • Buttigieg -- 3,276 words
  • Sanders -- 3,102 words
  • Klobuchar -- 3,058 words
  • Warren -- 2,664 words
  • Steyer -- 2,514 words
  • Yang -- 1,472 words