Here's what Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders said to each other after Tuesday's debate

(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/CNN)

published 16 January 2020

CNN couldn't get Tom Steyer to spill the tea on what Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) were talking about in a tense-looking conversation after Tuesday night's debate in Des Moines. But after a day of digging, they found it themselves.

In the exchange, Warren accused Sanders of calling her a liar during the debate, and Sanders accused Warren of calling him a liar, tied to what might conceivably be a misunderstanding about what the two of them discussed about the viability of female candidates more than a year earlier.

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CNN's Jeff Zeleny explained to Anderson Cooper how they did it. "My colleagues here at CNN spent the day looking through backup audio — it was not recorded from the primary audio system, it was a backup, separate system, and they found it late today," he said on Wednesday's AC360. The Warren and Sanders campaigns declined CNN's many requests for comment.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.