Kamala Harris aims to maintain momentum after debate success – live

The acting director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), an agency that deals with the administrative aspects of immigration, has blamed a migrant father for the drowning deaths captured in a widely circulated photo.

USCIS acting director, Ken Cuccinelli, blamed Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez, 25, for the deaths of himself and his 23-month-old daughter, Valeria – as the Trump administration faces criticism for failing to respond to the influx of families approaching the border.

The Trump administration has favored policies meant to deter people from traveling north, which advocates say has in turn driven people to make more dangerous border crossings such as crossing the Rio Grande.

CNN’s Erin Burnett asked Cuccinelli if the photo would become a symbol of the Trump administration’s policies on the border?

Cuccinelli said no, “in fact the opposite.”

The reason we have tragedies like that on the border is because that father didn’t wait to go through the asylum process in the legal fashion and decided to cross the river and not only died but his daughter died tragically as well. Until we fix the attractions in our asylum system, people like that father and that child are going to continue to come through a dangerous trip.

Cuccinelli has not yet been confirmed as head of USCIS, an agency that under Trump has become less about processing documents and more about immigration enforcement. Some details about Cuccinelli, the former attorney general of Virginia:

While Kamala Harris is being praised for her performance in the debate last night, she is under pressure to clarify a muddled response to a question on health insurance from last night’s debate.

In the debate, Harris seemed to support abolishing private insurance in favor of government-run health insurance. This morning, she says she misunderstood the question and thought it was about whether she would give up her own private insurance plan for a government-run plan under Medicare for All. She said she doesn’t support eliminating private insurance.

Political journalists aren’t convinced this is her end-all answer on Medicare for All.

Hello, happy Friday and welcome to our daily live politics coverage.

The first round of Democratic debates concluded last night after a two-day, 20-candidate extravaganza. California senator Kamala Harris was last night’s definitive winner and today she’ll be looking to maintain that momentum while others fight for attention.

The president has also weighed-in, from Osaka, Japan:

In Florida today, several 2020 candidates plan to visit the Homestead child detention facility, including Pete Buttigieg, Julián Castro, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, John Hickenlooper and Marianne Williamson.

At the G20 summit, Trump just spoke to Russian president Vladimir Putin and made light of Russian election meddling. They also shared a laugh about “getting rid” of journalists. More on that in a bit and rolling updates from the G20 by the Guardian’s business team here.

We’ll have some analysis and reviews of last night’s debate in the blog. If you’re looking for a summary to start, do read Guardian political correspondent Lauren Gambino’s excellent review: