--- title: Democratic Debate: Hillary Clinton is Late To The Stage description: The moderators at the Democratic debate didn't wait for Hillary Clinton to return from backstage after the first commercial break. canonical: https://time.com/4156185/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-late/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-20T02:53:22.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T13:31:32.743Z article:section: Politics og:title: Hillary Clinton Was Late To The Stage Again At The Democratic Debate og:description: "Sorry." og:url: https://time.com/4156185/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-late/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt097e4f8ce1cb34a2/6988763b196cf4403e0398eb/clinton-break-return.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Clinton walks to her podium between rivals Sanders and O'Malley after she failed to return from a break in time for the resumption of the Democratic presidential candidates debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hillary Clinton Was Late To The Stage Again At The Democratic Debate twitter:description: "Sorry." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt097e4f8ce1cb34a2/6988763b196cf4403e0398eb/clinton-break-return.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hillary Clinton Takes A Break, Comes Late to Debate Stage  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Dec 20, 2015 2:53 AM UTC  Hillary Clinton walks to her empty podium between rivals U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and former Govenor Martin O'Malley after she failed to return from a break in time for the resumption of the Democratic presidential candidates debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire Dec. 19, 2015. Hillary Clinton walks to her empty podium between rivals U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and former Govenor Martin O'Malley after she failed to return from a break in time for the resumption of the Democratic presidential candidates debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire Dec. 19, 2015.Brian Snyder—Reuters  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Dec 20, 2015 2:53 AM UTC The moderators at the Democratic debate didn’t wait for Hillary Clinton to return from backstage after the first commercial break. Her center stage podium remained empty while the ABC moderators began asking Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders about economic inequality. Several seconds after the broadcast began again, Clinton strode out onto the stage. Walking calmly to her podium, she leaned in and said, “Sorry,” to laughter and cheers from the audience. [Read More: Democrats Clash at Final Debate of 2015](http://time.com/4155432/democratic-debate-third-data-breach/) This isn’t the first time the former Secretary of State has been fashionably late to the stage after a break at a debate. During the first Democratic debate in Las Vegas in October, Clinton joked to moderator Anderson Cooper after a bathroom break, “You know, it does take me a little longer. That’s all I can say.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4156185/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-late/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4156185/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-late/"},"headline":"Hillary Clinton Takes A Break, Comes Late to Debate Stage","datePublished":"2015-12-20T02:53:22.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:31:32.743Z","description":"It's the second time commercial breaks have been an issue for her","url":"https://time.com/4156185/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-late/","keywords":["Hillary Clinton","democrats","2016 Election topic","Democratic debate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt097e4f8ce1cb34a2/6988763b196cf4403e0398eb/clinton-break-return.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt097e4f8ce1cb34a2/6988763b196cf4403e0398eb/clinton-break-return.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Clinton walks to her podium between rivals Sanders and O'Malley after she failed to return from a break in time for the resumption of the Democratic presidential candidates debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester","caption":"Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Clinton walks to her podium between rivals Sanders and O'Malley after she failed to return from a break in time for the resumption of the Democratic presidential candidates debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester","creditText":"Brian Snyder—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4156185/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-late/","name":"Hillary Clinton Takes A Break, Comes Late to Debate Stage"}}]}] ```