Wednesday’s presidential debate and a good ol’ coffee chug

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On Wednesday night, Democratic presidential hopefuls took to the stage for a mid-November debate. They covered a myriad of topics, ranging from child care, health care and abortion to farming, climate change, war and race.

In a surprising turn of events, gun control and immigration were not big talking points, as they have been in previous debates and the news. In stark contrast to that, Donald Trump and the impeachment hearings were topics the candidates did discuss, agreeing on the sentiment that President Trump has committed wrongdoing in the allegations of his misconduct in office and manipulation of foreign parties for his own political gain.

This debate came after 12 or so hours of riveting impeachment testimonies and analysis by the journalists on the ground in D.C. So, after a long day trying to stay caught up with the news, it was respectable that the debate moderators could keep this event interesting and engaging, with the candidates taking on a more level-headed approach, rather than a political brawl.

The struggle to stay caught up was felt with this viral clip of a reporter chugging coffee during the debate while Democrats were at it on stage.

“Because of the questions — and the way they were posed — the debate was void of the constant interruptions and chaos that often wrecks a debate,” said Tom Jones, author at Poynter Institute. “The moderators showed superb judgment and prudence when letting candidates make their full points without allowing them to run amok. They challenged the candidates, but didn’t pit them against one another the way previous moderators have.”

The takeaways, according to The Washington Post:

• For much of the debate, the candidates shied from the biting exchanges and intraparty contrasts that marked the first four gatherings, opening new lines of conversation on issues as disparate as racial justice, marijuana policy and child care. But there were also pointed if brief disputes as the night wore on, some of them focused on black voters, a key Democratic constituency…Mayor Pete Buttigieg showed signs of surging in several polls, and Sen. Kamala D. Harris (Calif.) obliquely criticized him for his lack of support among black voters.
• “We have a criminal living in the White House,” Harris said…While impeachment is a unifying topic for Democrats, the presidential race has showcased the party’s internal struggle over how much of the campaign should revolve around Trump’s fate, versus maintaining the issue-heavy focus that led the party’s 2018 House candidates to a majority. Within the policy field is a separate Democratic fight, over whether to pursue the sweeping policy changes backed by its liberal wing or embrace a more-moderate vision for bringing the country together after Trump.
• For the fifth debate in a row health care was a prominent topic, with the party still grappling over whether it should continue to defend the Affordable Care Act passed under President Barack Obama or aim for a more far-reaching program that would again upend the health-care system. It has become one of the most vigorously fought topics, with Warren and Sanders proposing a Medicare-for-all plan that would abolish private insurance and place all Americans under a government-run system…But the more-moderate candidates onstage also defended their approaches.
• Buttigieg has emerged as a clear primary front-runner in some states, with a recent poll putting him ahead of the pack in first-to-vote Iowa. His opponents began sharpening their attacks on him before the debate even started, with some questioning his experience as a small-town mayor and others challenging him directly over his handling of racial issues.
• Biden, when asked about being more sensitive to the cultural reckoning with sexual harassment and violence toward women, spoke of how he took advice from college students to “get men involved, engage the rest of the community.”

Read more about the debate and takeaways from it here.

Investigation finds former Fox News Exec pushing division among Americans

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Ken LaCorte, a former Fox News executive, ran and continues to run two sites that push America’s culture wars today. The sites? Conservative Edition News and Liberal Edition News.

The websites are both managed by LaCorte, who was accused of killing the story about President Trump’s affair with pornography actress Stormy Daniels preceding the 2016 presidential election.

“Until now, it was unclear who was behind the sites,” The New York Times states. “But an investigation by The New York Times and researchers at Nisos, a security firm in Virginia, found that they are among several sites owned by Mr. LaCorte that push inflammatory items — stories, petitions and the occasional conspiracy theory — to the American public.”

Interesting enough, the sites mimic Russian tactics that the Kremlin used to interfere in with American politics in 2016, concerning topics like Benghazi, border security, gun control and Black Lives Matter, according to the Times.

“I wanted to try to find middle ground,” Mr. LaCorte said. “Unfortunately, the things that work best right now are hyperactive politics. On one hand, that’s at odds with what I want to do. But you can be more successful by playing the edgy clickbait game.”

Despite the division and misinformation sites like these may spread, whittling away credibility in the media and bringing to light the issue of fake news, content like this is protected by the First Amendment of the United States under free speech. It begs to question, what Americans really care about? Finding topics to argue about and further divide oneself from others as a country or come together to find a common ground by discussing facts and valuable information and policies that affects citizens in the U.S.

Read more about The New York Times’s investigation into LaCorte and his sites here to learn more.