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HOUSTON — Front-running Joe Biden stood out the most in Thursday’s snoozer of a Democratic debate — but for all the wrong reasons as he rambled through responses laden with non-sequiturs about record-players and Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. “Play the radio. Make sure the television — excuse me, make sure you have the record player on at night, the phone … make sure that kids hear words, a kid coming from a very poor school, a very poor background will hear four-million words fewer spoken by the time they get there,” babbled the former Vice President, 76, at one point....

Former Vice President Joe Biden: Wayne Gretzky said you have to go where the puck is, not where it was. Biden’s politics are stuck in the Democratic Party’s past.And his responses frequently veered off-course. I was paying close attention and he lost me at least three times by jumping around. Arrow: Down Sen. Bernie Sanders: His answers often seemed like a reprise of his performances during the 2016 primary debates.I don’t see how he picked up any new voters tonight, and it’s hard to keep old ones with so much talent on the stage. Arrow: Down Sen. Elizabeth Warren: She...

**DRUDGE POLL** WHO WON THE FIFTH DEM DEBATE? BIDEN BOOKER BUTTIGIEG CASTRO HARRIS KLOBUCHAR O'ROURKE SANDERS WARREN YANG Vote View Results

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg suggested during Thursday night's primry debate that those who back President Trump and his immigration policies are “supporting racism." During the debate, Jorge Ramos, the Univision anchor and a moderator of the ABC News-hosted debate in Houston, rattled off several immigration-related Trump administration controversies, including family separations at the border, a travel ban that blocked entrance to the U.S. from seven majority Muslim countries, and dust-ups over the president's own incendiary rhetoric. Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., was asked if people who support Trump and his immigration policies are racist. “Anybody who supports...

Former Texas Congressman and 2020 presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke said at ABC’s Democratic debate that President Donald Trump “inspired” the El Paso shooting last month. In his opening statement, O’Rourke railed against Trump by pointing to the “cost and the consequence of his presidency.” O’Rourke accused Trump of bringing racism and violence “out into the open” throughout America before turning to the massacre that left dozens dead and wounded in his hometown in early August. “Twenty two people were killed,” O’Rourke said. “Dozens more injured by a man carrying a weapon he should never have been able to buy in...

President Trump’s reelection campaign will be flying a banner attacking socialism in Houston on Thursday, shortly before Democratic presidential candidates take the debate stage there. An official with the campaign told ABC News that the group plans to fly a banner that reads, "Socialism will kill Houston's economy,” from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. The third Democratic presidential debate is scheduled to begin an hour later. The campaign also plans to take out two full-page advertisements in local newspapers taking aim at Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), former Vice President Joe Biden and former Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julián...

While some may be anticipating sparks to fly between Democratic candidates onstage, the Trump campaign plans to literally fly its counter messaging in the air above Houston ahead of Thursday's debate. President Donald Trump's campaign intends to counter-program the Democratic primary debate hosted by ABC News and Univision with an ad blitz that includes two front-page newspaper ads and flying a massive banner in the air that blasts socialism just before candidates take the stage. "Socialism will kill Houston's economy!" the ad reads, along with a number to text, according to a rendering provided to ABC News by a Trump...

We haven’t even made it to the Democratic debates in Houston this week but the candidates are already jockeying for position in the October debates to be held in Ohio. And for reasons that remain a total mystery to me, billionaire liberal activist Tom Steyer has somehow qualified for that round. (Steyer won’t be on the stage in Houston this week as he didn’t manage to score well enough in four approved polls.) So where is this support coming from? (Boston Globe) Tom Steyer, the billionaire and former hedge fund investor turned impeachment activist, became the 11th Democratic presidential...

At the end of July, MSNBC’s biggest and dullest conspiracy theorist got some very bad news. After over a year of booming ratings, The Rachel Maddow Show’s viewership had crashed. It had been a long road for Maddow, the former blonde Catholic high school girl who had decided she wanted to be a media personality and ended up with an MSNBC show through the efforts of Keith Olbermann. And after Keith was gone, MSNBC had to settle for a slightly less effeminate version of Olbermann. Maddow had retained the key elements of Olbermann’s personality, the unhinged conspiracy theories, histrionic delivery,...

This week, we were served some less-than-breaking news. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination. If you've never heard of him, that's OK. Few Democrats have. He served in the Marine Corps for four tours in Iraq, but other than that, he hasn't done much. What's interesting is why he's being forced to drop out of the race. By any sane standards, Moulton is a thoroughly liberal Democrat. On every issue, he's more left-wing than President Barack Obama was on the day he left office. Three years ago, Moulton would have been considered a...

It’s official — Mayor Bill de Blasio will be on the sidelines for the third round of the Democratic presidential primary debates. ABC — which is hosting the Sept. 12 affair in Houston — made the announcement on Thursday afternoon. The network confirmed that 10 candidates — the smallest debate field yet of the 2020 campaign season — met the Democratic National Committee’s entry requirements for the next showdown. The presidential hopefuls include: Former Vice President Joe Biden, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, California Sen. Kamala...

Voters may finally get a chance to see a Democratic debate take place on the same stage on the same night, as 10 candidates have qualified for the ABC-sponsored Sept. 12 showdown in Houston. Democratic presidential candidates have until the end of Wednesday to get at least 2 percent in four qualifying polls as well as have donations from at least 130,000 unique donors. Polling Threshold. Candidates must receive 2% or more support in at least four polls (which may be national polls, or polls in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and/or Nevada) meeting the following criteria (“Qualifying Poll Criteria”):...

A Democratic National Committee meeting erupted into a bitter battle Thursday morning over the question of holding a climate-specific presidential debate, with party officials stamping down a resolution calling for a such an event in the face of raucous opposition from activists. In a 17-to-8 vote, the DNC’s Resolutions Committee defeated a resolution that called for the candidates to debate each other about their views and policies on climate change — on a national stage. Young protesters filling the room hissed, jeered and sang the union song “Which Side Are You On?” before and after the vote. The two-hour-plus debate...

Maxime Bernier’s exclusion illustrates how much Canadian voters, real ordinary people, don’t matter Yesterday the debate schedules leading up to the October 21 Canadian Federal Election were announced. In addition to when, the names of the moderators of the debates have also been released. And it’s not a pretty picture. (CBC, Aug. 20) The English language debate will take place on October 7. And there will be not one, not two, not three, not four, but FIVE moderators. These moderators are with CBC, CTV, Global, the Toronto Star and Huff Post. All left wing organizations. And most of them have...

This morning at 7:30 AM (Phoenix time) former FBI Agent Steve Hooper joined radio host Mike Broomhead on the Mike Broomhead Show on KFYI 550 AM 6-10AM). Steve Hooper is a 30 year veteran of the FBI. Hooper said the El Paso shooter, during interviews, says he was triggered after watching the DNC debate where all the candidates raised their hands to provide “health insurance” to illegal immigrants. It was the insanity at the Democrat Presidential debates that triggered the shooter, not Trump’s language. Here is the audio from the Mike Broomhead Show this morning. Steve Hooper: When the most...

Beyond a few comments, talk of abortion was mostly absent from both nights of the second round of Democratic debates. This went noticed by pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood, which decried how “voters missed an opportunity to hear how Democratic candidates will approach a fundamental issue that impacts their lives,” lumping, as they’re prone to do, abortion with healthcare. The omission was also noticed by National Review’s Alexandra DeSanctis, who pointed out that Democratic candidates and their media allies usually refer to abortion in euphemastic language. On both nights, the issue was raised by the candidates rather than the moderators,...

Whatever happened to Barack Obama? For a while there, no modern figure was supposed to be as consequential. It's difficult to describe the hype in the early days of the Obama era. Time, Newsweek and countless deep thinkers cast him as a 21st century Lincoln or FDR. Some literally saw a messianic figure -- "The One," in Oprah Winfrey's words. Self-help guru Deepak Chopra said Obama represented a "quantum leap in American consciousness." George Lucas speculated that he might even be a Jedi. It was a global phenomenon. In a move that embarrassed Obama himself, the Nobel Committee gave him...

President Barack Obama wasn’t on the debate stage with the 10 Democratic presidential hopefuls Wednesday night — but his legacy was, and it was trashed by many of the candidates, leaving some Democrats scratching their heads in disbelief. Obama’s record on immigration was widely criticized by the participants and his signature legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act, became a casualty of the discussion around “Medicare for All,” as his former Vice President Joe Biden attempted to defend the administration’s work. Eric Holder, Obama’s attorney general, warned Democrats to tread lightly. “To my fellow Democrats. Be wary of attacking the Obama...

Greer said there was one clear loser in tonight’s debate: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s quixotic quest to go from Gracie Mansion to the White House. “De Blasio was the loser tonight,” she added. “Not even the [Eric] Garner question was directed at him.” [cut] WINNERS Julián Castro Analysis: Presented a strong case for attendance in the next debate with measured and thoughtful answers to complex issues — including on Eric Garner and President Trump’s racist tweets. He started to lay a foundation as to why he deserves to be in the conversation. It could be enough to...

DETROIT, MI—Presidential candidate Marianne Williamson reported Tuesday that she was not sure what she was doing up on stage with "all these crazy people" after CNN's first Democratic debate. Williamson pointed out that between a guy who praised the Soviet Union, a woman who pretended to be Native American to get ahead in life, and a woman who beats her staffers with a wooden spoon, she was clearly the adult during the debate. "I mean, these guys are really far out there," Williamson said with a concerned look on her face as she smelled a crystal to calm her down....