Did Tom Steyer watch the same Democratic debates everyone else did? If so, the left-wing billionaire is putting lipstick on that big, loud, unruly pig.
Steyer tweeted, “The #DemDebate shows that we can strive for better than Donald Trump and his enablers. We must restore dignity and honor to the presidency––not just by winning in 2020, but by impeaching @realdonaldtrump.”
Other progressives weren’t so enthusiastic. Compare Steyer’s take with “Candidates - please stop yelling. We’re all on the same side,” as actor Seth McFarlane tweeted. Apparently being on the same side is a matter of perspective.
The Week disagreed with Steyer, calling the debate a circus and a mess. Moderators were unable to control the discussion and candidates were talking over each other trying to get their two cents in without much substance on policy. As The Week reported, “Key policy questions were left hanging as the conversation flitted from topic to topic.”
Using Steyer’s 2018 observation of Republicans to Slate, the Democrats were “Not in the ‘range of reason’ on policy issues.”
Perhaps Steyer’s optimism comes from being a devoted money-source for Democrats. He spent $120 million last year trying impeach Trump through his “Need to Impeach” organization and he spent $239 million exclusively on Democrats in the last three election cycles.
Yet, the debate was so bad the liberal media couldn’t play it off.
The Daily Beast went for the textbook racial angle in its reporting of the debate, “It soon devolved into Bill de Blasio screaming shrilly that his opponents weren’t liberal enough. In fact, there were a lot of moments where smart women waited patiently for white men to stop lecturing them. By trying to make everyone happy, the Democrats succeeded in making everyone miserable.”
Mediate reported on the disastrous technical issues involving first-half moderators’ mics being left hot when the second-half moderators Chuck Todd and Rachel Maddow from MSNBC proceeded with the debate. The embarrassing occurrence forced the second-half moderators to quickly cut to a long commercial break to resolve the problem.
SFGate chastised Beto O’Rourke for walking himself right into a meme-worthy demonstration of his linguistic skills by answering part of his first question dealing with taxing the ultra-rich (given by Savannah Guthrie) in Spanish. The display drew a gawking look from opponent Corey Booker, (D-NJ), and attracted a slew of social-media jabs. Booker and fellow opponent Julian Castro (D) also countered with some Spanish to show off their language capabilities as well.
The Washington Post couldn’t excuse any of this either, “Amid the jokes, a more serious online debate was raging: When political candidates speak Spanish in public, is it a genuine attempt to connect with Hispanic voters or is it pandering?”
Comedy Central’s Trevor Noah couldn’t restrain himself,
“Half of America thought they flipped to Univision by mistake.”
