Rep. Lance Gooden (R-TX) slammed House Democrats on Friday for having a different message behind closed doors than when they are speaking to the American people when discussing the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.
&#8220;What&#8217;s so interesting about what the president is saying and what Republicans are saying is that it is the same thing we&#8217;ve been saying for months — there is nothing impeachable here, this is a witch hunt,&#8221; Gooden said during an appearance on Fox News. &#8220;But when you look at the other side, Democrats are changing their tune as this goes. At first, it was a quid pro quo, then it&#8217;s bribery, then it&#8217;s extortion.&#8221;
&#8220;And what is interesting to me also [is that] walking through the halls of Congress, Republicans are saying the same thing publicly that we&#8217;re saying privately. Our message is not changing,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;Democrats, on the other hand, publicly they&#8217;re saying &#8216;this is about the Constitution, this is about doing what&#8217;s right,&#8217; [but] privately they&#8217;re saying &#8216;what&#8217;s the polling show, how are we going to convince the American people?'&#8221;
Accordingly, various polls conducted after nearly two full weeks of public hearings show that independent voters are souring on the idea of impeaching the president. A poll by <a href="https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=3650">Quinnipiac University</a> shows only 45% support for impeachment and subsequently removing Trump from office, which is down three points from roughly a month ago. The same polls showed opposition increasing two points. At the same time, Trump&#8217;s approval ratings have remained relatively steady.
Earlier in November, reports emerged that Democrats changed their messaging strategy.
&#8220;[T]he Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee conducted focus groups in key House battlegrounds in recent weeks, testing messages related to impeachment,&#8221; The Washington Post reported. &#8220;Among the questions put to participants was whether &#8216;quid pro quo,&#8217; &#8216;extortion,&#8217; or &#8216;bribery&#8217; was a more compelling description of Trump&#8217;s conduct.&#8221;
&#8220;According to two people familiar with the results, which circulated among Democrats this week, the focus groups found &#8216;bribery&#8217; to be most damning,&#8221; the Post continued. &#8220;The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because the results have not been made public.&#8221;
&#8220;You shouldn&#8217;t be having to convince the American people that impeaching the president is the right thing to do,&#8221; Gooden said. &#8220;They should follow the facts and Democrats are realizing that the polling numbers are not supporting them. They are also battling Thanksgiving and Christmas, people just aren&#8217;t in the mood for this at this time of the year.&#8221;
The Texas lawmaker further brushed off claims that Trump has been doing anything of concern, noting that his job as a member of Congress is to monitor if anyone has violated the United States Constitution.
&#8220;I&#8217;m part of Congress, but it&#8217;s not my job to approve or disapprove. It&#8217;s my job to make sure the Constitution is being followed and enforce the Constitution and that&#8217;s what my oath was,&#8221; Gooden said. &#8220;And what we in Congress are doing right now should be making sure that laws are being followed and that the president is following those laws. The president absolutely is.&#8221;
&#8220;What Democrats are talking about, what the media loves to harp on, is do you approve? Is what he said right? Should he have said that? It&#8217;s not the question here,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;The question is, is he breaking the law, which the president has not done.&#8221;

House Financial Services Committee

GOP Congressman Calls Out Democratic Colleagues For Inconsistent Impeachment Messages

Impeachment

Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) criticized the Democratic National Committee&#8217;s (DNC) primary debate forum on Tuesday, putting forth that is a money-making operation that lacks substance.
&#8220;People are getting really turned off by it. They have alternatives and they&#8217;re not getting anything of value from the conversation that&#8217;s happening in these debates that are really like political reality TV,&#8221; Gabbard told host Joe Rogan during an appearance on his podcast. &#8220;They are completely set up for conflict and confrontation to drive up ratings so that they can make more money — the corporate media can make more money.&#8221;
&#8220;You&#8217;ve got 60 to 75 seconds to get your point across,&#8221; she added. &#8220;To talk about, hey here&#8217;s my position, here&#8217;s what I would do with North Korea, here&#8217;s what I would deal with immigration reform in 60 seconds or less.&#8221;
The Hawaii congresswoman noted that the steep decline in the number of Americans who were tuning in to watch the debates is evidence of a lack of interest on behalf of the American electorate. Accordingly, the first DNC primary debate in June was the most watched to-date, averaging more than 18 million viewers over the course of the two days. November&#8217;s debate, however, which was the most recent, was the least watched of the election cycle, with fewer than seven million viewers tuning in.
&#8220;You know, rather than it being this money-driven, ratings-driven venture — which the media is doing across the board, both in these debates and kind of what issues they&#8217;re choosing to cover — we should go back to the League of Women Voters who used to actually host presidential forums that would have real questions about real issues that people care about in a way that is not broken up by commercial breaks and advertisements so that the people can make money,&#8221; Gabbard said to Rogan.
Gabbard has been an outspoken critic of the DNC&#8217;s lack of transparency and arbitrary determination of which polls are deemed eligible for qualification purposes. Her campaign urged the DNC in September to reconsider their criteria after she failed to qualify and further slammed the organization for hindering conversations &#8220;between future leaders of this country.&#8221;
While the DNC declined to reconsider their benchmarks, Gabbard ultimately received an invitation for the following debates. However, she has still not met the threshold to qualify for December&#8217;s debate.
In order to nab a podium on the upcoming Los Angeles debate stage, presidential hopefuls must raise campaign donations from no fewer than 200,000 individual donors. In addition, they must also receive at least 4% of the vote in four general DNC-approved polls or 6% in two early state polls — such as those in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, or South Carolina.
Gabbard needs either one more qualifying nationwide poll or one more qualifying early state poll to meet the polling threshold, and she also needs fewer than 1,000 new donors, according to her <a href="https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1199053032933093377?s=20">social media</a> account.
As of publication, Gabbard sits at just under 2% cumulative support among Democratic primary voters, according to the <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/us/2020_democratic_presidential_nomination-6730.html">RealClear Politics</a> national polling average.

Presidential Candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard Attends Los Angeles Veterans Day Service

Tulsi Gabbard Slams DNC Primary Debates As ‘Political Reality TV’

2020 Election

Democratic National Committee

Tulsi Gabbard

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) signaled on Tuesday that if she wins her party&#8217;s nomination to the presidency, then she may likely chose a woman to be her running mate.
&#8220;My question is: what about a running mate?&#8221; A supporter asked during a campaign event in Altoona, Iowa. &#8220;Are you thinking of a woman?&#8221;
&#8220;So, let me just say two things,&#8221; Warren replied. &#8220;First, it would be entirely presumptuous of me to talk about running mates. I&#8217;m out here talking about why I&#8217;m running for president and asking for all of you to get out and caucus for me. That&#8217;s how I&#8217;m going to end this, I&#8217;m going to ask you to get out and caucus for me.&#8221;
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Elizabeth Warren on her potential pick for vice president: &quot;I gotta say — why wouldn&#39;t I have a woman for a running mate?&quot; <a href="https://t.co/fprbtlkGba">https://t.co/fprbtlkGba</a> <a href="https://t.co/4cTTEn62lo">pic.twitter.com/4cTTEn62lo</a>
&mdash; CBS News (@CBSNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1199357148284755968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 26, 2019</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;But I have got to say, why wouldn&#8217;t I have a woman for a running mate?&#8221; she continued, adding that she is &#8220;not cutting anybody off from this.&#8221; Warren also told the woman who asked the question that she is &#8220;thinking the right way.&#8221;
Warren&#8217;s remarks, however, come nearly a month after reports surfaced that she had been consulting with failed Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum and further considering for him to join her on the top of the ticket. Gillum, who was hired as a CNN contributor following his unsuccessful bid, could benefit the Massachusetts lawmaker with black voters, a demographic that she has struggled to gain traction with.
Prior to his ultimate defeat, Gillum, the former mayor of Tallahassee, Florida, faced backlash on a variety of fronts, including his anti-police stances and ties to anti-Israel and anti-Zionist organizations.
Gillum&#8217;s gubernatorial campaign had been fraught with scandals from the onset. Tallahassee City Hall has been under FBI investigation since as early as 2015 as part of an ongoing corruption probe. Records were released in 2018 showing that an undercover FBI agent gave him a gift that he had previously claimed was given to him by his brother. And in January 2019, the Florida Ethics Commission found probable cause Friday that Gillum violated state ethics laws.
While the Daily Beast described their talks as ones that &#8220;resemble the kind of courtship that happens when a leading presidential candidate is exploring potential vice presidential contenders,&#8221; Warren&#8217;s campaign called the reports &#8220;baseless and not at all true.&#8221;
Another failed gubernatorial candidate, former Georgia state lawmaker Stacey Abrams, has also been floated by many in her party as a potential vice presidential pick. Abrams has been voicing her support for the position, contending that she is now open to joining the top of the ticket with any of the Democratic presidential contenders, despite previously proclaiming that she doesn&#8217;t &#8220;run for second place.&#8221;
Although Warren has remained silent on a Warren-Abrams ticket, former Vice President Joe Biden stated earlier in the week that &#8220;the woman who should have been the governor of Georgia&#8221; was on his short list of VP picks, referring to Abrams. Abrams handily lost her 2018 election by more than 50,000 votes, yet has promoted the theory that her Republican challenger engaged in racist voter suppression tactics. While there has been no evidence to corroborate her claims, Democrats have continued to amplify the claims.

Democratic Presidential Candidate Elizabeth Warren Speaks At Clark Atlanta University

WATCH: Elizabeth Warren Signals She May Choose A Woman As Her VP Pick

Elizabeth Warren

A record number of biological males who self-identify as female may be competing in the 2020 Olympic Summer Games, forcing a public debate over the fairness of transgender women competing against biological women in sporting events.
As the International Olympic Committee (IOC) looks to prepare for the upcoming games in Tokyo, Japan, the world is poised to confront the seemingly divisive issue on what constitutes a female athlete, according to an article published on Tuesday by <a href="https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/11/transgenderism_and_the_olympics.html">The American Thinker</a>.
The IOC sought to introduce stricter guidelines for transgender competitors, as more biological males have been smashing women&#8217;s records and sweeping titles at the high school and collegiate levels. However, the IOC&#8217;s panel of scientists have failed to reach a consensus due to the &#8220;politically charged and sensitive&#8221; nature of the debate, reported <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/sep/24/ioc-delays-new-transgender-guidelines-2020-olympics">The Guardian</a> in September.
Guidelines established by the IOC in 2015 allow some biologically male athletes to compete in female events, depending on testosterone levels. Accordingly, those athletes are required to maintain testosterone levels below 10 nanomoles per liter (nm/l) for no less than 12 months. The American Thinker notes that biological males generally have between 7.7 and 29.4 nm/l of testosterone, while women have between 0.12 and 1.77 nm/l. This means that biological male athletes can conceivably have a 500% hormonal advantage over their biological women counterparts.
Regardless, crafting guidelines based on testosterone levels alone may be irrelevant as to whether or not transgender women have a significant advantage over the competition. A study compiled by the Karolinska Institutet, a leading Swedish medical and research university, determined that transgender women benefit primarily from their masculine bone structure and upper body strength. Current testosterone levels might actually be relatively insignificant.
&#8220;Not every male advantage dissipates when testosterone drops,&#8221; said Alison Heather, a New Zealand researcher and physiologist at the University of Otago. &#8220;Some advantages, such as their bigger bone structure, greater lung capacity, and larger heart size remain. Testosterone also promotes muscle memory. Transgender women have a heightened ability to build strength even after they transition.&#8221;
The debate of where transgender individuals fit into competitive athletics, however, is likely to be pushed onto the front lines as more than one billion people watch the Olympic Games in 2020 — many of whom have never been fully exposed to the issue.
The news media has notably promoted the politically correct narrative benefitting transgender athletes over their biologically female counterparts and has been suppressing further dissent, according to The American Thinker. However, as more than 25 million Americans are tuned into the international games at any one point in time, many people will be confronted with the striking disadvantage that biological women would face.
The feminist movement, which has sought to highlight and resolve the seemingly unfair treatment of women in a society that allegedly prioritizes males, has, at times, been shut out of the transgender athletics debate in its entirety. But traditional progressive feminists who seek to advance women&#8217;s equality will be pitted against other progressives who feel that the rights of roughly 0.3% of the population should be held at a higher value than the rights of more than half of the population.

Women jumping over hurdles

Transgenderism Brought To The Forefront As Biological Males Look To Compete In Women’s Olympic Events

LGBTQ

Olympics

Sports

Transgender

Billionaire businessman and Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer suggested on Monday that while he does not want to be president of the United States, the office of the presidency would afford him the opportunity to get things done that he might otherwise could not.
&#8220;I know this is going to sound a little strange, kind of — I don&#8217;t want to be president, but I do want to do things as president,&#8221; Steyer told a crowd while at a campaign stop in Northwood, Iowa. &#8220;You know, I am running because I thought — until this week I was the last person to get in, and I got in because I thought, &#8216;My God, no one is going to tell the truth to the American people&#8217; and we&#8217;re not going to actually deal with the critical issues in front of us and we have to.&#8221;
Steyer announced in July 2019 that he would officially be seeking the Democratic nomination to the presidency after initially declaring earlier in the year that he would not be running for president. Prior to his entry into the race, he was most well-known for his multi-million dollar ad campaign aimed at impeaching President Donald Trump. Accordingly, Steyer launched his campaign focusing on two primary issues, defeating Trump and climate change.
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A woman in Northwood told <a href="https://twitter.com/TomSteyer?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TomSteyer</a> his odds of being the nominee are very low. What will he do instead? 
Steyer: &quot;This is gonna sound a little strange &#8211; but I don&#39;t want to be President.&quot; 
He wants to &quot;do things&quot; as President &#8211; highlighting his work on the climate crisis. <a href="https://t.co/UZ0easFOg5">pic.twitter.com/UZ0easFOg5</a>
&mdash; Maura Barrett (@MauraBarrettNBC) <a href="https://twitter.com/MauraBarrettNBC/status/1199043313220935691?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 25, 2019</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;So, the two things I can tell you for sure, one is that if I am not the Democratic candidate, I will be supporting the Democratic candidate full bore,&#8221; Steyer said. &#8220;Anyone of those people on that stage is a thousand times better than Mr. Trump or any of the Republicans. Really. I believe that, and I will, there is 100% probability that I will be supporting that person as hard as I can.&#8221;
&#8220;The second thing I&#8217;d say is this: if I&#8217;m not the Democratic candidate, that doesn&#8217;t mean we aren&#8217;t in a climate crisis. We are,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;I&#8217;ve been fighting it for a decade and more.&#8221;
Steyer, who has an estimated net worth of nearly $2 billion, has been accused of trying to buy the presidency by both Democrats and Republicans alike. In November, one of his campaign aides was even caught offering money in exchange for political endorsements.
&#8220;Look, if you had told me, when I was a kid, that I thought that American democracy was at risk, and it wasn&#8217;t the scariest thing ever, I would have said, &#8216;You&#8217;re crazy! That&#8217;s the worst thing I can imagine happening. I can&#8217;t imagine anything worse than that.'&#8221; Steyer said. &#8220;That&#8217;s because I couldn&#8217;t imagine the climate crisis.&#8221;
&#8220;But there is no way, having seen what I&#8217;ve seen, and talked to the people that I&#8217;ve talked to, and seen the cruelty exhibited towards the American people, that I’m going to stop fighting these people. No way,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;I don&#8217;t think of myself as a tough person, but I can tell you, I don&#8217;t like mean people. They don&#8217;t scare me and I&#8217;m very angry about it.&#8221;
&#8220;There is a playbook here that is cruel to Americans,&#8221; Steyer added. &#8220;Intentionally so.&#8221;

NextGen Climate Action Committee Co-Founder & 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate Tom Steyer Interview

WATCH: Tom Steyer Tells Supporters That He Does Not ‘Want To Be President’

Tom Steyer

Actor and left-wing activist John Cusack urged his more than 1.5 million Twitter followers on Saturday to boycott MSNBC over what he suggests is the network&#8217;s unfair coverage of 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
&#8220;To be clear MSNBC, you did this to yourself, no one made you parade neocons [and] neoliberal pundits to slander [and] smear a people&#8217;s movement that you KNOW is not radical but a return to FDR politics,&#8221; Cusack wrote on social media along with the hashtag #BoycottMSNBC.
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Be clear MSNBC You did this to yourself no one made you parade neocons &amp; neoliberal pundits to slander &amp; smear a people’s movement that you KNOW is not radical but a return to FDR politics <a href="https://twitter.com/BobSmith4152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BobSmith4152</a>: I&#39;ll just leave this here. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BoycottMSNBC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BoycottMSNBC</a> <a href="https://t.co/NsIdnbfthT">https://t.co/NsIdnbfthT</a>”
&mdash; John Cusack (@johncusack) <a href="https://twitter.com/johncusack/status/1198426664247726080?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 24, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Cusack&#8217;s post included a video that featured a message reading &#8220;MSNBC Has a Problem With Bernie Sanders&#8221; and a montage of clips from prominent MSNBC news anchors, including Chris Matthews, Stephanie Ruhle, and Chuck Todd, mocking the Democratic socialist lawmaker and his bid for the presidency.
Interestingly, Cusack&#8217;s call for an MSNBC boycott comes the same day that Democratic presidential hopeful and entrepreneur Andrew Yang also called for a boycott over the network&#8217;s seemingly unfair treatment of his own candidacy.
&#8220;Was asked to appear on [MSNBC] this weekend — and told them that I&#8217;d be happy to after they apologize on-air, discuss and include our campaign consistent with our polling, and allow surrogates from our campaign as they do other candidates,&#8221; Yang wrote on Twitter. &#8220;They think we need them. We don&#8217;t.&#8221;
Yang doubled down on his demand for an apology days later and explained during an appearance on rival network CNN that MSNBC has treated him unfairly both during the Democratic National Committee&#8217;s presidential debates and in their continuous campaign coverage throughout the primary season.
&#8220;Americans tuned in the debate earlier this week and they saw I got called on less than any other candidate including candidates that I am polling higher than and the questions I did get had virtually nothing to do with the core ideas of my campaign,&#8221; Yang said. &#8220;And if this were an isolated incident that would be one thing, but if you go back over the last number of months, MSNBC has literally omitted me from over a dozen fundraising and polling graphics.&#8221;
While Sanders and his campaign have not specifically singled out MSNBC in the past, they have been critical of how the media as a whole has been treating his presidential run.
In August, the Bernie campaign railed against supposed media bias, contending that the corporate media is writing them off.
&#8220;The undiscriminating coverage of polls that fit existing narratives is certainly an issue that all of us need to be aware of,&#8221; Jeff Weaver, one of Sanders&#8217;s top aides, told reporters. &#8220;Headline after headline declaring that the Sanders campaign is over.&#8221;
Accordingly, Sanders created his campaign&#8217;s own in-house livestream show, aptly titled &#8220;The 99,&#8221; as an outlet to get his unfiltered message to supporters.
&#8220;We are doing these livestreams, we are talking to you directly,&#8221; Sanders&#8217; campaign manager Faiz Shakir said at the time. &#8220;One of the reasons is while we appreciate our friends in the elite media, they don&#8217;t often cover the issues that truly matter to working Americans.&#8221;

Senator Bernie Sanders Joins The Chicago Teachers Union Strike

Leading Actor Calls For MSNBC Boycott Over Bernie Sanders Coverage

Bernie Sanders

MSNBC

The longest-serving African-American member on South Bend, Indiana&#8217;s Common Council endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden on Friday for the Democratic Party presidential nomination over his city&#8217;s own mayor, Pete Buttigieg.
&#8220;In times like these, when the political winds are fiercely blowing across our country, it&#8217;s important for us to have an experienced leader who has been through the diverse storms of life to guide our country,&#8221; Councilman Oliver Davis said in a statement released by the Biden campaign. &#8220;That&#8217;s why I am very pleased to support Vice President Joe Biden to be our next president of the United States of America.&#8221;
While Buttigieg has been gaining momentum nationally and in some early states such as Iowa, he has still been failing to gain traction with African-American voters. A recent poll conducted by <a href="https://poll.qu.edu/south-carolina/release-detail?ReleaseID=3649" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Quinnipiac</a> shows him with 0% of the black vote in South Carolina, while Biden is polling in the Palmetto State with 44% black support.
During the Democratic National Committee&#8217;s most recent presidential primary debate, Buttigieg suggested that he is still unknown to black voters and stated that he &#8220;welcome[s] the challenge of connecting with black voters in American who don&#8217;t yet know me.&#8221;
Davis, however, revealed to <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/11/22/black-south-bend-leader-endorses-biden-over-buttigieg-072885">Politico</a> that the South Bend mayor&#8217;s struggle to gain support from communities of color &#8220;is not a new problem for him&#8221; and further noted that &#8220;[f]or us, this has been a consistent issue that has not gone away.&#8221;
In what many considered to be an attempt to win over black voters, Buttigieg formally introduced his 18-page Douglass Plan in July amid criticism of his handling of a racially tinged police shooting in his hometown of South Bend. The sweeping proposal calls for a broad series of political and policy reforms, including issues such as criminal justice, education, housing, health disparities, voting rights, and even the racial wealth gap.
The plan seeks to convince black voters that he deserves their support despite their reported skepticism, but has moved the needle little since it was first previewed during the Black Economic Alliance Presidential Forum in South Carolina.
&#8220;When you&#8217;re flying in the middle of a storm, you want to make sure you have steady, experienced leadership,&#8221; Davis told Politico. &#8220;I believe that Vice President Biden has demonstrated throughout the years by having a steady hand, he can help lead us through these times, and with all of the challenges we face nationally and now even internationally, he has the relationships, has the skills, and I think he can bring us together in different ways.&#8221;
Buttigieg brushed off the snub, telling CNN&#8217;s Jake Tapper that he and Davis don&#8217;t often see eye-to-eye on politics, and contended that no one person speaks for South Bend&#8217;s African-American constituency.
&#8220;Councilman Davis, I respect him a lot, we&#8217;ve definitely disagreed on politics a great deal, not to take you into the whole story of South Bend politics, but you know, I respect him coming from a different place politically,&#8221; Buttigieg said. &#8220;Obviously no one person speaks for black voters in South Bend.&#8221;

Democratic Presidential Candidates Participate In Debate In Atlanta, Georgia

South Bend Lawmaker Snubs Buttigieg With Biden Endorsement

Democratic Party

Joe Biden

Pete Buttigieg

Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang continued to slam MSNBC on Sunday for treating him unfairly both during the Democratic National Committee&#8217;s (DNC) presidential debates, as well as in their campaign coverage throughout the primary season.
&#8220;Americans tuned in the debate earlier this week and they saw I got called on less than any other candidate including candidates that I am polling higher than and the questions I did get had virtually nothing to do with the core ideas of my campaign,&#8221; Yang told news anchor Ana Cabrera during an appearance on &#8220;CNN Newsroom.&#8221; &#8220;And if this were an isolated incident that would be one thing, but if you go back over the last number of months, MSNBC has literally omitted me from over a dozen fundraising and polling graphics.&#8221;
Yang was the candidate who spoke the single least amount during the DNC&#8217;s fifth primary debate that was presented jointly by MSNBC and The Washington Post on Wednesday. Yang only spoke 1,301 words during the entire debate, per data compiled by <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-fifth-democratic-debate-in-6-charts/">FiveThirtyEight</a>. Accordingly, he spoke 10% less than financier Tom Steyer, who received the second lowest amount of speaking time, and nearly 50% less than frontrunners former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
He also spoke for less amount of time than the other candidates, clocking in at only six minutes and 48 seconds. By contrast, Steyer spoke for eight minutes and 24 seconds, while Warren received 13 minutes and 29 seconds of speaking time, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/20/us/elections/debate-speaking-time.html">The New York Times</a>.
&#8220;[It] is not about me. It&#8217;s about the 300,000 plus Americans who donated to and support my campaign and the millions of Americans who know we need to rewrite the rules of the 21st century economy to work for us,&#8221; Yang continued. &#8220;Think about those people donating $10, $20 of their hard earned money to put a candidate on the stage and then have MSNBC virtually ignore me for 32 minutes or when they tune in to MSNBC to see how we&#8217;re doing in the polls it’s like I don&#8217;t exist.&#8221;
&#8220;You can go through the records, you can see they&#8217;ve done it to me over and over again,&#8221; he added. &#8220;And I&#8217;m not the kind of guy who takes offense easily but at this point you have to call it like you see it.&#8221;
Prior to that debate, MSNBC notably excluded Yang from a graphic on where candidates were polling and another graphic previewing the debate. On Saturday, Yang went after the network for treating him unfairly.
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Was asked to appear on <a href="https://twitter.com/MSNBC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@msnbc</a> this weekend &#8211; and told them that I’d be happy to after they apologize on-air, discuss and include our campaign consistent with our polling, and allow surrogates from our campaign as they do other candidates’. They think we need them. We don’t.
&mdash; Andrew Yang🧢⬆️🇺🇸 (@AndrewYang) <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewYang/status/1198258580996214784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Was asked to appear on [MSNBC] this weekend &#8212; and told them that I&#8217;d be happy to after they apologize on-air, discuss and include our campaign consistent with our polling, and allow surrogates from our campaign as they do other candidates,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They think we need them. We don&#8217;t.&#8221;
Cabrera, however, pressed Yang on what he believed the reason was for a left-wing network to treat him differently than other Democratic candidates.
&#8220;It&#8217;s a bit of a mystery to me,&#8221; Yang replied. &#8220;I hope that when they come clean and acknowledge that they have been suppressing and ignoring me and my campaign for months maybe they&#8217;ll actually share with us what the rationale is.&#8221;
&#8220;All I know is I&#8217;m fighting for the American people,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;I&#8217;m here in Iowa. There are &#8212; I&#8217;m going to say hundreds. I lost track &#8212; hundreds of Iowans right behind me, as you can see, who know we need to actually work on solving the problems that got [President] Donald Trump elected. I have no idea why MSNBC does not want to have this conversation.&#8221;

Democratic Presidential Candidates Participate In Fourth Debate In Ohio

Andrew Yang Doubles Down On Demanding MSNBC To Apologize For ‘Suppressing’ Him

Andrew Yang

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced on Saturday evening that he is officially launching a bid for the Democratic nomination to the presidency.
&#8220;I&#8217;m running for president to defeat [President] Donald Trump and rebuild America,&#8221; Bloomberg tweeted. &#8220;I believe my unique set of experiences in business, government, and philanthropy will enable me to win and lead.&#8221;
The billionaire businessman initially declared earlier in the year that he would not be running for president, but revealed in October that he hadn&#8217;t fully closed the door on the prospect. At the time, Bloomberg expressed discontent with the current 2020 Democratic primary field, criticizing the candidates&#8217; dishonesty with the American people and their unwillingness to work across the aisle with their political adversaries.
Speculation of a presidential run was heightened after Bloomberg filed to run as a Democratic presidential contender in Alabama because of the state&#8217;s early filing deadline. His advisers downplayed the move as just another step in the direction of a potential bid, and contended that the financier has not made a final decision. He later filed to run in Arkansas and Texas, and on Thursday he filed an official statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
Bloomberg, who has an estimated net worth of more than $50 billion, is already slated to spend $100 million on digital ads against Trump. Bloomberg himself is not featured in the ad beyond the legally mandated disclaimers, but rather, the ads will focus on attacking the incumbent president. Days later reports surfaced that he would be spending between $15 million and $20 million on a 2020 voter registration initiative to weaken Trump&#8217;s reelection.
Bloomberg released his first digital ad on Sunday: a nearly two-minute video announcing his presidency. The ad is part of a $31.5 million buy that broke the record as the most expensive ad buy of any candidate ever in a single week.
https://twitter.com/MikeBloomberg/status/1198620233994526722?s=20
&#8220;Mike Bloomberg started as a middle class kid who had to work his way through college, then built a business from a single room to a global entity creating tens of thousands of good paying jobs along the way,&#8221; a narrator says in the video. &#8220;He could have stopped there, but when New York suffered the terrible tragedy of 9/11, he took charge, becoming a three-term mayor who brought a city back from the ashes and brought back jobs and hope with it, creating tens of thousands of affordable housing units so families could have a decent place to live, raising teachers&#8217; salaries and kids&#8217; graduation rates, and creating a more open and livable city for the millions who call it home.&#8221;
&#8220;He could have stopped there, but when he witnessed the terrible toll of gun violence, he put his money where his heart is helping to create a movement to take on the NRA and the politicians they own, to protect families across this country and help turn the tide,&#8221; the ad continued. &#8220;And he&#8217;s funded college educations for thousands of deserving low income and middle class kids, and supported life-saving medical research, and stood up to the coal lobby and the outright denial of this administration to protect the only home we have from the growing menace of climate change.&#8221;

French President Francois Holland Receives Michael Bloomberg At Elysee Palace In Paris

WATCH: Bloomberg Makes It Official — He’s Running For President

Michael Bloomberg

Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack revealed on Saturday that he is officially endorsing former Vice President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination to the presidency in 2020.
&#8220;The most obvious point to make in selecting a nominee is electability. No leader can change the direction of a country or improve people’s lives if he or she can’t win the election,&#8221; Vilsack wrote in an <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/11/23/joe-biden-tom-vilsack-endorse-democratic-primary-iowa-column/4271673002/">op-ed</a> published by USA Today. &#8220;Given the highest possible stakes in this election, electability has an enhanced role in deciding who the nominee should be.&#8221;
&#8220;As I thought about the candidate who has the ability to bring us together as one nation, the progressive but practical vision for progress at home, the experience and personal relationships to repair America’s image abroad, and the best chance at winning the states we have to win to govern, I concluded that Joe Biden is the person for the job,&#8221; he continued.
Vilsack served as governor of the Hawkeye state for two terms before he went on to serve as the Secretary of Agriculture under former President Barack Obama. He briefly launched his own bid for the presidency in 2007 and was considered one of two people under consideration to be former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton&#8217;s running mate in 2017 before ultimately losing out to Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA).
&#8220;While some may argue that Joe Biden&#8217;s lifetime of public service is a draw-back, I see it as a strength,&#8221; Vilsack said. &#8220;I see a well-defined candidate, who has withstood the test of time. I see a candidate who will best stand up to the character assassination attempts that we know are coming.&#8221;
&#8220;I know Joe Biden to be a good and decent man. I believe a majority of Americans will find that Joe Biden is the person best prepared and best positioned to heal the divisions within our country and to end the &#8216;disorder&#8217; of the last 3 years,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;For all of these reasons I will proudly caucus on February 3, 2020 for Joe Biden.&#8221;
The state&#8217;s high-profile endorsement comes as Biden has been slipping in the early caucus state. As of publication, Biden sits at 17% support among Democratic primary voters in Iowa according to the <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/ia/iowa_democratic_presidential_caucus-6731.html#polls">Real Clear Politics</a> polling average. Biden, who is still considered a top-tier candidate in the state, is falling behind South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and has been vying for the second or third place spot against his progressive rivals Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
Biden&#8217;s campaign announced earlier in the week that the former vice president would be embarking on a statewide bus tour to interact with voters. The eight day &#8220;No Malarkey&#8221; tour will cover 18 different Iowa counties and will focus on issues such as health care, rebuilding the middle class, and defeating President Donald Trump.
&#8220;When Joe Biden first announced he was running, he told Iowans they&#8217;d be seeing a lot of him &#8212; and he meant it,&#8221; Biden&#8217;s campaign manager Greg Schultz told reporters on Wednesday. &#8220;Being honest, upfront, and authentic is core to who Joe Biden is and why Iowans love him.&#8221;

Biden Gets Key Iowa Endorsement From Former Gov. Tom Vilsack

Iowa

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) slammed former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Friday after reports emerged that the billionaire businessman purchased a $30 million ad buy that may be airing as soon as early next week.
&#8220;I&#8217;m disgusted by the idea that Michael Bloomberg or any other billionaire thinks they can circumvent the political process and spend tens of millions of dollars to buy our elections,&#8221; Sanders said in <a href="https://twitter.com/danielmarans/status/1197997519025967105?s=20">a statement</a>. &#8220;It&#8217;s just the latest example of a rigged political system that we are going to change when we&#8217;re in the White House.&#8221;
&#8220;If you can&#8217;t build grassroots support for your candidacy, you have no business running for president.&#8221; he continued. &#8220;The American people are sick and tired of the power of billionaires, and I suspect they won&#8217;t react well to someone trying to buy an election.&#8221;
Sanders&#8217; remarks were in reference to news that Bloomberg would be spending $31.5 million on one week&#8217;s worth of advertisements, making it the most expensive ad buy of any candidate ever in a single week. The ads are scheduled to air in nearly 100 local markets as well as some cable channels nationwide.
Bloomberg, however, has not yet officially declared his candidacy for the Democratic nomination to the presidency and advisers close to him contend that he still has not made a final decision on the move. While he filed an official statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Thursday, and previously filed to run as a candidate in Alabama, Arkansas, and Texas, advisors downplayed the filings as just another step in the direction of a potential bid.
Sanders, a noted Democratic Socialist, has, in part, centered his campaign on disavowing wealthy Americans, so the line of attack against Bloomberg, who has an estimated net worth of more than $50 billion, is not surprising. The Vermont lawmaker subsequently blasted fundraising emails to raising money off of Bloomberg&#8217;s high-priced ticket item.
&#8220;Mike Bloomberg is spending $30 million on TV ads next week to try and make himself president. That is the biggest-ever political TV ad buy in history. And it is surely just a drop in the bucket for him,&#8221; Sanders&#8217; campaign said in an email to supporters. &#8220;The truth is this: If you can&#8217;t build grassroots support for your candidacy, you have no business running for president.&#8221;
&#8220;I am asking you today to show Mike Bloomberg, the corporate media, and the rest of the billionaire class a fundamental truth,&#8221; the email continued. &#8220;The only way to win this election is with a grassroots movement built by the working class. The best way to prove them wrong is by generating as many individual contributions as we can for our campaign this weekend.&#8221;
Sanders&#8217; campaign has been generating massive donations. He even recently set a record, surpassing 4 million donations sooner than any other candidate in history. His support, however, has been relatively stagnant and he has been consistently polling behind former Vice President Joe Biden nationally and vying for the second place spot with his progressive counterpart, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

Bernie Sanders Is ‘Disgusted’ By Bloomberg’s Record Breaking Ad Buy

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) criticized Democratic presidential rival and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg on Thursday for comparing the discrimination that he felt as a gay man to the historic civil rights abuses of black Americans.
&#8220;Those of us who&#8217;ve been involved in civil rights for a long time, we know that it is important that we not compare our struggles,&#8221; Harris said during a Black Women Power Breakfast hosted by Higher Heights, a national political organization for black women. &#8220;It is not productive, it is not smart and strategically, [and] it works against what we need to do which is build coalition.&#8221;
&#8220;We know that in our ongoing fight for civil rights if any one of us starts to differentiate ourselves in a certain way and, in particular, what he did on the stage,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;It&#8217;s just not productive and I think it&#8217;s a bit naïve.&#8221;
Harris added that &#8220;there&#8217;s no equating those two experiences.&#8221;
The California lawmaker&#8217;s remarks were in reference to an answer Buttigieg provided during the Democratic National Committee&#8217;s fifth presidential primary debate on Wednesday. While on the debate state, Harris lamented the treatment of black Americans, whom she contended are the backbone of the Democratic Party despite their needs often being overlooked or otherwise taken for granted.
Buttigieg, who has been struggling to gain traction with African-American voters, responded to the criticism in agreement and put forth that he &#8220;welcome[s] the challenge of connecting with black voters in American who don&#8217;t yet know me.&#8221; He further noted that he can relate to how black voters feel because of the discrimination he has felt for his sexuality.
&#8220;I care about this because while I do not have the experience of ever having been discriminated against because of the color of my skin, I do have the experience of sometimes feeling like a stranger in my own country,&#8221; Buttigieg said at the time. &#8220;Turning on the news and seeing my own rights come up for debate, and seeing my rights expanded by a coalition of people like me and people not at all like me, working side by side, shoulder to shoulder, making it possible for me to be standing here wearing this wedding ring in a way that couldn&#8217;t have happened two elections ago, lets me know just how deep my obligation is to help those whose rights are on the line every day — even if they are nothing like me in their experience.&#8221;
However, this is not the first time that Harris has referred to Buttigieg as &#8220;naïve.&#8221; Earlier in November, she went after him for stating that the primary race is beginning to winnow down to only two candidates, himself and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
&#8220;Well, I think that&#8217;s just, that it&#8217;s naïve for him to think that at this point that the fate of this election has been determined,&#8221; Harris responded to his comment. &#8220;Just look at history. He might need to review to know that what&#8217;s happening right now is not necessarily determinative of the outcome.&#8221;

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Molly Prince