 So, uh, worst debate ever, worst debate ever, um, let me tell you, I am exhausted after watching that debate. It was only a little over two hours, but I feel like it was ten hours long. Um, I knew that it would be brutal. I knew that Bernie Sanders was basically walking into a lion's den, but I think that definitively what this demonstrates more than anything is that CNN is incapable of hosting a debate. And just in the same way that the DNC blacklisted Fox News, they need to also do that to CNN and not allow them to host any debates going forward because whenever they host a debate, it turns out to be a train wreck. CNN is not news. They are an entertainment channel that doesn't care about delivering the news and informing viewers they care about ratings. So it's time that the DNC treats them as such and not allow them to host these debates. This was the worst debate. If it wasn't the worst, it was one of the worst, but I mean, it was pretty bad. So we'll talk about why I think this debate was bad and my overall takeaway as to who were the winners and losers. But first, let's talk about some general statistics. So when it comes to overall talk time, Elizabeth Warren got the most time to speak with 18 minutes, 59 seconds. Bernie Sanders came in second with 17 minutes, 51 seconds. Amy Klobuchar came in third with 17 minutes, 36 seconds. Pete Buttigieg came in fourth with 16 minutes, 45 seconds. Joe Biden came in fifth with 16 minutes, 22 seconds. And Tom Steyer came in last, a distant last with 12 minutes, 37 seconds, which I believe is even too much time than he deserves given that he bought his way onto the debate stage going to the amount of new Twitter followers that each candidate gained throughout the course of the debate. Bernie Sanders had the most with almost 3,000 new followers. Amy Klobuchar came in second with more than 1,500. Tom Steyer came in third with 1,160. Pete Buttigieg came in fourth with 1,116. Elizabeth Warren with 1054 and Joe Biden with the least. And when you look at relative growth, Tom Steyer gained the most. Amy Klobuchar came in second. Pete Buttigieg in third. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren tied for fourth. And we have Joe Biden in last place with the least amount of new Twitter followers gained and the lowest number in terms of relative growth. Okay, so let's get to CNN. So, if it wasn't incredibly obvious to you, let me break it down and what they were trying to do. They desperately wanted to instigate a fight between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. They started this yesterday and this was namely because Elizabeth Warren had decided to probably leak their private conversation so she can smear Bernie Sanders as a sexist and Bernie Sanders and CNN, excuse me, ran with this. And it was obvious whose side they had chosen. Look at the lower thirds here. These graphics demonstrate who they chose to support. Question, Warren supports a new trade deal with Mexico and Canada. Why is Sanders opposition to it wrong? Sanders proposals would double federal spending over a decade. How will he avoid bankrupting the country? Does Sanders owe voters an explanation of how much his healthcare plan will cost them and the country? And on top of that, getting to the portion with Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, they ask Bernie Sanders, did you say that you don't think a woman can win? Bernie Sanders says, no, I never said that. The moderator immediately asks Elizabeth Warren why she thinks Bernie Sanders said that. Watch. Senator Sanders, I do want to be clear here. You're saying that you never told Senator Warren that a woman could not win the election. That is correct. Senator Warren, what did you think when Senator Sanders told you a woman could not win the election? So Bernie Sanders had to deal with media bias. And on top of that, Bernie Sanders was getting attacked, as I predicted, from Elizabeth Warren as well as from the centrists. If we're going to not put Elizabeth Warren in that same camp, I think she's more pro-establishment center left, but nonetheless, I digress. Bernie Sanders had to defend himself. He is now becoming the front runner and it was incumbent on him to demonstrate to voters that he is strong enough and capable to take on Donald Trump. Did he get it done? Let's stick a pin in that because I want to talk about overall who I believe were the winners and losers. Now, typically what I do, before I get to the winners, I bring it down into three categories. I have my winners, my losers, and people in the, man, they did OK category. So for the first time ever, I do not have anyone that I am placing in the winner category. Now, I know what you're thinking. Mike, Bernie Sanders did great. Yes, he did. But I was looking for something very specific. And well, I'll talk about that when we get to Bernie Sanders. So in terms of the two individuals who I believe are in the OK category, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden. Now, Joe Biden is in this category because he didn't really have to defend himself. He wasn't attacked and he's still the front runner, so that should have been everyone's focus and he got away basically scot-free. Certainly, Bernie Sanders did a good job, had holding his feet to the fire when it comes to the Iraq War, right? But Joe Biden had some assistance from CNN to bring up, oh, well, you decided to vote for the Afghanistan War. OK, I think that that's fair. But I mean, when we're talking overall, who has the foresight to not get us into these never-ending wars? Clearly, it's Bernie Sanders. And I think that Bernie Sanders made a good case for himself and a case against Joe Biden. But with that being said, Joe Biden just was not tested as a front runner should be. And because of that, I don't think anyone did enough to drive down his support going into Iowa. Does this mean that Joe Biden will win Iowa? Not necessarily. I don't believe that this debate will improve his standing. I don't think it's going to hurt him at all, though, as well. So I think he'll continue to slowly but surely decline nationally overall. But over the last couple of days, he's gotten a little bit of a bump in Iowa and New Hampshire to the point where he's now leading overall in Iowa and New Hampshire. Understand, he was down, but now he's up and leading overall. So what I'm saying is the reason why he's not a loser but also not a winner is because he just really sailed through and maintained, right? Now, when it comes to Bernie Sanders, Bernie Sanders, I think performed phenomenally well as he usually does. I think he had the strongest performance of the night by far. He's the only person who gives me hope. If he's not the nominee, then I have absolutely no hopes that we're going to be Donald Trump. Now I hope that I'm wrong about that, but I think that the situation is currently looking really grim. Trump is stronger than a lot of people expected. And Bernie's the only person who I think can take on Donald Trump. However, Bernie Sanders, I think that what he did here was he just maintained. He didn't have a blowout performance in the way that he had a blowout performance in December. And what I was looking for from Bernie is for him to just go ham on everyone else. When they attack him, call them out, go scorched earth. Now is the time to do that. And you don't necessarily have to go on the offensive, but when you are attacked, then you've got a counter punch. And Bernie did that to a degree, not good enough. What he did was not sufficient. It's not going to hurt him. This debate really won't affect him. And that's my problem. I wanted him to get a boost, and maybe he still will. I hope he will, I'm crossing my fingers. But for example, when it comes to healthcare, we have the same conversation about healthcare. Every single debate, Medicare for All versus the public option. And Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden, they say the same thing. And Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren usually say the same thing. Although this time, notice how Elizabeth Warren did not mention Medicare for All because she doesn't support it. She is explicitly equivocating on this issue. Nonetheless, we see the same debate play out every single time on healthcare. We're not going to progress on this issue any further unless Bernie Sanders calls out the reasoning for why his opponents don't support Medicare for All. They're all swimming in cash from pharmaceutical industries and private health insurance companies. If he called out their donors, he would win that debate by a mile and a half. Now, I'm not worried about Bernie here because a new poll just came out. I can't remember who conducted the poll, but it showed that voters trust Bernie Sanders the most on the issue of healthcare. And I believe he's 10 points above Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren. So he's already functionally, I think, done enough. And I think he's persuaded enough voters. I think he's won this debate, right? However, in terms of just watching this performance, basically moderators didn't allow the person who wrote the bill to talk about his bill and they let everyone else argue and explain why Bernie Sanders isn't right here and why Medicare for All is horrible. Amy Klobuchar called it a pipe dream. I mean, what are you proposing, Amy? You have no vision for America. You're going to lose to Trump. You're not even going to be the nominee. So who are you to say that Medicare for All is a pipe dream? Your presidential campaign, the prospect of you becoming president is a pipe dream. So I'm tired of seeing the same debate transpire. What Bernie should have done was introduce a new argument. My opponents are taking money from the health insurance industry. That's why they're using Republican Party talking points, period. And he would have won that portion. In terms of other aspects of the debate, I think that he did a great job. But what I really wanted to see was for him to call out the bias in moderation if he rejected the premise of their questions. When that person asked him if he would bankrupt the country or whatever, how are you going to stop your policies from bankrupting the country? And if he would have called out the bias of the corporate media, I think he would have came off as a lot stronger and someone who can definitely take on Donald Trump. So don't get me wrong. I think he had the best performance, but I wanted more than for him to just maintain. I wanted him to really substantially grow his lead at a time when we need to do that. And I think that he wasn't aggressive enough, period. Again, he didn't necessarily have to be very aggressive because he's becoming the front runner. He's kind of moving into that status, but we can't take any chances with Joe Biden. And Joe Biden is gaining in early primary states. And I'm sorry, Bernie just needed to be more aggressive and we didn't get that from him. And it pains me to say it, but fair is fair. He had a great performance, not good enough in my opinion. He refuses to even counterattack in a substantial way. I was surprised that he did at that last debate when he called out Pete Buttigieg and Joe Biden's billionaire donors. That was phenomenal and it didn't hurt him. It only helped him. Now is not the time to play it safe when so much is on the line. Again, don't want to detract from his performance. He had a great performance. I'll have a video where I have all of my favorite Bernie moments from this debate highlights from him. However, I wanted him to have such a good performance that the media can't deny it. And I just, I don't think he did enough. So moving on, when it comes to the losers, by far and away the biggest loser here in spite of what corporate media is saying, Elizabeth Warren. Elizabeth Warren does not realize what she did. She essentially burnt that bridge between her and progressives for the last time. And she's talking about unity. I mean, she really has the gall to bring up unity after she chose to leak a divisive story where she basically lies about Bernie Sanders. I mean, she's lied about her native American heritage. She's lied about her dad being a janitor. She's lied about things that are so inconsequential that I don't know why you would lie about them. What's the point of lying? Just to lie? I mean, I don't get it. So what she needed to do was basically try to make amends with Bernie Sanders. So, you know, she would have more progressive support. So she didn't at least be the second choice of Bernie Sanders supporters. But I think she just solidified the fact that there's only one choice for progressives. It's Bernie Sanders. And rather than trying to, in a good faith attempt at talking policy, engage with Bernie Sanders and say, look, let's put all that behind us. She doubled down on this pseudo woke, well, you know, women are stronger in politics. Great, but Bernie Sanders agrees with you. There are women from Justice Democrats, AOC, Rashida Tlaib, Yon Omar, who have been inspired by Bernie Sanders and not you. And she's ignoring the fact that it was progressive women, namely progressive women of color, who carried Democrats to victory in the 2018 midterms election. So it's not just about, oh, woman good because that's not necessarily true. I wouldn't vote for Sarah Palin or Carly Fiorina just because they're women. Policy is what matters. And Elizabeth Warren has always been this individual who, you know, promotes herself as a wonk. And I love when she did that because it shows that she cares about substance. But here she chose to take a different path. She's pursuing the Hillary Clinton path. I'm a woman, I'll be the first woman president vote for me over Bernie Sanders. That's how she thinks she can siphon off votes for Bernie Sanders, but I'm sorry. You backed away from Medicare for all. You're done. Once you do that, you're done. So she needed to show us that she's still somewhat progressive. She didn't even mention Medicare for all. In fact, if I had to check, I don't think she said that one time even during the healthcare debate, the words Medicare for all did not come out of her mouth. She's the biggest loser. And what she is probably going to realize is that this little shenanigans that she pulled over the weekend, it's not going to help her at all. It's only helping Joe Biden and hurting progressives collectively. So shame on her for not only having a poor performance, but just overall being a shameful, fake friend. That's all I'll say about her. Moving on to Tom Steyer. One thing that bothers me about him, well, two things that bother me about him is he's a billionaire who bought his way onto the debate stage. And also, whenever he talks, he says, what? Or white? And I don't know what it is. I think maybe it's just because I don't like him because he's a billionaire who's buying his way onto the stage and hurting democracy. But that irritates me. And nothing that he ever says is meaningful. And whenever he talks, he looks into the camera. It's so rehearsed, it's fake. This individual is a phony. He is a phony. He's not serious about climate change. And he always tries to make it seem as if he is better than the other candidates. I'm the only person calling for term limits. I'm the only person who's saying, I will declare a climate emergency on day one. Nothing you are saying is landing. Nobody believes that you are the climate change candidate. You're a billionaire hedge fund manager. So I don't know why you're here. I hope he doesn't qualify for that next debate because that is not a voice that we need. Okay, Pete would a judge. I think he was a loser here because he did nothing. He needed a breakout performance tonight. He needed to basically show to everyone that he's ready. He's capable of taking on Donald Trump and he just had a fake performance as he usually does. He wasn't attacked, but at the same time, he didn't go on the offensive, which he needed to. He needed to take on Biden and he didn't. Not a great performance. Overall, very boring, milk toast. He's not gonna benefit from this. Amy Klobuchar. This was probably the worst of all of her performances when you take into account all of the times like the past three debates where the media was relentless in trying to prop her up and shameless really in trying to prop her up. She did not have a good night at all. And I don't know why she still thinks she has a shot. The media is desperately doing everything they can, endless propaganda for her. And what she's putting out, voters aren't picking up. Nobody trusts that she is going to be a change candidate, but I will say this about Amy Klobuchar. She did make a phenomenal point that really demonstrates how Elizabeth Warren is hurting the progressive movement. So during the healthcare exchange, Amy Klobuchar, she did lie because she's bankrolled by the industry. She said that Medicare for All would kick 180 million people off of their current plans. That is an outright lie that was fed to Republicans by the industry and now she's using it. So I hope that she feels good about herself using that disgusting lie to prop up the pro-death status quo. Nonetheless, what she said is, and I'm paraphrasing here obviously, that Elizabeth Warren pivoted away from Medicare for All and that must lend credence to the claim that centrists are right about Medicare for All. Maybe it's not more feasible. Maybe a public option is a better route to pursue. And that's a really powerful point that hurts proponents of Medicare for All, right? Because Elizabeth Warren's weakness here, if she claims to be a representative of the Medicare for All movement and like it or not, she is advocating on our behalf, even if she's not the best representative. But what Amy Klobuchar said there was essentially, look, you pivoted away from Medicare for All, so you're proving me right. And Amy Klobuchar has a point. She has a point, unfortunately. But that was the only strong line of the night. There were no other times where I think she made a solid point. She didn't take on Pete Buttigieg. So there was really no like moment that the media would focus on and even CNN's post-abid analysis I watched briefly and they said this wasn't really great night for her. So if your biggest fans are saying you didn't have a good night, you didn't have a good night, it's time to wrap it up. You're not going to win. So really, if I were Amy Klobuchar, I would be trying to do what I can to maneuver my way into the future administration of a Sanctress, right? So talk with Biden about maybe being the VP. Talk with Buttigieg about maybe being the VP, although he should be talking with her about being VP as much as she should be talking to him about that. Nonetheless, I don't think that Amy Klobuchar did enough. I think that overall, not a great night. So let me get to some of the moments that I wanna discuss. The foreign policy discussion was incredibly disheartening because unsurprisingly, CNN framed every question in a very right-wing way. They made it seem as if Iran getting a nuclear weapon was some sort of imminent threat and they're not an imminent threat to us. If they were to get a nuclear weapon, we all know that they're getting that to deter US aggression. Now, ideally the correct answer to all of this, even Bernie didn't have it with regard to this issue, is not that we should stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. It's that every single country collectively and simultaneously needs to denuclearize. We'll all get rid of our nuclear weapons at the same time, because guess what? If we wanna live on this planet, then we shouldn't have these apocalyptic bombs that can end the fucking world. I mean, this is something that people need to bring up. Nuclear proliferation is a threat to our species. It's arguably as big of a threat as climate changes because we have these nuclear weapons on a hair trigger. We have an unhinged buffoon who can at a moment's notice initiate a nuclear strike on whatever country who would then retaliate and we're looking at possibly the end of the world. I mean, why are we not talking about the end of nuclear weapons? That should be the discussion. So whenever nuclear weapons are brought up, that should be at the front of the discussion and even Bernie Sanders, I'm glad that they all talked about the nuclear deal, but him saying, well, I don't think Iran should pursue a nuclear weapon, that's not what we should be focusing on. Nobody should have a nuclear weapon. That includes Iran, that includes North Korea, that includes the United States of America. Harsh truth, but it needed to be said. Joe Biden, he basically confirmed that he is incredibly hawkish and in spite of him admitting that he was wrong about the Iraq war, well, on that debate stage, what you saw was a display of hawkishness. He really is going for this tough guy persona, right? He wouldn't meet with North Korea without preconditions. On top of that, he would leave American troops in Iraq. So in other words, he's in favor of never ending wars as is Pete Buttigieg. And if we vote for Joe Biden, then nothing will change when it comes to foreign policy. The mere difference of not worrying about war with Iran will be nice. But in terms of the foreign policy establishment, understand that the military industrial complex is not going to suffer if Joe Biden becomes president. They will still be thriving. We will not cut defense spending. And the only thing that I like that Elizabeth Warren said was that we should cut defense spending. But overall, I think that Bernie Sanders dominated that portion of the debate because he is the only person who has the track record of being against all of these disgusting and reckless wars he brought up Vietnam, he brought up Iraq. And I think he did a really good job there. When it comes to trade, Bernie Sanders once again proved why he is the best to take on Donald Trump because he is laser focused on the issues that affect workers. And Elizabeth Warren, I don't know what she's thinking. She's supporting Trump's trade deal, right? So imagine going up on a debate stage, you're automatically giving Donald Trump the upper hand in this. He's gonna say, well, you support my trade deal. Thank you, Elizabeth Warren. You should vote for me, right? And sure, there are some minor improvements, but what Bernie Sanders, like the point that he made about climate change was so powerful. There was not very much discussion about climate change, but Bernie Sanders brought it into the conversation and the moderators didn't want him to talk about climate change. They tried to move him away from climate change when he was talking about how the issue of climate change intersects with the issue of trade. But he explained how no, this is an issue related to climate change because this plan that Donald Trump is trying to sign that my colleagues are supporting, it doesn't take into account the environment. And on top of that, he basically made a phenomenal point about how this is a bill that is derivative of the interests of the industry. So we need people to come to the table, environmental groups, right? Normal Americans to come to the table and actually hash out a trade deal that isn't going to be a monumental fucking disaster for American workers and the planet. Now I think that the best moment of the night by far was when Bernie Sanders was asked about democratic socialism, it was predictable, the CNN host was trying to smear him here by asking this question, but Bernie Sanders handled that absolutely flawlessly. So on a debate stage against Donald Trump, I am not worried at all that that democratic socialist label is going to hurt Bernie Sanders because he describes it beautifully. He talks about what democratic socialism means to him, but then he also describes Donald Trump as a socialist, albeit one for the rich. That is such a powerful line to use. Like there's no other rebuttal that will be as powerful to the socialist mirror that Donald Trump will inevitably trot out if Bernie Sanders is the nominee. And I think it's a great, great line that voters need to see on a general election stage. We've seen if you're mongering about socialism, while simultaneously the tax burden be shifted from the working in middle class or from elites onto the middle and working class, and it's preposterous. We have a country where functionally we are pro-socialist only for rich people, and Bernie is the only person that points that out. So on top of that, they're fear mongering about socialism and how most voters don't like that label. But Bernie Sanders, in spite of that label, is the most popular senator in America. Seven out of 10 young people are cool with the socialist candidate and let me remind you, the key to Democrats' success in 2020, that is going to be getting out the votes of young people. We're gonna make or break this election, regardless if we come out to vote or not. We're gonna be the ultimate deciders here, right? Because we can't win unless lots of people get out and vote. So that socialist label is going to help Bernie more than I think it'll be a hindrance at this point. Now there is the spat between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. That, I think, deserves its own segment, so we'll come back to that in a different video, look out for that. But by and large, this debate, as I stated at the beginning of the segment, was just so exhausting and demoralizing, and coming away from this debate, I really, really felt discouraged, not necessarily because I felt like Bernie Sanders performed so poorly that it will hurt him, but because the ability to actually get changed kind of falls on the shoulders of one politician. Bernie Sanders, nobody else is going to facilitate change and just watching all of these candidates perform. Donald Trump's gonna win. He's gonna win, and I think he'll win relatively easily. I don't think that he'll win the popular vote, but he may. I mean, after seeing this, Donald Trump should be very, very encouraged right now. If anyone but Bernie is the nominee, I can't see a situation where Trump doesn't win. I can't, I'm sorry. And I don't wanna be a Debbie Downer, but Trump has a great chance of being reelected in spite of what the polls say right now. Now, if Bernie's the nominee, I feel a lot more at ease with our chances. It's still not gonna be a cakewalk. I think that it's going to be tough to beat Donald Trump, but Bernie is our best bet because nobody else is going to excite the base. After watching Santrists tell us that we can't have college, that's free at the point of service, that we can't have healthcare, that's free at the point of service, and call things that we've been advocating for, goals of the Democratic Party for decades, pipe dreams. Trump's gonna win. That's the takeaway from this debate. So unless Bernie Sanders is the nominee, good luck.