Last night, I went to the Black Sheep on Third Avenue near East 38th Street to watch the Democratic Debate which took place in Atlanta and aired on MSNBC. The event was sponsored by the New York City Political Forum.
Upon my arrival, House impeachment proceedings were still going on with the testimony of Laura Cooper, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russian, Ukrainian, and Eurasian Affairs and United States Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale. Cooper revealed that Ukrainian officials were aware there was a problem with U.S. military assistance the day of President Trump's call to Ukrainian President Voldymor Zelensky. Her testimony followed that U.S. Ambassador to the UN Gordon Sondland who confirmed there was "quid pro quo". Zelensky's meeting with President Trump and ongoing military assistance was conditional upon Zelensky announcing an investigation into the Bidens as well as alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election. Sondland implicated President Trump, Vice-President Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. With Sondland's testimony, Republicans lost their key talking point that all the previous testimony by William Taylor, George Kent and Alexander Vindman was second hand and hearsay.
Given the explosive nature of these revelations, the Democratic Debate seemed anti-climatic and it showed in MSNBC anchor Brian Williams' presentation. Unfortunately, much of the debate lived up to their low expectations.
Oh, there were moments here and there as when Cory Booker suggested Joe Biden was high on marijuana when he said he opposed its legalization, when Amy Klobuchar said she raised $17,000 in campaign donations from her ex-boyfriends or when Andrew Yang declared he was not insane. But for the most part, the 10 Democratic candidates had little to say and did not inspire confidence that they could defeat Trump in a year's time even if he were to be impeached by the House of Representatives.
Perhaps the only exception to this would be Pete Buttigieg. Klobuchar and Tulsi Gabbard tried to knock Buttigieg off his game by challenging his lack of experience and foreign policy credentials and Buttigieg handled them with ease. When Kamala Harris was given an opportunity to go after Buttigieg she demurred. Harris was more interested in settling scores with Gabbard who knocked Harris off her pedestal in the July debate and has been unable to climb back. Biden was fine when he kept his answers short, but bizarrely went after Tom Steyer over his commitment to climate change. Rachel Maddow and company lobbed softball questions at both Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and will likely remain where they have been. Booker had a nice closing statement during which he invoked Congressman John Lewis who was sitting in the audience, but he also had to beg to be included in next month's debate. As of this writing only six candidates have qualified (Buttigieg, Biden, Bernie, Warren, Klobuchar and Harris) to say nothing of former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
As for the crowd at the Black Sheep, it was quite hostile to Biden as was the case when I attended the September debate on the Lower East Side. While Warren did not get the raucous reception she got back in September, she was warmly received as were Bernie and Yang. The NYC Political Forum is ostensibly a non-partisan organization, I get the sense its orientation is fairly left-wing. However, this was a slightly older crowd and a little more low key than when surrounded by SJW NYU students. Perhaps I will attend future debate watch parties or other events.
The question remains if future debates will continue to be overshadowed by impeachment proceedings. The next debate is also scheduled to take place six days before Christmas. Given that the Iowa Caucus takes place in February it would have been more sensible to have this debate in January. But politics and sensibility seldom align. In which case next month's debate will very likely be as anti-climatic as the one which occurred less than 24 hours ago.
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