THE DAILY NEWSLETTER  - THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2020

Media Winners & Losers

MEDIA WINNER:
Lester Holt, Hallie Jackson, Chuck Todd, Vanessa Hauc and Jon Ralston

First of all, there are the hard numbers: NBC's Democratic debate in Las Vegas drew a massive audience of 19.65 million viewers. That, according to the network, is the biggest audience for a Democratic debate in history. Same for the demo numbers. 5.3 million people in the 25-54 demo watched the debate, yet another record.

The debate wasn't a hyped-up bore either. It was easily the wildest show of the 2020 race, and it also got points for substance.

The credit for this particular show, critics have gushed, goes to the moderators. The star team of debate hosts included NBC's Lester Holt, Hallie Jackson, Chuck Todd, Telemundo's Vanessa Hauc and The Nevada Independent's Jon Ralston. They all earned raves.

"This is absolute fire," remarked Politico's Ben White. "And nothing like we've seen before."

There were some stray complaints that the moderators let things get out of hand, but the overwhelming consensus was that they asked tough questions and let the debate flow freely without imposing draconian constraints on answers that led to a choppy show. It was a huge night for NBC and these journalists.
MEDIA LOSER:
Roger Stone

Roger Stone, political animal, saw his penchant for the dark arts catch up with him on Thursday. He was sentenced to three years and four months in prison.

A D.C.judge doled out the sentencing to Stone on Thursday after he was found guilty of witness tampering and lying to Congress, amongst other counts.

Stone, a longtime adviser to President Donald Trump and frequent InfoWars personality, was also slapped with a $20,000 fine. 

His crimes were borne out of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, which he himself ended up interfering in, to no one's surprise.

Aside from getting nuked with a years-long prison sentence, Stone got absolutely roasted by the judge who worked his case, Amy Berman Jackson. She referred to him as "an insecure person who craves and recklessly pursues attention."

The massive grin on Stone's face that met a swarm of cameras as he left the sentencing proved her right.

It remains unclear whether Trump will pardon Stone. But with a gag order enforced, on top of the looming sentence, it's unlikely we'll see him on InfoWars anytime soon.

 

The A-Block

Everyone Hates Mike

The Democratic primary debate Wednesday night almost immediately turned into a carpet bombing of billionaire candidate Mike Bloomberg.

Bernie Sanders threw the first punch by criticizing stop and frisk policing, Elizabeth Warren escalated the attacks by labelling Bloomberg “a billionaire who calls women ‘fat broads’ and ‘horse-faced lesbians.’"

Amy Klobuchar then took offense to a Bloomberg campaign staff memo that recommended that three of the candidates should "get out of the way." Klobuchar promised she would not “pave the way for him to be the nominee.”

In the continued ambush, Joe Biden took a swing at Bloomberg by questioning his management of New York as mayor, stating, "The fact of the matter is, he has not managed his city very well when he was there. He didn’t get a lot done. He has stop and frisk, throwing close to 5 million young black men up against a wall.”

Republicans, Independents, and Bros

Pete Buttigieg, in an attack towards both Bloomberg and Sanders, said, “Let’s put forward someone who’s actually a Democrat.”

Buttigieg later criticized Sanders supporters (referred to as “Bernie Bros”) for their ugly remarks on Twitter. Warren quickly piggybacked on this critique, stating, “I’ve said many times before, we are all responsible for our supporters, and we need to step up." 

Sanders fired back by saying that he would disown any supporter engaging in ugly remarks.

Everyone Hates Mike Round 2 (TKO)

Shortly after the discussion on Sanders's "Bernie Bros," the heat was back on Bloomberg and his past advocacy for "stop and frisk" policing. Bloomberg explained that he used the policy to "give people the right to live," later adding that he understands "it got out of control."

Unsatisfied with his answer, Warren reminded the former Mayor, "Now this isn’t about how it turned out, this is about what it was designed to do to begin with. It targeted communities of color." She later added, "You need a different apology here."

Continuing a tough night for Bloomberg, the former Mayor was booed when he stated, "they have every right to expect that they will stay private" in reference to NDAs with female employees.

Bloomberg took a final shot at Warren and Sanders, billing their ideas as communism and arguing that nominating them would be Trump's best bet for re-election. Warren and Sanders fired back with claims that their policies are what the American people want.

Mediaite's Colby Hall determined the winners of the debate as Warren, Sanders, Klobuchar, as well as the good old viewers of American television. Hall labeled Bloomberg the loser, with participation trophies for Buttigieg and Biden.

Trump Hunts Fox

Trump's love-hate relationship with Fox News is a lot more love than hate, but every so often he throws a fit to keep everyone entertained. Thursday's fit came with a little twist: Trump attacked A.B. Stoddard, a frequent Fox guest and skeptic of his genius, as well as anchor Neil Cavuto, a regular target of his ire.

But Trump also singled out Paul Ryan, his old colleague who now serves on Fox's board.

Is all hope lost for this love affair? No. Stop assuming that.

Must-See Clip of the Day

A CNN anchor dumps Trump in favor of a fact check

CNN host Brooke Baldwin cut off Trump's speech following the sentencing of his former campaign adviser Roger Stone to fact-check his comments with CNN legal analyst Elie Honig.

“Okay, we’re going to pull away from this,” Baldwin declared while President Trump was still talking. “Elie Honig, just jump right in because there’s a lot to go through as often when the president speaks we need to fact check. Where do you want to begin?”

Honig proceeded to call out Trump for attacking one of the jurors on Stone's trial, and rebuked the president's claim that Stone wasn't involved with his campaign.

Watch that moment here...

Links We Like

BREAKING: Russia is helping Trump in 2020, and he's apparently mad about people knowing it
via NY Times
RELATABLE: Mike Bloomberg is too rich for TurboTax
- via Washington Free Beacon

Read Matt Labash's brilliant 2007 profile of Roger Stone
- via The Weekly Standard
A rare Ferrari burst into flames in Monte Carlo. Again, relatable.
- via Daily Mail
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