Friday, December 20

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KNIVES OUT FOR 'WINE CAVE' PETE Pete Buttigieg was attacked by his presidential primary opponents as an inexperienced politician beholden to wealthy donors during the sixth Democratic debate, after weeks of steadily rising in the polls. The Indiana mayor had not previously faced such direct attacks during a primary debate. [HuffPost]

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MALE CANDIDATES COULDN'T ANSWER Q ABOUT WOMEN IN POWER Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former Vice President Joe Biden botched the question from Politico’s Tim Alberta, who brought up former President Barack Obama’s recent comments that if women ruled every country, the world “would see a significant improvement across the board on just about everything.” [HuffPost]

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NEW NORTH AMERICAN TRADE DEAL PASSED The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a new North American trade deal on Thursday that includes tougher labor and automotive content rules but leaves $1.2 trillion in annual U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade flows largely unchanged. [Reuters]

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SCHUMER SLAMS NO-WITNESS TRIAL Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that being able to subpoena witnesses and press the White House for relevant documents are the top demands from Democrats for the impeachment trial. “I think people understand a very simple fact: To have a trial with no witnesses and no documents is a sham trial,” he added. Meanwhile, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell said it's "fine with me" that Democrats delay sending the impeachment articles to the Senate. [HuffPost]

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REP. JEFF VAN DREW SWITCHES PARTIES After nearly a week of speculation, New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew has officially abandoned Democrats to join the Republican Party, he announced during a press conference with President Donald Trump. He said Trump has his “undying support.” [HuffPost]

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UN PEACEKEEPERS ABANDONED HUNDREDS OF CHILDREN United Nations peacekeepers in Haiti fathered hundreds of children with local women and girls — sometimes through exploitative or violent sex — and then abandoned them, according to a troubling study. [HuffPost]

WHAT'S BREWING

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DISABILITY RIGHTS FINALLY GOT AIRTIME LAST NIGHT About 1 in 4 adults in the U.S. are disabled, representing some 61 million Americans. Among the three candidates who got a chance to respond to a question on how they'd address their needs, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s comments drew some of the most lavish praise. [HuffPost]

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3 TAKEAWAYS FROM THE DEM DEBATE The two most memorable exchanges involved harsh attacks on Buttigieg from Warren and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.). If Buttigieg’s boomlet ended on Thursday, Klobuchar is set to pick up the narrative baton. Biden had some strong moments, especially on foreign policy. But he doesn’t actually need to have strong moments to win. [HuffPost]

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WHAT DOES TRUMP HAVE THAT NIXON DIDN'T? FOX NEWS. If Trump survives impeachment, he can thank the work of a young aide for the last Republican president to face impeachment for trying to cheat in his reelection: Roger Ailes, the founder of Fox News. Richard Nixon’s impeachment took place before Ailes could act on a 1970 memo titled “A Plan for Putting the GOP on TV News.” [HuffPost]

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THE ARMY OF PRAYER WARRIORS FIGHTING IMPEACHMENT As Trump faces increasingly grim polling numbers over impeachment, white evangelicals have dug in as his most loyal defenders. According to a Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted in late October, about a month after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the official launch of the impeachment probe, 80% of white evangelicals opposed impeaching Trump. Meanwhile, the editor of Christianity Today, a magazine founded by the late evangelist Billy Graham that claims a readership of 5 million, wrote in an editorial that Trump should be removed for his "grossly immoral character." [HuffPost]

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BIDEN STRUGGLES WITH YOUNG VOTERS Biden’s struggle with young voters could be a preview of a significant flaw in the general election, when Democrats will need liberal-leaning young voters to turn out in significant numbers. An Iowa State University poll found him earning the support of just 2% of caucus-goers younger than 34. [HuffPost]

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... AND BERNIE CAN'T CAPTIVATE OLDER ONES In a Quinnipiac University poll released on Dec. 10, Sanders had a grand total of 2% support among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independent voters aged 65 and older, and 6% of the same voters aged 50 to 64. For Biden those figures were 47% and 35%, respectively. [HuffPost]

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BEFORE YOU GO