Protesters chanting "Flint Lives Matter" outside GOP debate in Detroit. pic.twitter.com/XapEu8CxGJ
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) March 4, 2016
Fox News livestream here.
Guardian liveblog here.
In '12. @realDonaldTrump begged to moderate debate. Romney said no. He begged to be on campaign plane. No. Begged for convention slot. No.
— stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) March 3, 2016
Keith P.
Trump is really cornered on this off-the-record conversation. They’re trying to get him to release the recording. Trump responds by going off on tangents. And refuses to release the tapes. Not good optics.
Corner Stone
No one gives a shit about anything the NYT has to say.
lamh36
@Keith P.:
What OTR convo are we talking about? I missed the news about it?
Bill E Pilgrim
@Keith P.: He’s pretending that being off the record is to protect the journalists, rather than the person they’re interviewing. And his supporters are too stupid to understand the difference or care.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Poke that fucking bear, Stuey.
Just Some Fuckhead
Little Marco is spunky, isn’t afraid mix it up with Big Donald.
lamh36
@Corner Stone: right…what Faux News watcher is gonna even care about the NYT?
lamh36
Ready
Trump getting hammered on NYT conversation and the budget. His numbers just don’t add up.
Kelly going at him hard.
Just wait until Singer and the Hedge Fund Boys join in when their ads go up and on!
The Dangerman
Oh, oh, Megyn talking to Trump about fantasies … this should get interesting…
Iowa Old Lady
@lamh36: Apparently he had an OTR conversation with the NYT saying that he’ll be “flexible” about immigration once he has the nomination.
Keith P.
@lamh36: NYT had an OTR with Trump where he claimed the wall with Mexico is just a negotiating tactic and not something that will absolutely happen. It’s basically an admission that he’s a BS artist.
beltane
@efgoldman: Trump is going to lose the support of the totebaggers.
beltane
This debate needs more Ben Carson.
Eric S.
@efgoldman: My downstairs neighbors get the Sunday NYT here in Chicago. I’m sure it’s just for the crossword puzzle.
Iowa Old Lady
Trump feeds off the energy of shouting crowds and fights with opponents or moderators. Democrats would do well to think about that as they strategize on how to debate him.
Just Some Fuckhead
@beltane: tRump has the fannypackers.
Just Some Fuckhead
Rubio is giving the whole worker visa scam away. I bet his billionaire donors are PISSED.
lamh36
How long is this thing supposed to last? I’ve got to watch How To Get Away With Murder in bout 15min…
Trentrunner
Let’s step back and realize that we just had the frontrunner of a national party assure a national audience that his penis was of sufficient size.
Suck on that for awhile.
Corner Stone
Lying Ted and Lil Marco
HA!
dmsilev
Rather than comparing dick size, I think they’re measuring asshole diameter.
They’re all winning.
Baud
@Keith P.:
Glad that’s cleared up.
Just Some Fuckhead
Someone should make a GIF with the candidates inside of a chainlink cage.
beltane
The snippets of polling the Guardian is putting up are frightening. For example, 50% of respondents think immigration is bad for the country, and Trump beats both Hillary and Sanders on the “Who do you trust with the economy?” question.
jl
GOPer fighting over whether Trump is being dishonest with his fans about his obviously asinine and unrealistic and idiotic plan to solve an immigration problem that does not exist. Nice example of a substantive policy discussion at a GOP debate.
Corner Stone
I have no idea what party Kasich thinks he is running for the nomination.
Tripod
RMoney does talking point copy paste from John Oliver.
dmsilev
Someone on Hillary Clinton’s social media team wins the evening.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
What’s the over/under for literal punches thrown?
Keith P.
Trump knows that OTR is potentially fatal, as does everyone else. Cruz and Rubio won’t let it go, but Donald won’t accede. Hillary’s team must be salivating at this stuff. Sunday TV and in commercials are where this stuff is really going to kill Trump, not the debate, which is just serving to show how much of a nerve it hits.
magurakurin
Man, you folks are hardy. I couldn’t watch more than one commercial break worth. I did catch Kasich talking about balancing budgets. He looked and sounded like Mugatu to me
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.
these guys all suck so bad. It will be a very sad day if any of them became president.
Anne Laurie
@lamh36:
Trump talked to some NYT reporters, and some people say that he reassured them he wasn’t really serious about that kick-out-the-Muslims-and-Mexicans stuff.
Cruz and Rubio have been blathering about that to other media outlets non-stop, partially to paint Trump as another lying billionaire. But mostly, I suspect, because shrieking RELEASE THE TRANSCRIPTS!!! has been such a go-to rallying cry against HRClinton — it comes naturally, and if it brackets Mr. NY Values with the Hildebeast in Repub voters’ tiny minds, all the better!
BillinGlendaleCA
Trump’s explaining, that ain’t winning.
Bill E Pilgrim
Possibly because I’d never really seen Kasich before watching him in one of those bad lip reading videos, whenever I see him now all I can hear is “Or we could give them cheese. Or we could give ’em Christmas pants”
PsiFighter37
The crowd cheering going ‘harder’ than waterboarding is so disappointing.
BillinGlendaleCA
Jimmy Carter, DRINK!
Baud
@PsiFighter37:
By disappointing, you mean “expected,” right?
PsiFighter37
You’re welcome
I hope I ruined everyone’s night with that one.
Mike J
@BillinGlendaleCA: Next up, why does does trump fuck pigs?
Mike J
@Mike J: Oh wait, that’s the British PM.
Renie
What’s with the audience? They seem to cheer and boo all of them. Also they are all white.
Adam L Silverman
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I don’t know, but I’ll take a piece of that action!
beltane
Per The Guardian, Rick Santorum just endorsed Rubio at CPAC, saying he agrees with Rubio even more than with himself (seriously). He was met with boos.
Chyron HR
@Ready:
Iowa Old Lady
Holy crap. From the Guardian again:
lamh36
@Anne Laurie: Ah…yeah… I don’t see that working… if Trump voters ain’t supporting him cause of logic but ok.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Renie: Little teams. Team Donald, Team Marco, etc. The Republican campaign has taken on all the trappings of a pop singing competition now.
BillinGlendaleCA
Kasich knew St. Ronnie.
PsiFighter37
John Kasich knew Ronald Reagan. But does he know Zombie Reagan?
jl
@Renie:
” What’s with the audience? They seem to cheer and boo all of them. ”
In the past the GOP debates have been packed by the different organizations with their operators and backers. I’ts the GOP, so it’s all crooked and fake.
” Also they are all white. ”
It’s the GOP, of course they are all white. You’re joking, right?
Ready
Need to attack Trump more than they are doing. Set one up so the Hedge Fund Boys have more copy for negative ads! Could be exciting!
Adam L Silverman
@Iowa Old Lady: Another good example of why Business Schools were a bad idea.
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Trump: “you knew Ronald Reagan, big deal – I knew Bonzo”
beltane
@Bill E Pilgrim: That is why Trump is winning. He is by far the most entertaining of the bunch.
Ready
Rubio needs to remember to be more Alpha against Trump. Project confidence, manliness, but not cocky like Trump.
PsiFighter37
Reading on NYT that Bernie Sanders just agreed to do a townhall on Fox News.
Fuck him – Fox News hasn’t been involved in Democratic presidential politics since 2004 for good reason.
lamh36
Anyway, I’m out of here…time for How To Get Away With Murder…see ya’ll on the flip side
Renie
At break they mentioned Fox FB page, I looked and comments are all pro-Trump and anti-Fox.
Mai.naem.mobile
Wonder if Trump promised Romney a blowjob if he got a convention slot?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Baud: Expected and disturbing is how I interpreted his code there.
@Iowa Old Lady: I thought it was a known thing that people will follow orders form a leader with a big dick. Even if orders are to commit war crimes. Trump’s brain is a very scary place.
jl
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Kasich touched the hand of Godhead Reagan! Like Enoch, Kasich may not see death, but Godhead Reagan may simply take him up and away!
dmsilev
How did Ted Cruz “spend most of his career in law enforcement”? He was a deputy attorney general of some sort in the Bush administration for a few years, but that’s about it.
I know, compared to all the other lies it’s a small thing, but still.
Bill E Pilgrim
@beltane: Yep.
Baud
@PsiFighter37: I’m disturbed by this news.
PsiFighter37
Oh man…here comes the video against Trump…
Chyron HR
@Ready:
Gosh, it’s almost like you screaming things on the internet doesn’t make them happen in real life.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@PsiFighter37: Bernie’s got his eye on the real enemy, the almost certain nominee of the party he’s been a member for almost six months.
@Ready: maybe Bill Kristol can have the Nanny fix him a plate of goat testicles to butch him up
Joel
A few months ago, I said that Donald Trump likes to swing his dick around, and that’s what the republican voters love about him.
I did not mean that literally.
Keith P.
Oh, wow, Fox is lighting Trump up with 3 full video clips of him contradicting himself.
Ready
Flip flop flop flop…
Kay
@Ready:
They can’t attack Trump on half of what he says because they lie about the same things. Common Core isn’t federal . There is no federal element. None. It’s all state law. Ted Cruz knows that, but he can’t say it, because Republicans have been lying about that since 2010.
It’s a real dilemma.
MattF
@Anne Laurie: It was actually an OTR meeting between Trump and the NYT editorial board.
PsiFighter37
I have to think that even the nitwits out there are going to see that Trump was talking out of both sides of his mouth…
Mai.naem.mobile
@Bill E Pilgrim: Maybe they should call the GOP nomination battle “The Craziest Voice”
Corner Stone
Don’t explain yourself Donald.
jl
Fox just launched a pretty sad and transparent BS gotcha attack on Trump.
I hope he can’t handle it. If he can’t then Trump will have problems being credible in general election.
dmsilev
@PsiFighter37: Yes, but will they care?
Just Some Fuckhead
@Corner Stone: Kasich needs to start clucking and doing a slow forward head roll if he expects to get any traction with this group. It might also help if he could dance a jig.
PsiFighter37
Republicans are cheering flexibility.
I think the people who are in the tank for the Donald are in it no matter what he says.
Corner Stone
@dmsilev: No. That’s Trump just telling it like it is.
beltane
@PsiFighter37: Roger Ailes himself would be a more formidable opponent against Donald Trump than any of the candidates actually running against him.
Leaving Texas
@Bill E Pilgrim: Rubio is Sanjaya?
Baud
@PsiFighter37: People believe because they want to believe.
magurakurin
Holy Torquemada, Batman, this isn’t a debate this is the FOX Inquisition. Haha, Donald, nobody expects the FOX inquisition.
what was up with that video montage. Jesus. Can you say “eating their own?” I knew that you could.
Keith P.
@jl: They should have shown his steak and TrumpU commercials. Those really get under his skin.
magurakurin
Kasich now, “I invented the piano tie!”
Bill E Pilgrim
@Leaving Texas: I’m sorry I don’t know what that means.
Edit: okay I Googled it so now I do.
I actually watched almost a whole season of one of those shows, due to a friend who liked it, but it was in a different country.
Corner Stone
What’s wrong with being a manager at BW3?
BillinGlendaleCA
Rubot is on target with Trump University.
jl
@Keith P.: Yeah, I’m waiting for the Trump U question.
Ok, Rubio on it. Except he insults Buffalo Wildwing (sp?)
beltane
@PsiFighter37: Their attachment to Trump is very strong and very emotional. They will chose Trump over Fox no matter what. Even if he moderates on key issues, they will support him to the end. He is like the North American Juan Peron.
Corner Stone
Megyn Kelly looks like a Bond Woman.
dmsilev
Megyn Kelly is flat-out calling Trump a liar (over the Trump University scam).
OK, now she just quoted an Appeals Court comparing Trump to Bernie Madoff.
PsiFighter37
I will be fascinated to see what the polling results are after this.
Aleta
Fox is so desperate it has resorted to fact checking ? That is so low.
jl
Oh, good they’re tearing each other apart now and yelling.
GOP debates are better that way.
Bill E Pilgrim
@magurakurin: Perfect.
Corner Stone
If they wanted to have Trump take his voters and go home, this was the forum to make it happen. Fox is relentlessly ambushing Trump.
PsiFighter37
Megyn Kelly basically comes out and calls Trump for a con artist.
He’s going to be flaming her hard on Twitter after this is over.
ted mills
Your link to the Guardian live blog goes to the Fox site.
Adam L Silverman
@Aleta: That’s the third seal of the Apocalypse, isn’t it?
Keith P.
And now we have reached the main event – Trump U. This is beautiful. Everyone (Kelly included) has responses to all his stock bullshit queued up and ready. Hilarious to see him called out on everything.
magurakurin
Damn, I came to see a battle royal cage match against the Final Four and the now they tell me that the truck carrying the cage broke down and we’ll be seeing a Lumberjack Match against Katie and Donald. booo!
Bill E Pilgrim
“I gave plenty of the people their money back”
The cry of massively successful business owners throughout history.
BillinGlendaleCA
Rubot just twisted the knife.
jl
@Aleta: Is Fox fact checking Rubio or Cruz? Or Kasich? Don’t hold your breath.
dmsilev
OK. Note for the future. To get under Trump’s skin, attack his business ventures. Especially the scummier ones (of which there are many).
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@PsiFighter37: Can any of this move the needle with the core Drumpf base? They seem enchanted by bullying, racist dick swinging. And completely unconcerned with policy except to the extent it needs to sound like it will screw over those people really hard.
p.a.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
To eat or to wear?
magurakurin
@BillinGlendaleCA: well in a Lumberjack match if you leave the ring, the “lumberjacks” throw you back in.
Iowa Old Lady
@ted mills: Here’s the link I’m using.
Corner Stone
First Romney and now this Fox debate bullshit. The Trump voters are going to go full on HATEFEST on Fox and the GOP establishment.
beltane
They are rioting on Fox’s Facebook page. Their sheeple are turning into Rottweilers.
BillinGlendaleCA
Tag team, now Failgunner Ted jumps in.
jl
Cruz would be hideous candidate, and hilariously repellent and predictable one.
Anne Laurie
@lamh36:
I didn’t say it made sense, to us mostly-sane people. But yelling that Trump is secretly in cahoots with That Hillary Lady is probably the best weapon the other Repubs have against him, at this point.
What other contrasts do they have? ‘Vote for me, my lies aren’t quite so outrageous’? ‘I have more experience at that profession you despise people for being experienced at’? ‘Give me enough time, I’ll put on a bigger televised event than the professional reality show presenter’?
GOP primary voters keep telling us they want the biggest, shoutiest, most xenophobic misogynist bigot they can find. Rubio and even Cruz can’t compete with Trump on that. Come the general, things may change — but then again, Trump’s really showing the world how many shouty bigots live in this here America!
p.a.
@Aleta:
It’s a first!
Bill E Pilgrim
Someone Tweeted last debate that it had devolved into basically a bunch of guys just looking around and saying “You believe this guy?” Trump tonight is actually saying it.
You just can’t satirize these people, they outrun it every time.
Leaving Texas
@Bill E Pilgrim: Sanjaya was a fan favorite who just couldn’t perform, but because of his popularity was still in the American Idol competition well after more talented singers were ejected.
beltane
On FB they are blaming Rubio for Disneyworld’s hiring of foreign workers. They do not like Lil’ Rubio it would seem.
p.a.
@Bill E Pilgrim: The fundamentalist paradox.
Joel
@PsiFighter37: They like to see him smack the weaker ones around.
At the end of the day, that is anything and everything to do with Trump. There is nothing else to it.
Mike J
@Joel: Josh Marshall’s batch slap theory.
Keith P.
Fox is basically seeing how serious Trump is about running as a third party candidate. They’re really going after him hard, even if it mortally wounds him going into the general election.
Steve in the ATL
@dmsilev:
He was also solicitor general of Texas. And FU for making me defend him!
Anne Laurie
@PsiFighter37:
In their tiny little minds, that’ll make him look more “presidential”.
Think of the numbnuts (like Howie Carr, paid reporter-imitating mouthpiece) who argued that Whitey Bulger would never have worked as an informant for the FBI, and if he did, well, that just proved how crafty ol’ Whitey was!
“Everybody loves a con man, as long as he’s not conning them.” Trump is conning them, of course, but… he’s crafty like that.
Keith P.
Damn, I was hoping Trump would get a Flint water question. That’s so out of his standard suite of answers, I was curious what kind of boilerplate answer he’d come up with.
Aleta
@dmsilev:
http://www.amazon.com/Metal-Sheriffs-Badges-1-dozen/dp/B001BR0KCO/ref=pd_sim_21_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=41YnqhaxrFL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR125%2C160_&refRID=0TCGYBKDZ6M32DPHWHY6
Bill E Pilgrim
So basically they run a clip by someone showing him saying something not politically-approved by right-wing conservatism, and ask him to explain his shameful going outside the accepted lines.
Yet that is never referred to as a system of enforcing “political correctness”.
Amir Khalid
@Steve in the ATL:
Please pardon a non-lawyer’s ignorance. (I have many lawyers among my relatives, but no law degree of my own.) As Texas solicitor-general, wouldn’t Ted Cruz have been the state government’s head lawyer rather than a law-enforcement official?
Anne Laurie
@ted mills: AGGGH! (Thanks — fixed now)
jl
@Keith P.: In a real debate, each person gets to address the same question. Many, maybe most of these debates have been schemes to rake in some cash, PR stunts, and dishonest attempts to engineer public opinion, rather than real debates.
Most of the candidates’s recent answers have been canned BS, incoherent BS, irrelevant BS, empty inspirational BS, and BS BS.
Keith P.
Every time Trump says “That I can tell you” or “believe me”, drink.
Steve in the ATL
@Amir Khalid: Yes, but is considered a type of prosecution since it’s not just civil cases
And for the record, while I admit to being a lawyer, I have never claimed to be a good one!
Bill E Pilgrim
@Keith P.: Those are his tells. Among others.
Omnes Omnibus
@Amir Khalid: No, he would be the state’s chief appellate litigator. Attorney general is the head lawyer.
sigaba
@Steve in the ATL: Talking Points Memo ran down his resume and he was at the DOJ job for all of 6 months before he got a gig at the FTC. And solicitors-general do not prosecute criminals or enforce laws as such.
Dunno maybe he slings around “I’m an officer of the court!” whenever he’s feeling lonely and unappreciated.
Anne Laurie
@Leaving Texas:
I think the Sanjaya season was when I first saw the term “hate watch” — as in, I can’t stop hate-watching Sanjay’s lousy performances — in print.
Considering that’s what we’re all doing this evening…
Captain C
@Keith P.: Are you trying to send people to the hospital?
Steve in the ATL
@sigaba: Are you saying that Cruz lied and that I was wrong?
Yeah, those are both credible allegations.
ETA: maybe that second bottle of wine was a bad idea….
Omnes Omnibus
@Anne Laurie: I am watching Vikings.
sigaba
@Steve in the ATL: I know I’m as shocked as you are.
PaulW
@Captain C:
I felt responsible for all that when I came up with drinking games back in 2015. After a few months when I realized just how bad the GOP debates were going to be, I stopped promoting them. Now I atone for my sins by petting my two cats and letting them claw me as punishment.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL:
One is far too many and more is never enough.
Steve in the ATL
@PaulW:
A cat hair shirt, if you will
ETA: yeah, second bottle of wine was definitely a bad idea
sigaba
@efgoldman: If you turn away Harding you risk angering the Taft machine…
Bill E Pilgrim
“If you gave me more time I’d finish the trip” is Kasich’s campaign slogan right?
Nate Dawg
What do all the Koch-funded astroturfers think about the debate tonight?
I’ve been working and missed the beginning. Seems like we’re to the boring part–nukes and foreign policy–yawn.
Seeing as how the first 20 minutes characterizes who “won”, who won?
Adam L Silverman
Here’s what Kim Jong Un actually said today about North Korea’s nuclear posture:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35723070
Cheryl Rofer
Imma gonna point out something Joe Cirincione tweeted today and that I’ve been thinking for some time.
NK does NOT have 10-15 nuclear bombs. It MAY have enough MATERIAL for that many. No evidence it has any weapons, certainly no warheads.
Omnes Omnibus
@Cheryl Rofer: Facts, analysis, and logic? Pshaw!
Steve in the ATL
@Cheryl Rofer: Yeah, Dear Leader may be crazy AF, but it’s hard to believe that they could make something that sophisticated that actually functioned in light of what we know about life in the DPRK
Cheryl Rofer
@Omnes Omnibus:
@Steve in the ATL:
It’s more that we have so little information about North Korea that we just don’t know. We can make some guesses about how much material they have.
They have set off four underground explosions, but that’s not the same as having a weapon. And the best guesses are that those explosions haven’t gone as planned. So extrapolating from that, my guess is that they don’t have anything they can put on a missile, although they might have one or two weapons they could put on a ship or a big airplane.
Matt McIrvin
@Nate Dawg:
The Democrats are committing suicide at the gates of Trump!