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Driving the news: Democratic contenders responded with visceral dislike to mentions of Facebook during The New York Times' recent on-camera endorsement process.

Between the lines: Tech issues have driven more campaign debate during this Democratic primary season than in previous cycles.

Be smart: Criticism of Big Tech is coming from both parties. But Republicans and conservatives have historically opposed regulating industry and breaking up monopolies, while for Democrats, it's home base.

The big picture: Facebook has leaned on its conservative connections under the Trump administration, while its relationship with Democrats has become more hostile.

Yes, but: Facebook's Silicon Valley-based workforce almost certainly leans liberal, and its chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, is a vocal Democrat.

Our thought bubble: Past presidents have shied away from criticizing or targeting specific U.S. firms, but Trump has erased that norm.

The bottom line: Big companies of a sufficient size generally avoid becoming associated with a political party because they want to attract customers across the political spectrum and they want to profit under presidents of either party.

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Facebook is worried about Democrats winning the presidential election - Axios

It's a week until the Iowa caucuses. The Democratic primary field will soon narrow to just 30 or so candidates. They've spent hours at Democratic debates most of us didn't watch talking about their health care policies or their thrilling plans to do absolutely nothing, but politely. Before we start to say goodbye, let's learn a little bit about them as people who occasionally get horny.

The New York Times asked some of the remaining Democratic candidates to give voters a peek into their mental Cinemax and reveal their celebrity crushes. I think the answers will thrill you. They may shock you. They might even horrify you. But you absolutely shouldn't vote until you've read further.

First up is clear winner Amy Klobuchar, who chose Prince. It's not just that the senator and the music legend are both from Minnesota. It's simply the only correct answer. She responded without hesitation, so it's obvious she's had sex to his music. I'm too polite to speculate as to which Prince album was playing while Klobuchar's daughter was conceived. All I'll say is that if you fuck in the vicinity of Prince's music someone's getting pregnant. That's science.

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Elizabeth Warren came in a strong second with the Rock. She even still calls him the Rock. "Dwayne Johnson" can make all the versions of The Fast and the Furious and Jumanji that moviegoers can stomach. He can even churn out some more family-friendly crap like Tooth Fairy. Warren's only interested in what the Rock is cooking while strutting his stuff in tight spandex.

For a moment while Warren was giving her answer, it seemed as if she forgot the cameras were there, closed her eyes, and sampled the candy. Don't leave our girl in a room alone with the Rock, especially if Klobuchar loaned her a copy of Diamonds and Pearls. Gett off!

My new soul brother, Mike Bloomberg, might not have had the best answer but at least it was the weirdest. He selected both Laura Dern and William H. Macy. He's a billionaire. He can cast whoever he wants in his orgies. Tom Steyer went with the safer but still dope choice of Alicia Keys. The lady can sing, and she's fine. I almost met Keys in 2001, and if I had, absolutely nothing would've happened. That's what you're supposed to say if you're married and want to remain so. That's the path Andrew Yang took.

Aww, that's sweet. But let's cut the crap. Yang is only a few months younger than I am, so I'll just assume his celebrity crush is Isabella Rossellini. She haunted teenage SER's dreams.

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Pete Buttigieg was the lone spoilsport interviewed. He claimed his celebrity crush was "not for The New York Times to know about." Teen Vogue covers celebrity crushes. This is the most innocuous ice breaker question imaginable. Is he afraid voters will think he lacks gravitas if he admits he digs Brad Pitt? Anyone who saw Fight Club wants to fuck Brad Pitt. Come on in! The water's fine. Bloomberg offered us wacky threesome scenarios, and Warren had an on-camera orgasm. Buttigieg's a Rhodes scholar. We think he can safely answer one random question without killing his campaign.

OK, well, maybe saying nothing was the wiser move.

[The New York Times]

Follow Stephen Robinson on Twitter.

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Democrats Tell New York Times Which Celebrity They Most Want To Bang - Wonkette

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US Democrats have ruled out a "witness swap" with Republicans in President Donald Trump's impeachment trial.

Lawmakers who are seeking to remove the president from office hope to hear testimony from his former National Security Adviser John Bolton.

But Democrats refused any deal to allow the son of former US Vice-President Joe Biden to be called as a witness.

Mr Trump is accused of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. He strongly denies any wrongdoing.

House Democrats have up to three days to make their case as they present their arguments in the impeachment trial in the Senate. Mr Trump's defence team will have three days after that for a rebuttal.

Democrats accuse the president of using US military aid as a bargaining chip in an attempt to prod Ukraine into announcing an investigation to discredit his would-be Democratic White House challenger, Mr Biden.

Mr Trump has been touting corruption claims against Mr Biden, whose son Hunter held a lucrative board position with a Ukrainian gas firm while his father was US vice-president and in charge of American-Ukrainian relations.

Attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, Mr Trump jokingly warned he might confront Democrats by coming to "sit right in the front row and stare at their corrupt faces".

The impeachment trial could end next week, but Mr Trump's fellow Republicans control the chamber and are unlikely to oust him.

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There was one thing in particular that President Trump said which was kind of like a red rag to a bull.

It's when he said basically: "Well things are going very well, we have all the information, and they [Democrats] have none of it."

Well, if you want a fair trial, then maybe that information should be made available.

We keep using the word "trial", and the words "jurors" and "witnesses" and "evidence", but we must not lose sight that this is a political process.

We saw that clearly last night when the first votes started coming in. In a vote that split completely along party lines, 53 Republicans said "no we should not be able to subpoena the White House for documents", while 47 Democrats said "yes we should".

So we have Donald Trump kind of goading and saying: "Look I've got the information. We know what happened, but we're not going to tell you."

I think this might inflame public opinion. Polls are already indicating that a clear majority believe that evidence should be handed over and witnesses should be called.

Democrats want to call Mr Bolton, who referred to the White House's alleged political pressure on Ukraine as a "drug deal", according to previous witness testimony in the House of Representatives.

But the former national security adviser has said he will not consider testifying unless served with a legal summons known as a subpoena.

Mr Trump's Republican allies have argued Hunter Biden should also be ordered to appear before the impeachment trial.

But Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the top Democrat in the Senate, told reporters during a break in the trial on Wednesday: "That trade is not on the table."

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Joe Biden said on Wednesday in Osage, Iowa, where he is campaigning for the White House that he would not offer himself up in any witness trade.

"We're not going to turn it into a farce or political theatre," Mr Biden said. "I want no part of that."

Defending his son, Mr Biden added: "There's nobody that's indicated there's a single solitary thing he did that was inappropriate or wrong - other than the appearance. It looked bad that he was there."

Mr Biden said last year that if elected president, no-one in his family would hold a job or have a business relationship with a foreign corporation.

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On Wednesday, the lead Democratic prosecutor, California congressman Adam Schiff, criticised President Trump's dealings with Ukraine as "worse than crazy".

"It's repulsive, it's repugnant. It breaks our word. And to do it in the name of these corrupt investigations is also contrary to everything we espouse around the world," he said.

Mr Schiff, who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, urged Republicans to vote to remove Mr Trump from office to "protect our democracy".

He warned that senators would "also undermine our global standing" if they do not oust the president.

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The first day of the trial dragged on till the early hours of Wednesday morning as the senators debated a flurry of incremental motions.

Much of the evidence being laid out is a rehash of testimony already presented exhaustively in the House of Representatives, which voted to impeach Mr Trump last month.

Under arcane rules, senators are forbidden to drink coffee on the chamber floor and are only allowed water and milk.

A number of senators, mostly Republicans, were seen to be absent from the chamber during Mr Schiff's presentation.

Also, several members were spotted dozing during the proceedings.

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Impeachment: Democrats reject witness swap in Trump trial - BBC News

Former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders during the Democratic presidential campaign debate at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, January 14, 2020. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)If and when the race narrows to the strongest candidate in each lane, Democrats will be forced to focus on the only questions that really matter to them.

Sure, anything can happen, and pundit predictions are hardly worth the pixels that deliver them. But if I were phoning my bets overseas to PaddyPower, Id buy Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden and short Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg. The four-person race looks set to become a two-person race in the near future, and I think the dynamic will be self-reinforcing. Biden vs. Bernie: a race for the ages and the aged.

Biden has basically stayed at the top of the heap since he entered this race. Hes done so despite substandard fundraising and no cheering section in the media. Many Democrats detest the fact that he is leading. They worry about his verbal slip-ups and his politically incorrect statements. They dont want the Democratic standard-bearer in 2020 to be a man old enough to remember doing deals with segregationists, much less one who seems proud of that history. They fear that he would become the partys Bob Dole, a past-his-prime senator who got the nod through sheer seniority, unable to take on the energetic, if sleazy, incumbent. Yet while hes been attacked by younger, hungrier, more diverse candidates, Biden has maintained his dominant position among African-American voters and kept a healthy plurality of the older Democrats who turn out in primary elections. And front-runners have a tendency to sweep through divided fields.

Standing in his way is Bernie, who is surging two weeks before Iowa, in striking distance of the lead there and, according to one reliable poll, holding a decent lead in New Hampshire. Part of his national surge is his increased performance among non-white voters.

Id bet on the field to narrow to these two for two reasons.

First, theres a tendency for the top-polling candidates going into Iowa to overperform in the final results, because the caucusing process ultimately forces supporters of low-performing candidates to cast their votes for stronger ones. Second, the possibility of Bernies winning may drive a stampede toward Biden or vice versa.

The emergence of a head-to-head race between Biden and Sanders would immediately clarify the choices for Democrats.

One septuagenarian Sanders has recently suffered a heart attack. The other septuagenarian Biden frequently seems to have senior moments in the middle of his sentences. A race between these two could eliminate age as a relevant dynamic, leaving clear questions of electability and ideology on the table.

And what then? On one side there is Biden, the more moderate Democrat who scares nobody by design hes framed his entire campaign as a return to normalcy but doesnt excite progressive activists. On the other side there is Sanders, whose has argued in recent debates that he is electable because he has the backing of a large, young, grassroots movement whose enthusiasm will become contagious. The viability of one could drive the viability of the other.

After many pointless hours debating the ins and outs of Platonic health-care reforms that will never be implemented and many pointless minutes worrying about personality, a BidenSanders clash would focus the race on the only questions that really matter to Democrats: Should the party move to the left or to the center? Do the necessary voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin want a major revision to the American economic model, or do they merely want a Democratic candidate who connects with them on the gut level, who wont call them deplorable?

Those are debates worth having, and Democrats may have them sooner than youd think.

See the original post here:
The Coming Biden and Bernie Show - National Review

For our series Three Meals, Major Garrett traveled to three cities in Texas to talk to voters over breakfast, lunch and dinner.

In Texas, impeachment came up frequently; overall, most voters were fatigued by it all. But those paying close attention defied party stereotypes.

Garrett started in a diverse area outside of Houston with eggs, hash browns and pancakes at the Avalon Diner in Stafford.

"The economy is going really well," said dentist Scott Benoit. "I think overall we're safe as a country. Everything's going pretty well."

The "Now Hiring" sign outside backs that up; the Avalon's owner told us she's lost workers to better jobs elsewhere.

Benoit did not vote for Mr. Trump in 2016, but will this year. His wife Jeannine, a speech therapist, was with the president from the beginning. "I just have more conservative values, so I tend to go more with that person," she said.

Just across from Scott and Jeannine, Garrett met Bernard and Sharon Maynore. Both work in health care. Bernard said, "I feel mystified when I'm listening to what Donald Trump has to say."

Garrett asked, "How frequently now, or during the Trump presidency, have you found yourself shaking your head?"

"Every day," Sharon replied. " My co-workers said that we needed a change, they wanted to make America great again. I'm wondering, do those same people, do they think that he has made American great again?"

Then it was on to lunch in conservative Midland, a boom town in West Texas, where oil and natural gas production runs around the clock

At Mac's Bar-B-Q, a local favorite, the brisket is slow-cooked out back for 18 hours. Customers start arriving for lunch around 11.

Kyle Davis, his brother Jake, and their business partner Tom Hull run a construction and drilling company. Kyle and Jake support President Trump and expect him to be re-elected.

"I don't like all the nonsense that comes with him," Kyle said. "But yeah, his policy has been spot-on."

Jake added, "I really don't want another Obama. I kind of feel like he divided our country."

Garrett asked both about impeachment. Kyle's answer surprised him: "Was it an impeachable offense? Yeah, it sounds like it probably was," he said.

Jake took the long view: "I'm sure at some point every president could have been impeached."

Tom Hull calls himself a New England Republican and considers Mr. Trump a failure. "The economy's been propped up with record levels of deficit spending," he said. "And he picks fights that he doesn't know how to get out of."

Garrett also met Alison Loera, Laura Ortega and Jennifer Reyes. Loera works in insurance; Ortega and Reyes are data specialists for drilling companies.

They criticized the president for his comments about the Hispanic community. Loera said, "We feel targeted."

Garrett asked, "Do you feel lumped in or somehow demonized?"

"In a way, I guess," Loera replied.

Reyes said, "Comments like that shouldn't be made by someone with that much power and authority."

Dinner took Garrett to The Flying Saucer pub in Garland, a politically-moderate area northeast of Dallas.

"I voted for Trump," said Rita Dusek. "I did, because I thought we need somebody who's not a politician. But that didn't seem to work out," she laughed.

Garrett asked, "Will you vote for him again?"

"No," she said.

Her husband, Al, a registered Republican, said, "I did not vote for him. I don't like extremism on either side."

Just across the way Garrett met David Lindsay, who owns a construction firm. "The economy has probably been the best since I've owned the company," he said.

"Do you give anyone in the political world credit for that?" asked Garrett.

"I will solidly give the president credit for doing it," said Lindsey.

The president's volatile style was raised: "Do you ever wish he would tone it down?" asked Garrett.

"Oh, yeah, I think somebody should hide his cellphone on him," Lindsey said.

Blake Hammerton and Daniel Torres both opposed Mr. Trump in 2016, and will vote in the March 3 Texas Democratic primary.

"I have very, very strong feeling: the young vote will come out this year," Torres said.

Garrett asked, "When you think about the Democrats, what are your thoughts?"

"Stop making everything a battle to the end," Hammerton said. "The Democrats are exhausting themselves and exhausting the public."

Sounds like they're exhausting you? "Yes!" he said.

Garrett said of his excursion that, among Democrats, he did not find hard-core supporters of Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden. "Flat line across the board, Texas Democrats are waiting for Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada to sort this out," he said. "Democrats said they were keeping an open mind for Texas' 'Super Tuesday' primary."

One person they were keeping in mind, because he's on TV so frequently in Texas, is Mike Bloomberg, he added, noting the billionaire's strategy of creating an impression with voters via paid ads while his opponents fighting it out in Iowa, New Hampshire and elsewhere have yet to make an impression in the Lone Star State.

Garrett asked everyone if they had seen or remembered a Bloomberg TV ad. All but two had. Trump supporters said they thought Bloomberg might give the president the toughest challenge.

"One other thing: when we asked people what they thought about the November election, they said two words: anticipation, and dread."

Other entries in our "Three Meals" series:

Read more from the original source:
Democrats and Republicans across the Lone Star State defy party stereotypes, as they talk about a stronger economy, and a president's divisive...