CNN Draws Lineups For 2nd Democratic Debates As Biden Continues To Lead

A new NBC News|SurveyMonkey online poll shows former Vice President Joe Biden still leading the pack of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, although the numbers are beginning to tighten.

Biden garnered 25% support in the survey taken after the first Democratic debate.

Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) tied at second with 16% support each.

California Sen. Kamala Harris barely behind them with 14% and Mayor Pete Buttigieg rounds out the Top 5 with 8% support.

These seem to be coalescing into the top tier candidates.

National Dem Primary:

Biden 25%
Sanders 16%
Warren 16%
Harris 14%
Buttigieg 8%
O’Rourke 3%
Booker 3%
Yang 2%
Castro 2%

NBC News/Survey Monkey Poll

— Political Polls (@PpollingNumbers) July 19, 2019

In related news, CNN drew the placements last night for the second Democratic debates set to take place July 30 and 31.

Looks like Sanders and Warren will get to go head-to-head on the first night along with Mayor Pete, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and former Rep. Beto O'Rourke, while Harris and Biden will have another chance to go at it on the second night .

Here are the podium positions for each night of CNN's Democratic debates https://t.co/BGKn1NXcFz pic.twitter.com/KdjAJHEYjU

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 19, 2019

Recapping Democratic Debate Night 2

Sen.Kamala Harris (L), Mayor Pete Buttigieg (R)

By most political experts' accounts, the second night of Democratic debates was dominated by a stellar performance by California Sen. Kamala Harris.

Consensus also agrees Mayor Pete Buttigieg scored well as the first openly gay presidential candidate to take to the debate stage.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the current front-runner in polling, found himself playing defense a surprising amount of time given that this is the first Democratic debate.

Check out these highlights for both via Twitter:

Senator Kamala Harris:

"Hey guys, you know what? America does not want to witness a food fight. They wanna know how we're going to put food on their tables."

POINTS for the adult in the room. #DemDebate2 pic.twitter.com/FnufZ2t1IH

— BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) June 28, 2019

‘There was a little girl in California who was part of the 2nd class to integrate her public schools & she was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me.’@KamalaHarris called out @JoeBiden for defending segregationists & his past opposition to busing #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/ZYAtAfP36B

— NowThis (@nowthisnews) June 28, 2019

Beautiful response from @PeteButtigieg on the hypocritical way the GOP shields itself in the cloak of Christianity while condoning human atrocities. #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/NkIgpZuMVg

— Zack Ford (@ZackFord) June 28, 2019

"I couldn't get it done." @PeteButtigieg displays great humility as he explains the way he wishes he could end police-involved violence against black people. #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/QWX5QmIUb9

— Zack Ford (@ZackFord) June 28, 2019

FiveThirtyEight teamed with Morning Consult to determine who 'won' the debates:

Among all 20 candidates, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren and Julián Castro earned the highest scores for their debate performances relative to their favorability rating before they took the stage, according to the voters in our poll.

Bernie Sanders and Cory Booker also rated well, but their scores were more in line with their pre-debate favorability.

Meanwhile, voters didn’t exactly think Beto O’Rourke did badly on Night 1, but his grades were underwhelming given his popularity.

A CNN focus group agreed with the pundits:

Democratic White House Hopefuls To Debate LGBTQ Policies For 1st Time In 10 Years

Out Mayor Pete Buttigieg has already qualified for the Democratic LGBTQ Forum

For the first time in ten years, Democratic presidential candidates will share their policy positions and views on LGBTQ issues at a debate to be hosted by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation and UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs.

Scheduled for October 10, coinciding with National Coming Out Day, the event will be held on UCLA campus.

The topics will range from hate crimes, transgender rights, so-called ‘conversion therapy’ and more.

To qualify for participation, a candidate needs to poll at least 1% in three separate national polls, OR receive campaign donations from over 65,000 people in at least 20 states.

As Instinct recently reported, openly Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, has already crossed that threshold.

The forum will be one of 12 debates to be held during the Democratic primary season leading up to the 2020 election.

The last forum sponsored by the HRC took place in 2008 with then-candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinish and Bill Richardson.

It’s notable that LGBTQ issues have shifted substantially since then.

According to Gallup polling: 

• In 2008, 55% felt “same-sex relations between consenting adults should be legal.” In 2018, that figure has reached 75% support.

• In 2008, only 40% of those polled agreed that “marriages between same-sex couples should be recognized by the law as valid.” In 2018, that figure had risen to 67% support.

There hasn’t been a Republican presidential debate on LGBTQ issues.

As NBC News points out, LGBTQ Americans have traditionally voted for Democrats in presidential elections.

According to an NBC News exit poll last November, 82 percent of LGBTQ voters cast a ballot for their district’s Democratic candidate for the House of Representatives. 

And in 2016, 78 percent of LGBTQ voters cast a ballot for the Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton.)

SNL Cold Open: The Final Clinton/Trump Presidential Debate

Saturday Night Live gave us one final chance to see "Hillary Clinton" and "Donald Trump" face off in a presidential debate last night.

From the Huffington Post:

“Saturday Night Live” poked fun at Donald Trump’s relationships with the FBI, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the KKK in its final pre-election show. Alec Baldwin as the GOP nominee and Kate McKinnon as Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton appeared on the spoof “OutFront” show.

But instead of asking Baldwin as Trump about his scandals, show anchor Erin Burnett (played by Cecily Strong) just kept questioning McKinnon as Clinton about her emails. It didn’t even matter whether Baldwin as Trump planted kisses on the lips of an FBI agent, a Klansman or a fake Putin.

“Erin, you saw that, right? He kissed an FBI guy?” McKinnon’s character asked Strong at one point. “It doesn’t seem like enough of a story, let’s get back to your emails,” Strong as Burnett replied.

Baldwin and McKinnon later broke character by saying they felt “gross” about the election, before running out into the streets of New York City to hug passersby. “None of this will have mattered if you don’t vote,” Baldwin, as himself, said after they returned to the studio.

“We can’t tell you who to vote for, but on Tuesday, we all get a chance to choose what kind of country we want to live in,” McKinnon added.

Hysterical SOUND OF MUSIC Parody From Randy Rainbow Of 3rd Prez Debate

Just hit play and laugh.

Hilarious parody version of The Sound of Music tune "Lonely Goatherd" from Randy Rainbow as he skewers the final presidential debate.

The Two Moments From The 3rd Presidential Debate Everyone Is Talking About

Instead of recapping the entire third presidential debate last night, I'll just get to the two moments that grabbed everyone's attention.

The first was Donald Trump's attempt to treat the debate like the finale of a reality TV show when he announced he would decide at a later date whether or not he would accept the results of the election.

From CBS News:

On the University of Nevada debate stage in Las Vegas, Trump was asked point-blank whether he would “absolutely accept” the result of this election.

His response: “I will look at it at the time. I’m not looking at anything now. I’ll look at it at the time.”

The statement came just hours after his own vice presidential nominee, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, told CNN in a pre-debate interview: “I’ve said before that we’ll certainly accept the outcome of this election.”

Debate moderator Chris Wallace, of Fox News, pressed Trump on the “tradition in this country” of the election loser conceding, allowing for a “peaceful transition of power.”

“Are you saying you’re not prepared now to commit to that principle?” Wallace asked.

“What I’m saying is that I will tell you at the time,” Trump replied. “I’ll keep you in suspense. OK?”

The second moment came near the very end when Trump interrupted Hillary Clinton to say she was "such a nasty woman."

Donald Trump on Hillary Clinton: "Such a nasty woman." https://t.co/usejAClJEo #Debates https://t.co/v8pOxQffj7

— ABC News (@ABC) October 20, 2016

Here's how folks in the political world scored the two candidates:

“She devastated him. He melted down. His refusal to accept the results of this election disqualifies him automatically from any office in the United States. There were several areas where he was utterly incoherent, grasping at ‘facts,’ without any understanding of policy. His personal foulness emerged.” - Andrew Sullivan for New York Magazine

“He should have said he would accept the results of the election. There is no other option unless we’re in a recount again.” - conservative pundit Laura Ingraham

“This was the Democratic nominee’s best debate performance. She finally figured out the right calibration of ignoring and engaging Trump.” - Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post

“Clinton really is doing well tonight. Again and again, she’s taken Trump apart.” - James Astill of The Economist

Hillary Takes Triple-Crown: Clinton Wins 3rd Debate Against Trump 52% - 39%

According to the CNN/ORC poll, Democrat Hillary Clinton won the third and final presidential debate against Republican Donald Trump.

The survey showed 52% of voters who watched the debate said she scored the best arguments, while 39% said Trump came out on top.

Bill Clinton & Melania Trump Will Not Cross Paths Before Tonight's Presidential Debate

According to the New York Times, the spouses and children of the two presidential candidates will not cross paths as they enter the third and final debate tonight in Las Vegas.

You'll remember at the last debate, the Trump campaign attempted to seat past accusers of Bill Clinton in the Trump family VIP seating meaning he would have been face to face with the women at the top of the evening.

The Clinton side is not taking any chances at the final presidential debate, on Wednesday night in Las Vegas, and has apparently gained approval of a different protocol for the entry of the candidates’ spouses and families into the debate hall.

The new arrangement calls for the candidates’ spouses to enter the hall closer to their seats, rather than crossing the room, and each other’s paths. That would avoid any potential for confrontations, given Mr. Trump’s penchant for dramatic stunts.

On Tuesday, an aide to Mrs. Clinton declined to comment on the change, and aides to Mr. Trump did not respond to an email seeking comment. It is possible, of course, that further negotiations could result in a different arrangement, if both sides agree, by the time the debate begins at 9 p.m. Eastern.

But the unease over how the candidates’ families interact echoes that of the candidates themselves. At the debate in St. Louis, in a striking departure from tradition, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump did not shake hands at the start, though they did at the conclusion of the 90 minutes.

Hillary Clinton Wins 2nd Presidential Debate 57% - 34%

Debate watchers gave the win to Democrat Hillary Clinton for last night's 2nd presidential debate.

The CNN/ORC poll taken right after the 90 minute face-off showed 57% felt Hillary was the victor, while 34% thought Donald Trump came out on top.

According to YouGov's post-debate poll, Hillary Clinton won the debate against Donald Trump by 47% to 42%.

She was also considered “more Presidential” by a 57% to 31% margin.

Check out how the viewers broke it down via gender:

 

Watch The 2nd Presidential Debate Here

If you're reading this, you can watch the 2nd Presidential Debate via C-SPAN between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump below.

Donald Trump's #PussyGate Scandal Will Be First Topic At Tonight's Presidential Debate

According to CNN, debate moderators Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz will bring up Donald Trump's scandalous #PussyGate controversy right out of the gate tonight.

Hillary Clinton won the coin toss, so she will get the first question.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Trump campaign adviser and surrogate, told political news shows this morning that Trump will most likely apologize again for his crude language on the tape.

However, Trump has begun to resurrect via Twitter the allegations of Juanita Broaddrick (who has asserted then denied that Bill Clinton raped her in 1978)  in an attempt to deflect responsibility.

During the 90 minute town hall style debate, the moderators get to to choose the topics and audience participant's questions. According to the Commission on Presidential Debates, all 40 of the voters attending the debate (chosen by Gallup) are described as "uncommitted voters."

CNN also notes that the moderators will look to "to include topics that were not covered during the first debate, plus campaign storylines -- like the Trump tape fallout -- that have happened since then."

The debate will air on all major networks beginning at 9PM ET/6PM PT.

Super Deluxe Edit Of Veep Debate

Just as they did for the first presidential debate, Super Deluxe delivers an artfully crafted edit of the vice-presidential debate this week between Sen. Tim Kaine and Gov. Mike Pence.

Love the almost bizarro-world inner monologue presented here from the Pence perspective.

Randy Rainbow Moderates The Veep Debate

Randy Rainbow sits in as moderator for the 2016 Vice-Presidential Debate.

I think Randy miiiiiight have a "silver daddy" thing for Gov. Pence :)

Stephen Colbert Recaps The Vice-Presidential Debate

For those of you who missed the Vice-Presidential Debate, let Stephen Colbert break it down for you: It was Vice-Exciting!

“It was like watching a loaf of white bread get pistol whipped by a jar of mayonnaise: not a lot of flavor but there was a clear winner.”

Vice-Presidential Debate Recap: Pence Wins On Style, Kaine Wins On Substance

Last night, voters got to see their vice-presidential candidates - Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Republican Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana - face off for the one and only time this election cycle.

While Kaine had some issues with style (the interrupting from the get-go was a bit off-putting), he did what he needed to do. And that was bring up all the distasteful things Trump has said throughout the campaign, which Pence tried to deny.

Pence was successful in looking calm and presidential, hoping to tamp down some of the fallout from last week's first presidential debate where his running mate Donald Trump ran off the rails a bit.

As an LGBT advocate, I was disappointed that Kaine didn't take an opportunity to highlight Pence's virulently anti-LGBT record, which I've documented many times here on The Randy Report. MSNBC's Rachel Maddow felt the same way.

It did seem Kaine got under Pence's skin a bit by bringing up Trump's anti-Mexican comments. At one point Pence turned to Kaine and said, "You whipped out that Mexican thing again," which immediately became an Internet meme.

The CNN/ORC poll right after the debate showed Pence won by a narrow margin. A CNN focus group of undecided voters, however, felt Kaine was the victor.

However, when it came to who defended their running mate better, Kaine won by a wide margin.

In the end, I don't think the debate will move the needle much in either direction. As others have said, Pence helped Pence while Kaine helped Clinton. Kaine knew exactly what he was doing.

Kaine's pugnacious performance made it possible to produce videos like the two below, which are devastating to the Trump/Pence campaign.

6. In the end, Kaine enable the Hillary campaign to produce this video, which is devastating pic.twitter.com/lAcAxI2n1U

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) October 5, 2016

Don't Miss The Vice-Presidential Debate Tonight At 9PM ET/6PM PT

Make sure you're sitting in front of the TV tonight for the one and only Vice-Presidential Debate between Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican Mike Pence.

Among many other issues that separate the two presidential tickets (including the lack of class on the GOP side) you can check out where the veep candidates stand on LGBTQ issues.

As many folks know, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence is famously anti-LGBTQ.

Some details from the Human Rights Campaign:

Pence became a national disgrace in 2015, for his “license to discriminate” bill that could have allowed businesses to deny service to LGBTQ people -- and subsequently defending the bill over an outcry from the business community and a majority of Hoosier voters. In a now notorious interview with ABC last year, Pence refused to answer eight separate times when asked whether businesses should be able to discriminate against LGBTQ people.

Pence also opposes marriage equality and Department of Education guidelines supporting transgender students. When serving in Congress, he voted against the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, calling it a “radical social agenda.”

Tonight’s debate will air live on all of the major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC) as well as C-SPAN and cable news channels such as CNN, Fox News, Fox Business Network, and MSNBC. Spanish-language networks Telemundo and Univision will also air the debate.

SNL Opens New Season With Alec Baldwin's Perfect "Donald Trump"

The 42nd season premiere of Saturday Night Live did not disappoint as newly-annointed Emmy Award winner Kate McKinnon came on strong with her incarnation of "Hillary Clinton," and Alec Baldwin delivered a drop-dead "Donald Trump," in SNL satirical version of this week's first presidential debate.

Mic has the recap:

"We should be talking about the important issues like Rosie O'Donnell and how she's a fat loser," Baldwin-as-Trump says after Clinton cedes her response time to him in the hopes of such a remark.

Jabbing at Trump's complaint that he experienced microphone problems during Monday's debate, Baldwin's character immediately turns the blame on Clinton.

"She broke it with Obama; she and Obama stole my microphone and took it to Kenya and they broke it," he says.

The sketch also features a sparring match almost identical to the one that played out on the debate stage on Monday, with McKinnon mimicking Clinton's speculation about why Trump has refused to release his tax returns while Trump interrupts her sporadically.

"He hasn't released his tax returns which means he's either not that rich," ("wrong") "not that charitable" ("wrong") "or he's never paid taxes in his life" ("warmer").

When Michael Che as Lester Holt asks "Clinton" why she is crying towards the end of the sketch, McKinnon's perfectly timed answer pretty much sums it up:

"This is going so well," she says, referring to Trump's unprompted reference to Rosie O'Donnell. "It's going exactly how I'd always dreamed."

Radio Show: This Week In LGBT News 10/1/16

Happy Sunday, folks!

Here's this week's episode of The Randy Report on BlogTalkRadio.

My recap of popular & important stories of pop culture, politics and entertainment of interest to the LGBT community:

• Edie Windsor, LGBTQ hero who helped bring down the Defense of Marriage Act, finds love a second time.

• Anti-gay Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore suspended from the bench for instructing judges to not perform same-sex marriages even after SCOTUS ruled in favor of marriage equality.

• The first presidential debate came and went this week. Who won? I think Randy Rainbow did with his parody of a classic Mary Poppins song that recaps the Donald's debate performance.

• GLEE star Alex Newell teams up with the CDC to share new music and a new campaign to help stop HIV.

Tune in for these stories and more.

Hillary Clinton Gets Post-Debate Bounce

The New York Times Upshot shows Hillary Clinton enjoying a post-debate bounce.

Nate Silver, of FiveThirtyEight, also shows Clinton's debate performance delivering a bit of lift. Prior to the debate Monday night, Clinton was just above the 50% mark on FiveThirtyEight.

Behind The Scenes Of Donald Trump's Debate Prep

Interesting look inside the Donald Trump campaign before and after the first presidential debate this past Monday night.

From the New York Times:

Mr. Trump’s debate preparation was unconventional. Aides have introduced a lectern and encouraged him to participate in mock debates, but he has not embraced them, focusing mostly on conversations and discussions with advisers.

During the primaries, the group briefing him for debates was small and closely held. By the weekend before the debate on Monday at Hofstra University, there were nearly a dozen people preparing Mr. Trump, including the retired Army generals Michael Flynn and Keith Kellogg, neither of whom has experience in presidential debates.

There were early efforts to run a more standard form of general election debate-prep camp, led by Roger Ailes, the ousted Fox News chief, at Mr. Trump’s golf course in Bedminster, N.J. But Mr. Trump found it hard to focus during those meetings, according to multiple people briefed on the process who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. That left Mr. Ailes, who at the time was deeply distracted by his removal from Fox and the news media reports surrounding it, discussing his own problems as well as recounting political war stories, according to two people present for the sessions.

Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and a friend of Mr. Trump’s who has been traveling with him extensively, took over much of the preparation efforts by the end. But with Mr. Trump receiving so much conflicting advice in those sessions, he absorbed little of it.

The team had primed Mr. Trump to look for roughly a dozen key phrases and expressions Mrs. Clinton uses when she is uncertain or uncomfortable, but he did not seem to pay attention during the practice sessions, one aide said, and failed to home in on her vulnerabilities during the debate.

“It clearly looked like he ran out of gas after 30 minutes, and that came through loud and clear,” said Scott Reed, the senior political strategist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who has not supported Mr. Trump.