The Friday Filibuster: The one-stop-shop for everything you need to know about this week in politics.
Closing Numbers
400,000—the number of immigrants who lost health care coverage due to citizenship questions.
$5 million—the amount Planned Parenthood and its affiliates spent in 2014 to promote Democratic lawmakers in election ads.
19—the number of House lawmakers who sponsored articles of impeachment against the EPA’s administrator.
5—the number of months there’s a gap period in Hillary’s emails.
$18 trillion—how much Bernie Sanders’ socialist proposals would cost.
25 million—the second GOP debate set a ratings record for CNN.
The Great Debate
In anticipation of this week’s debate, illegal aliens protesting The Donald hanged piñatas of the real estate mogul, who managed to swing an endorsement from Tom Brady. And despite Trump’s insults, Dr. Carson’s campaign was unfazed heading into the debate. Team Carly even fired back at Trump’s barbs in a new ad titled ‘Look at this face.’ Sen. Rand Paul tried to get some props from conservatives before the debate by shooting the IRS tax code with an AR-15.
The second GOP debate kicked off without Gov. Rick Perry who had dropped out of the race days earlier, noting that his political opponents pushing indictment charges had done their damage. That being said, four candidates participated in the “JV” debate, during which Sen. Lindsey Graham showed some fire and got into a heated exchange with Sen. Rick Santorum over immigration.
The main event was chock full of jabs, bickering, lies, and occasionally, solid points and substantive discussions about policy. The consensus is that Carly Fiorina won the main debate, which she had to fight to be at, making enemies along the way. College students were equally impressed with Fiorina, calling her the “American Thatcher” after her impressive debate performance. In case you missed the debate, Christine compiled the most memorable moments, and even summed up each candidate’s performance in a gif—enjoy.
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Campaigns & Elections
In other campaign and election news, new ads in Iowa came out about how Trump’s a liberal; Gov. Scott Walker is taking the Big Labor fight national; and on the heels of questionable remarks regarding Muslims, Trump pulled out of the Heritage Action Forum Event citing a ‘business transaction’. On the left, a ‘draft Biden’ official was overheard saying the veep is ‘100 percent’ running. He also met with a top Obama bundler last week so it may be true.
Hillary’s in Trouble
Contrary to what she presumed—that the email scandal would blow over in a few months—it’s not going anywhere. And much to her dismay, people outside the Beltway have actually taken note, too, which forced her to apologize, sort of—but it was a long road to get there. But has the damage already been done? She’s quickly losing liberal female support, her favorability is now lower than at any point in her failed 2008 campaign, voters in nearly every demographic believe she broke the law. In short, the email scandal has totally defined her. The whole ordeal, she said on the “Tonight Show,” has hurt her feelings. Single tear. But there are still some loyalists out there like David Brock, who called the scandals surrounding her campaign ‘nothing burgers.’
Planned Parenthood
Another Center for Medical Progress video came out this week, this time showing a Planned Parenthood medical adviser talking about selling baby parts saying that ‘everything we provide is fresh.’ This made the vote in favor of defunding the abortion giant for one year welcome news. Unfortunately though, it seems most people aren’t getting the truth about what’s going on—a contestant during the Miss America competition gave a very misinformed answer about it.
Iran
Sen. Mitch McConnell threatened painful amendments if they keep filibustering the Iran deal. And the Iranian regime issued their own threat: to ‘humiliate’ the US military in war.
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