Was the debate moderation unbalanced? (transcript notes)

[Kentonio]

Ok, some of us believe that the moderation at tonights debate was one sided in favor of Hillary. As a test, I've taken the transcript of the debate and copied any direct questions from a moderator to a candidate. I think it is interesting to see the difference in tone and the form of the questions asked. Apologies if any questions have slipped past me, I've tried to be thorough and only include direct questions.

Follow up comments comments are shown with a - prefix.

It's worth adding that this does not include times when the moderators simply told a candidate it was their turn to respond or opened up general questions to all three candidates. O'Malley didn't get much more time, but he did get several other opportunities to speak. The purpose of this is purely to see the differences between the direct moderator question of the candidates.


To Senator Sanders:

HOLT: "Senator Sanders, last week Secretary Clinton called you quote, "a pretty reliable vote for the gun lobby." Right before the debate you changed your position on immunity from lawsuits for gun manufacturers, can you tell us why? "
- "Senator, but you didn't answer the question that you did change your position on immunity from gun manufacturers. So can you..."

HOLT: "Just over a week ago the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus endorsed Secretary Clinton, not you. He said that choosing her over you was not a hard decision. In fact, our polling shows she's beating you more than two to one among minority voters. How can you be the nominee if you don't have that support?"

HOLT: Prosecutors -- "I believe there's a huge conflict of interest when local prosecutors investigate cases of police violence within their communities. Most recently, we saw this with a non- indictment of the officers involved in the case of 12-year-old Tamir Rice. How would you presidency ensure incidents of police violence are investigated and prosecuted fairly?"

MITCHELL: "Senator Sanders, let me ask you this, though... ... you've talked about Medicare for all... and tonight you've released a very detailed plan, just two... ... well, two hours before the debate, you did. But let me ask you about Vermont. Because in Vermont -- you tried in the state of Vermont, and Vermont walked away from this kind of idea, of -- of Medicare for all, single-payer, because they concluded it would require major tax increases... ... and by some estimates, it would double the budget. If you couldn't sell it in Vermont, Senator... ... how can you sell it to the country?"

HOLT: "Senator Sanders, let me continue, you call yourself a Democratic socialist... And throughout your career in politics, you've been critical of the Democratic party, you've been saying in a book you wrote, quote, "There wasn't a hell of a big difference between the the two major parties." How would you will a general election... How will you win a general election labeling yourself a democratic socialist?"

HOLT: "Senator Sanders, you released a tough new ad last week in which without mentioning Secretary Clinton by name, you talk about two Democratic visions for regulating Wall Street. "One says it's OK to take millions from big banks and tell them what to do. My plan, break up the big banks, close the tax loopholes and make them pay their fair share." What do you see as the difference between what you would do about the banks and what Secretary Clinton would do?"

MITCHELL: "Senator Sanders -- Senator Sanders, you've talked a lot about things you want to do. You want free education for everyone, you want the Federal Minimum Wage raised to $15 an hour. You want to expand Social Security...benefits. You've been specific about what you want, but let's talk about how to pay for all this. You now said that you would raise taxes today, two hours or so ago, you said you would raise taxes to pay for your health care plan. You haven't been specific about how to pay for the other things...... Will you tell us tonight?"

MITCHELL: "... Senator Sanders, let me ask you a question about taxes. The most googled political issue... In the last month was taxes. Now, in your healthcare plan, the plan you released tonight, you would not only raise taxes on the wealthy, but the details you released indicate you would raise taxes on the middle class also. Is that correct?"

HOLT: "Senator Sanders, Americans love their SUVs, which spiked in sales last year as gas prices plummeted. How do you convince Americans that the problem of climate change is so urgent that they need to change their behavior? "

MITCHELL: "Senator Sanders, ground forces yes or no?"

MITCHELL: "I have a question. I have a question for Senator Sanders. Did the policies of the Obama administration, in which Secretary Clinton of course was a part, create a vacuum in Iraq and Syria that helped ISIS grow? "

MITCHELL: "Senator Sanders, the nuclear deal is now enforced. Iran is getting it's billions of dollars, several Americans who have been held are now going to be heading home. The president said today, "it's a good day. It's a good day for diplomacy. It's a time now to restore diplomatic relations for the first time since 1979 and actually re- opened a U.S. Embassy in Tehran.""

HOLT: "You have all talked about what you would do fighting ISIS over there, but we've been hit in this country by home-grown terrorists, from Chattanooga to San Bernardino, the recent shooting of a police officer in Philadelphia. How are you going to fight the lone wolves here, Senator Sanders?"
- "But in terms of lone wolves, the threat, how would you do it?"

MITCHELL: "Senator Sanders, let me ask you a question. You called Bill Clinton's past transgressions, quote, "totally, totally, totally disgraceful and unacceptable." Senator, do you regret saying that?"
- "You didn't have to answer it that way, though. Why did you?"


To Secretary Clinton:

HOLT: "Secretary Clinton, this is a community that has suffered a lot of heartache in the last year. Of course, as you mentioned, the church shootings. We won't forget the video of Walter Scott being shot in the back while running from police. We understand that a jury will decide whether that police officer was justified, but it plays straight to the fears of many African American men that their lives are cheap. Is that perception, or in your view, is it reality?"

HOLT: "Secretary Clinton, this question is for you. Tonight parts of America are in the grip of a deadly heroin epidemic, spanning race and class, hitting small towns and cities alike. It has become a major issue in this race. In a lot of places where you've been campaigning, despite an estimated trillion dollars spent, many say the war on drugs has failed. So what would you do?"

MITCHELL: "Secretary Clinton, Senator Sanders favors what he calls "Medicare for all." Now, you said that what he is proposing would tear up Obamacare and replace it. Secretary Clinton, is it fair to say to say that Bernie Sanders wants to kill Obamacare?"

HOLT: "Secretary Clinton, in his final State of the Union address, President Obama said his biggest regret was his inability to bring the country together. If President Obama couldn't do it, how will you?"

HOLT: "Secretary Clinton, our next question is for you. Here's another quantitative problem. And we're going to get into that coming up. But Secretary Clinton, here's a question from YouTube. It's from a young video blogger who has over 5 million subscribers. He has a question about the importance of younger voters.

- FRANTA: Hi, I'm Connor Franta, I'm 23 and my audience is around the same age. Getting my generation to vote should be a priority for any presidential candidate. Now I know Senator Sanders is pretty popular among my peers, but what I want to know is, how are all of you planning on engaging us further in this election?"

HOLT: [on the economy] "Secretary Clinton, help the voter understand the daylight between the two of you here."

MITCHELL: "You mentioned Syria. Let me ask you about Syria, all of you. Let's turn to Syria and the civil war that has been raging there. Are there any circumstances in which you could see deploying significant numbers of ground forces in Syria, not just specials forces but significant ground forces to combat ISIS in a direct combat role? Let me start with you Secretary Clinton. "

MITCHELL: "Secretary Clinton, I want to talk to you about red lines, because former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in a recent interview that President Obama's decision to stand down on planned missile strikes against Damascus after Assad had used chemical weapons hurt the president's credibility. Should the president have stuck to his red line once he drew it?"

HOLT: "Senator Sanders mentioned Russia a moment ago. Secretary Clinton, you famously handed Russia's foreign minister a reset button in 2009. Since then, Russia has annexed Crimea, fomented a war in Ukraine, provided weapons that downed an airliner and launched operations, as we just did discuss, to support Assad in Syria. As president, would you hand Vladimir Putin a reset button?"
- [on Putin] "What's your relationship with him?"

MITCHELL: "Secretary Clinton, you said that the leaders from the intelligence community went to Silicon Valley, they were flatly turned down. They got nowhere."

HOLT: "All right. Secretary Clinton... ... this is the first time that a spouse of a former president could be elected president. You have said that President Clinton would advise you on economic issues, but be specific, if you can. Are you talking about a kitchen-table role on economics, or will he have a real policy role?"

To Governor O'Malley:

HOLT: "All right, Governor O'Malley, you signed tough gun control measures as governor of Maryland and there are a lot Democrats in the audience here in South Carolina who own guns. This conversation might be worrying many of them. They may be hearing, "you want to take my guns. What would you say to them? "

HOLT: "Governor O'Malley, you've campaigned on your record as governor of Maryland, and before that, the mayor of Baltimore. Last year, of course, Baltimore was rocked by violent unrest in the wake of the death of Freddie Gray. And right from the start of your campaign, you've been dogged by those who blame your tough-on-crime, so-called zero tolerance policies as mayor for contributing to that unrest. What responsibility do you bear?"

[cherokeeprogressive]

1. "is it fair to say to say that Bernie Sanders wants to kill Obamacare?"

Bias.

[Kentonio]

6. In my opinion none of the questions to Hillary were particularly adversarial

In stark contrast to the ones Bernie was given.

[CorporatistNation]

2. Andrea Mitchell, Wife of Alan Greenspan... LOVES Hillary and ALL Things Clinton!

She was especially idiotic on repeatedly asserting that Bernie was going to "raise taxes on the middle class to pay for Health care." Premiums vs Taxes... If the TOTAL SUM is less than paying premiums ONLY then the middle class wins BIGTIME!.. Andrea just trying to "carry d a Ball" for Clinton Inc.!

[dsc]

3. It should have been some imbalanced

since O'Malley is vastly lower in the polls than either of the other two, but it was way more imbalanced than it should have been. He should have gotten more than 2 questions, no doubt about it.

[Jarqui]

4. I thought O'Malley got completely screwed

and the bias between the other two leaned towards Clinton significantly

[yeoman6987]

9. I am just glad he is still in the debates

Anytime he gets is ok. Hopefully he can finally get out of single digest.

[valerief]

5. Thanks so much. This was great! nt

[Kentonio]

7. My pleasure.

[wilsonbooks]

8. That's okay. Bernie won walking away. He is a champ at sticking to his points

and not letting them deflect him.