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For the Record: We're back! What did we miss?

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Hey guys, we’re back! So let’s talk about Saturday’s Democratic presidential debate … wait, did you guys start without us? Dammit, we were in the restroom for like three minutes, tops … and it’s a solid two-minute walk to get there and back in the first place. Fine, let’s jump in, we’ll try to catch up.

Remember to tell your friends to subscribe to the For the Record newsletter; we'll keep all of you posted on all the absolutely nothing that's going on between now and Jan. 2.

Wasn't even in your top ten priorities Saturday night

Hey, Democrats! Hopefully you're halfway done selecting your favorite candidate in the 2016 race, because the candidates are already halfway done debating. The third of six debates was held Saturday night in New Hampshire, going up against the Jets-Cowboys game, the new Star Wars movie, your boss' Christmas party and your nephew's piano recital. Going into debate night, everyone was expecting fireworks after a few Bernie Sanders' staffers were caught downloading data from Hillary Clinton's database. Instead, we got a quick apology from Sanders, a quick acceptance from Clinton, and an awkward pre-written "check out these two fighting with each other" speech from O'Malley. Other highlights: Sanders attacking Clinton's close ties with Wall Street and support for the Iraq war; and O'Malley attacking both Clinton and Sanders on gun control, prompting a grandfatherly "Calm down a little bit, Martin" from Bernie. Clinton, for her part, focused her attacks on Donald Trump and the Republicans because she is WAY over primary season and just wants to start on the general election now, OK?

Welcome to the debate! Check your facts at the door

Hooray for political debates, which allow the good folks at FactCheck.org to inding and mutilating of the facts put presents under the tree. Most of the folding, spindling and mutilating of the facts on Saturday night came from Clinton and O'Malley, including:

  • Clinton claiming that only 3% of her donations come from the finance and investment world (which is true, until you note that 17.5% of Clinton's super PAC donors come from finance and investment)
  • O'Malley claiming that Sanders voted against research dollars to look at guns as a public health issue (Sanders did vote against funding research ... in 1996)
  • Clinton claiming that no Republicans want to raise the minimum wage (Rick Santorum wants to raise it $1.50 over the next three years)

We're going to give partial credit to O'Malley for pointing out Sanders' 1996 vote against research into guns and public health, mainly because Bernie likes to pretend he formed all his current political opinions while in the womb. Well done, Martin!

Trump ends the next Cold War before it begins

Donald Trump's newest fan, Vladimir Putin, has been accused of some crazy stuff, i.e., ordering the killing of political rivals and journalists. Trump defended Putin by saying "I think our country does plenty of killing also" (fair warning, everyone: if Trump gets elected president, he's pretty sure he can just have people killed.) Trump later walked back his comments by saying there wasn't any proof Putin had ordered any killings. Seriously, if Putin had any journalists killed, how come none of these dead journalists ever wrote about ... oh wait.

More from the campaign trail

Merry Cruzmas, one and all 

Ted Cruz released a "Cruz Christmas Classics" parody video, slamming everyone from Hillary Clinton to the IRS. But come on, Team Cruz ... we know it's just a few lines in a political ad, but does poetic meter not matter anymore?

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