A frazzled seeming U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin needed a chair before her U.S. Senate debate with Republican businessman Eric Hovde.
The camera cut to Baldwin sitting in a chair looking sullenly into the distance right before the debate, although she appeared to ditch the chair once the debate began. It went downhill from there for the very liberal Democratic incumbent. A glassy and watery-eyed Baldwin quickly seemed rattled as Hovde turned toward her repeatedly, accused her of lying about him, raising serious conflict of interest questions, and grilling her about her leftist policies, including enrichment of Iran. A nervous-sounding Baldwin also appeared to glance down a lot during the debate as if she was looking at notes.
Hovde called on Baldwin to release her partner’s investments; Baldwin is dating a wealthy investment advisor named Maria Brisbane, and Hovde says she regulates industries that Brisbane invests in, adding that Brisbane invests in Big Pharma.
I could care less about Senator Baldwin’s personal life…
But, when her partner is investing in industries Tammy regulates, that is an absolute conflict of interest that merits further investigation. pic.twitter.com/1PDKkHI2et
— Eric Hovde (@EricHovde) October 19, 2024
Hovde fended off bias from the media panelists and data team, including a moderator, Jill Geisler, who seemed determined to direct most of her follow-up questions at Hovde, and a fact checker, Darrielle Fair, who called former President Donald Trump a thug on Facebook just three years ago (Facebook egregiously removed our story alerting readers to this bias; Meta has ramped up its censorship of stories that hurt Baldwin as the race tightens to a dead heat).
Hovde delivered a strong and confident performance overall, but it’s unclear how many voters actually watched a low-profile U.S. Senate debate, which was scheduled for a Friday night. In one key point, Hovde waved his Wisconsin utility bill, accusing Baldwin of lying about him not living in the state. He’s lived in Wisconsin for the last 12 years and was born, raised, and went to high school and college here, in addition to running a family business in Wisconsin.
“What month would you stop? Is it the 8th month? Is it the 9th month?” Hovde asked Baldwin on abortion. She never answered. Hovde also challenged Baldwin on her weak border policies and for exaggerating her role in a bill designed to crack down on fentanyl. He labeled her a career politician and asked voters whether they are better off now than they were four years ago.
Here are 5 other takeaways from the U.S. Senate debate:
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The panelists’ bias showed
Why do conservatives continually have to debate on unlevel playing fields? It’s extremely tiring. In this case, in addition to Geisler’s obnoxiously one-sided follow-up questions, the question topics seemed focused on topics that are in Democrats’ wheelhouse – rather than the topics voters care about most.
For example, the panelists barely asked about the economy and, when they did, right out of the gate, they immediately spun the question toward the Affordable Care Act.
For quite some time, they asked about abortion and childcare and seemingly everything but, say, the border. In fact, it took 20 minutes into the debate for the border to be discussed, and then the panelists framed it around the poison pill border bill, which is a Kamala Harris talking point.
Simply put: The questions were questions liberals would ask. Hovde fielded them well.
However: How come conservative journalists are never asked on debate panels in Wisconsin? Nothing about this debate felt objective.
2. Baldwin is rattled
Tammy Baldwin has never seemed more off her game, but then again her Teflon reputation was built on blue wave years and enormous media cover fire.
She’s been exposed as a fairly weak debater who seemed to be lacking in confidence against a type-A businessman who wasn’t hesitant to call her out.
The polls have tightened, most observers think this race is anyone’s game, and it’s clear that Baldwin is 1) in the fight for her political life and 2) she knows it.
There’s a reason she doesn’t want to do another debate. Hovde is a formidable candidate. He’s surging at just the right time to win this thing.
3. The format was ridiculous
Whoever chose this format screwed up. The candidates were generally kept to 60 seconds, which was hardly enough to get past a few talking points.
Hovde, in particular, repeatedly ran out of time as he tried to answer the questions in an in-depth manner. Baldwin didn’t have that issue as she relied on talking points and audaciously refused to back down on an ad so egregious even the liberal panelists pointed out it was rated a lie.
There was almost no chance for rebuttal, as rebuttals were jammed into a single opportunity at the end.
Don’t do this format again.
4. Baldwin appears worried about the conflict of interest questions
Hovde seemed to have one clear goal: To get the Wisconsin media to cover the serious conflict of interest questions surrounding Baldwin’s partner Maria Brisbane.
The biased, leftist Milwaukee Journal Sentinel predictably tried to bail Baldwin out, headlining its laughable story, “Hovde calls on Baldwin to disclose her partner’s assets, despite no requirement to do so.”
The obvious point is whether a conflict of interest exists. But leave it to the partisan Journal Sentinel to frame its story around the most favorable spin for Baldwin.
Hovde has pointed to Baldwin chairing the Senate Appropriations subcommittee and said that Brisbane, a wealth manager, has clients in areas that Baldwin regulates. He said the potential for a conflict of interest should be investigated.
Because they are not married, Baldwin doesn’t have to disclose Brisbane’s assets, but the question is whether a conflict of interest exists due to the relationship and whether she should do so anyway.
She clearly felt rattled by the question as she snapped at Hovde to get out of her personal life. Hovde responded that he was concerned about professional conflicts of interest and doesn’t care about her personal life.
5. Harris, Biden, and Trump who?
Neither candidate raised Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, or Donald Trump much.
Baldwin brought up Trump a couple of times, but not as much as might be expected. Perhaps with Trump surging in the polls, she is more hesitant to run against the former president’s popularity.
She clearly is trying to distance herself from the embattled and cratering Harris, not mentioning her.
Perhaps more surprisingly, Hovde barely mentioned Harris or Biden either, although he did note that Baldwin has voted with Biden 95 percent of the time.
This is an analysis piece.
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