February 7, 2020

The Democrats Hug It Out

Elise Amendola/AP

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A day after the four-year anniversary of Marco Rubio’s decapitation at the hands of Chris Christie, the Democrats have shown that they are not afraid to hug it out. The stakes are high for a few candidates on the debate stage. Elizabeth Warren needs to take out Bernie Sanders. Joe Biden needs to take out Pete Buttigieg. Amy Klobuchar needs to take out Biden and Buttigieg. Tom Steyer needs to take out everybody.

But after a few early digs, the Democratic candidates are upholding their reputation for bringing tote bags to a knife fight.

The debate opened with Bernie Sanders declaring unity.

“At the end of the day…everybody up here is united,” said Sanders. “No matter who wins this damn thing, we’re all going to stand together to defeat Donald Trump.”

Amy Klobuchar kept the love going, saying, “I like Bernie just fine,” before listing bills they had successfully worked on together in the Senate.

But the highlight so far was definitely the Biden-Bernie hug that happened about 45 minutes in. 

Biden Bernie hugging gif

It should be noted, this wasn’t the first Biden-Bernie hug to happen on a debate stage this cycle. They also embraced onstage in October in Ohio.

Biden, Bernie hug in October 2019
John Minchillo/AP

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

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