New York Times columnist Frank Bruni says the Democrats' debate Tuesday night showed a political party devouring itself.
Bruni made his comments in a column posted Wednesday by the newspaper.
"Nomination contests often get ugly, with candidates in the same party — candidates with some of the same core values — belittling one another," he noted. "But this felt different. This felt worse. This felt like a genuine freakout."
He cited the attacks on Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
"A few of [the candidates] made clear that they don't merely see Sanders as a less-than-ideal adversary for [President Donald] Trump," he wrote. "They see him as political suicide.
"And as the candidates gave voice to that dark vision, they occasionally vaulted past fierce to feral. There were episodes when they spoke over one another, not just for a few sentences but for entire paragraphs, while the journalists moderating the debate watched helplessly."
He said Trump should edit the Democrats' attacks on Sanders into a campaign ad.
Bruni noted: "Its tagline would be: 'Even Democrats don't trust Bernie Sanders. Why should you?'"
And he maintained no one stood out during the debate.
"Nobody really looked good, and that's another big part of what spooked me," he said. "I was watching a political party devour itself. It was all so unpleasant — and so unflattering — that candidates took to commenting on how unpleasant and unflattering it was."
Still, Bruni said, there were glimmers the Democrats at the debate were "more prudent and better prepared" than Trump.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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