These Quakers have had it with 'soft ball' political journalism

Carly Fiorina campaigns in New Hampshire.

(Image credit: Kayana Szymczak/Getty Images)

published 9 February 2016

As interesting as it might be to hear who the presidential candidates would pick to win the Super Bowl, there is an art to asking tough questions on the campaign trail. Thanks to a Quaker organization, the American Friends Service Committee, hundreds of political activists are now equipped with the tools they need to hunt down candidates on the trail and get their questions answered, The Intercept reports.

"It might be at a cafe like this. We find out a candidate will be there and we have a volunteer and he says, 'I'll go and have coffee,'" the New Hampshire co-director Arnie Alpert said at the Red Arrow Diner in Manchester.

The organization has taught more than 1,100 activists in Iowa and New Hampshire how to formulate important questions, approach candidates, and record the interactions to be spread on social media. During one recent coaching session in New Hampshire, military veterans were taught to make eye contact and introduce themselves as vets to the candidates, although the actual questions were up to them. John Hurd was one such student who attended a Carly Fiorina event at the Nashua Radisson Hotel the day after the lesson:

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After Carly Fiorina gave her stump speech, she said she would take a few questions. Jason Hurd, a veteran who participated in the training, shot his hand up and was called on first."As an Army combat medic — and I spent a year in Baghdad, policing Iraqis with sometimes brutal tactics — now I see police here at home using the same tactics, with the same weapons, and the same equipment that I used, on black communities," he said. "What would your presidency do to end the militarization of police and stop cops from killing everyday Americans?""Thank you for your service, first of all," Fiorina responded. Then she ignored the question, choosing instead to tear into Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for withdrawing troops too quickly from Iraq. [The Intercept]

Read many of the questions asked by the activists here.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.