Trevor Noah picks some highlights from Thursday's final Democratic debate of 2019
Thursday's night's Democratic presidential debate "was the final debate of the year, and honestly, it was really exciting," Trevor Noah said on Thursday's live Daily Show. It was also the "smallest" and "whitest" debate between 2020 Democrats, he noted. "No Julian Castro, no Kamala Harris, no Cory Booker — basically, Democratic debates are like horror movies: They start out with a very diverse cast of characters, and then all the black people are quietly and quickly killed off."
Andrew Yang kept the stage from being entirely white — "basically it was a bunch of white people and then one Asian guy, like an adult reboot of The Goonies," Noah quipped. And Yang had "a really insightful take" on why he was the only non-white person up there. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)? Not so much: "Did Bernie just yell, 'And I'm white!'? You can't just say that, Bernie! That's Trump's campaign slogan."
The candidates made some decent points about "why all that glitters is not gold" in President Trump's booming economy, Noah said, but "the big beef tonight wasn't between Democrats and Donald Trump, it was between the Democrats and Pete Buttigieg," the candidate "everyone was gunning for" Thursday night. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), for example, made "a great point" that "Buttigieg shouldn't be holding fundraisers in wine caves — he's not even old enough to drink," Noah joked. And "even Bernie decided to jump in on that white-on-white crime." Buttigieg "threw some punches of his own," he added, making his second '80s movie reference of the night: "I don't know what it is, but whenever Bernie and Pete fight, I feel like I'm watching Back to the Future."
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Mehdi Hasan, a columnist at The Intercept, told Noah he thought Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) had a good night, even though he prefers Warren or Sanders. He said any of the top candidates can beat Trump and advised viewers to "just vote for the person you think is best. ... Stop trying to be a pundit. I'm a pundit, we don't know what the hell we're talking about."
The Daily Show did have another, creepier suggestion for choosing the right candidate for you, featuring Jaboukie Young-White and Desi Lydic.
Or, you could follow your bliss, Yang-style.Peter Weber
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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.
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