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Afternoon Mirror: Brian Williams Has A Humongous Compliment For MSNBC’s All-Female Debate Moderators

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Betsy Rothstein Gossip blogger
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Quote of the Day:

“I’d be fine if they were named permanent debate moderators.” 

— MSNBC’s professional complimenter Brian Williams with a nonsensical on-air compliment about the debate moderating performances of MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Andrew Mitchell, WaPo‘s Ashley Parker, and NBC White House correspondent Kristen Welker.

MOOD: “Miss me?” — Marianne Williamson, presidential hopeful, after the MSNBC debate in which she did not qualify to appear.

HuffPost, New York Mag journo Yashar Ali had a sharp, one-word reply for her: “No.”

MSNBC’s Katy Tur, however, tweeted, “I miss Marianne.”

Emerald Robinson, One America News Network: “Fiona Hill with that Prince Andrew accent, and ‘Defense Minister’ Vindman from the Ukraine …. I’m wondering: are any Americans going to testify against Trump?”

Andy Lassner, executive producer, The Ellen Show: “I wonder if @OANN will address this incredibly offensive tweet from their Chief White House Correspondent or nah?”

The Lefty Observer

“Wow, Elise Stefanik thinks she can outsmart Fiona Hill which just means, well, you know…” — Joan Walsh, The Nation, CNN.

The Ass Kisser

“MSNBC/WaPo debate scored a mediocre 6.6 million viewers last night, continuing a downtrend in viewership for these events. Lotsa people, in other words, missed an informative and expertly moderated affair.” — Erik Wemple, media opinion writer, WaPo.

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes reasoned, “I have to say, I think the ***11 straight hours*** of live hearings before it probably played a pretty big role. Only so much TV a person can watch!”

Journalist: Rep. Jim Jordan ‘is a psycho’ 

“Why does Mr. Jordan scream at witnesses and treat them like criminals? Holmes is a career Foreign Service Officer. He is working for the US government. I wish Jordan could just show a little more respect for fellow Americans working for our great country.” — Michael McFaul, political science professor, Stanford, about the GOP congressman representing Ohio’s 4th congressional district.

CNN Commentator and USA Today columnist Sophia Nelson took a stab at an answer. She tweeted, “He is a psycho that is the new face of the GOP. It is so disrespectful. #GymJordanIsAnIdiot #GymJordan”

Biden wants “punch” violence against women 

“In addition to Biden’s plan to punch violence against women, I suggest we also shoot gun violence in the face.” — Jason Howerton, TheBlaze.

More Biden laughs: “hahahah someone def told Biden to try to look energetic hahaha omg “GET UP!!! GET UP!!!! Overkill, my man.” — Amanda Prestigiacomo, The Daily Wire, referring to Biden’s closing debate statement.

Sydney Elaine Leathers, porn actress, ex-sexter to ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) and writer for Washington Babylon, cracked, “Thank you for leaving us on a terrifying note, Joe Biden.”

The Daily Caller News Foundation‘s Chuck Ross: “Why did Biden start yelling all of a sudden?”

Debate fallout… 

“I would get waterboarded for five minutes rather than watch this debate for another hour.”  — Geoff Ingersoll, editor-in-chief, The Daily Caller (yes, my editor!).

“Phenomenal closing statement from Yang.” — Saagar Enjeti, TheHillTV.

“It must be very fucking cold on that stage. Several women looking shaky. Means it’s the ‘perfect’ temperature for the boys. But makes the girls look a little frail which is shitty.” — Liz Mair, Republican communications strategist. (RELATED: The Mirror Questionnaire With Liz Mair, The Woman Weirdly Entangled in Devin Nunes’s Fake Cow Lawsuit)

Journo insists Trump won the debate 

“I know it’s trite, but Donald Trump won this debate. It was a snooze-fest and the candidates failed to sell voters in new or energetic ways on the idea of throwing the president out of office. Like it or not, there’s a charisma gap here that favors him.” — David Martosko, U.S. editor, Daily Mail, who, no doubt, will get brownie points for this.

Glass half-full approach to debate watching: “Some of the Dems might feel great about their performance tonight; some might feel poorly. But, at the very least, none of them farted on live tv. #DemDebate” — Jessica Fletcher, The Daily Wire, formerly, The Daily Caller.

On the other hand, ABC’s Chief Political Analyst enjoys boot licking 

“These moderators at the Dem. debate did an awesome job tonight. So wonderful to see four bright and strong women moderating a debate for the first time in our history and doing it so dang well.” — Matthew Dowd, ABC chief political analyst.

Oooh…so he is pro-women, just as long as they are lefties. (RELATED: ABC’s Chief Political Analyst Insults GOP Congresswoman, Then Reminds Her How Much He’s Done For Women)

Gossip Roundup

Hunter Biden IS the baby daddy of Arkansas’ Lunden Alexis Roberts’ child. A DNA test has confirmed as much: “Hunter Biden’s decision not to have a Twitter account may literally be the only good decision he has ever made.” — Molly Prince, The Daily Wire. (RELATED: Team Trump Congratulates Hunter Biden On Love Child)

Axios reporter who called Charles Barkley out for dumb joke about hitting her apologizes for old tweets. Here.

NewsBusters Managing Editor Curtis Houck goes off on MSNBC’s Joy Reid: “Joy Reid just strikes me as a bitter person who genuinely hates many of her fellow Americans. And it’s gross and frightening.”

Trump’s Rapid Response Director bashes Biden’s debate performance

Email subject line: “Biden reviews: ‘losing it,’ ‘shaky,’ ‘gibberish,’ ‘a total non-factor'”

Despite the fact that Trump often refers to the mainstream media as “fake news,” Trump’s rapid response director ran quotes from 10 outlets, including CNN, Vox, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, TWT, Mediaite, The Boston GlobeNewsweek, WaPoHuffPost, and NYT about Joe Biden’s stinky debate performance Wednesday night.

“The reviews are in for Joe Biden’s disastrous and widely-panned debate performance last night. No wonder he was so keen to leave the debate five hours before it was scheduled to start!” — Andrew Clark, rapid response director, Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.

CNN’s Ana Navarro-Cárdenas says Biden is ‘decent’: “Last thought of intensely political day…I don’t care if @JoeBiden mis-speaks. He’s been making minor gaffes all his life. It’s not about lying or trying to offend. He’s decent, a man of substance. Trump on the other hand, doesn’t know a damn thing except how to lie and divide.”

CNN’s Chris Cillizza puts in plug for Cory Booker: “Cory Booker has been good in every debate. And his numbers never, ever move.”

Slate‘s Ashley Feinberg: “Maybe that means it’s time to reconsider judging all political discourse on a scale of meaningless bullshit.”

HRC comms director wants Kamala Harris’s red silk blouse… “Kamala Harris sounds like a president, but also: I need to know where she got that blouse. It’s amazing, and I want it. #DemDebate.” — Charlotte Clymer, who says Kamala Harris won the debate.

Journo would like Kamala to seem less angry: “Unlike @BernieSanders – who has yelled at me countless times over the years – @KamalaHarris has never raised her voice with me (or even gotten flustered) and seems to have a genuinely nice personality, yet always seems to be angry on the debate stage.” — Matt Laslo, congressional reporter, VICE, Playboy, WIRED, NPR, The Daily Beast.

Bernie Sanders’ impersonator interviews Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.). You can’t miss this.