Russia was brought up more than any other topic during the now-concluded presidential debates, according to an analysis published Friday.
Over the course of three presidential debates and the one vice presidential showdown, Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin were mentioned a total of 178 times, reported the progressive media watchdog group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.
“Russia (and Putin) alone came up in the four debates 178 times, more than national debt/entitlements, Social Security, the Supreme Court, race/racism, education, abortion, drugs, poverty, LGBTQ people, climate change, campaign finance/Citizens United and the environment combined, with the latter topics totaling 164 mentions,” the group said in its report.
The topic of Russia has been a heavily visited one over the course of the campaign, as Republican nominee has been painted as a puppet of Putin’s by his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, and because U.S. officials have tied hacks of Democratic organizations and Clinton’s campaign chairman to the Russian government.
In four debates, Russia/Putin was mentioned 45 times more than climate change. 36 times more than LBGTQ issues. 18 times more than poverty. pic.twitter.com/PuE1krjtod
— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) October 21, 2016
Close behind Russia were the Islamic State and terrorism (132 mentions) and tax policy (119 mentions).
Of the issues dogging the candidate’s campaigns, Donald Trump’s tax returns, which he has refused to release, was mentioned 80 times, while the scandal surrounding Clinton’s private email server during her time leading the State Department was brought up less than half that amount (30 mentions).
Other foreign policy mentions included Syria (71) and Iran (67), while immigration and immigrants, on which Trump has taken a hardline approach which includes deporting 11 million immigrants and building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, was mentioned 48 times. Mexico came up 17 times.
Police came in at 45 mentions, while race and racism was mentioned 20 times, which have become hot-button issues in light of public backlash in recent years to fatal police shootings of unarmed black men.
Those topics that were mentioned the least were climate change (4), the environment (1) and gay rights and marriage equality (4).
FAIR also noted Russia (7) was also the topic most often brought up in questions asked by the moderators and town hall audience members, followed by ISIS and terrorism (5) and tax policy (4).
