Two hours into the latest Democratic debate, Elizabeth Warren hadn’t spoken very much.
Her speaking time ran just shy of 14.5 minutes; ahead of her were Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden, and Bernie Sanders, with four more minutes of politicking.
If you ask Warren’s campaign, you’d think sexism is to blame.
“Current status,” Joe Rospars, chief strategist for the Warren campaign, tweeted during the debate, “guy who came 4th in Iowa has gotten to speak for more than 50% more time in the debate than the woman who finished above above [sic] him.”
Current status: guy who came 4th in Iowa has gotten to speak for more than 50% more time in the debate than the woman who finished above above him
— Joe Rospars (@rospars) February 8, 2020
The “guy” Rospars refers to, of course, is Biden, who has struggled to gain traction in previous debates and, clearly, in the first caucuses. But don’t shed tears for Warren just yet.
During the seventh and previous debate, CNN threw the questioning in Warren’s favor by mischaracterizing her dispute with Sanders. Rather than repeating her claims against him as allegations, moderator Abby Phillip accepted Warren’s claim as fact. During that debate, Warren spoke the most of any candidate, clocking in at more than 19 minutes (nearly three more minutes than Biden).
Similarly, at the CNN/New York Times debate in October, Warren spent nearly 23 minutes speaking on the stage. Don’t forget that the rest of the media is in love with Warren, too.
She may not have been able to get as much face time as desired on Friday night, but Warren has greatly benefited from her media coverage in the past. It’s too bad she couldn’t use that advantage to push past third place in the Iowa caucuses.
