The misinformation campaign is already in full swing as the Drudge Report, ably and abetted by other fringe 'news' outlets declare fringe candidate the winner of last night's Democratic Debate.

Source: The Hill

The conservative Drudge Report's instant poll shows Rep. Tulsi Gabbard(D-Hawaii) as the biggest winner of the first night of the Democratic presidential debates, with nearly 45 percent of the vote just after 8:00 a.m. Thursday morning. The unscientific online poll shows Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) at a distant second with 11.2 percent, followed by Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.) at 8.6 percent and New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio with 7 percent. At the bottom of the poll are former Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) with less than 4 percent of the vote.

As for The Hill, they seem to think Google Trends matter, posting this most searched list.

Others were a bit more circumspect.

Drudge report poll Shows Tulsi Gabbard won the #DemDebate. I care about that poll as much I care about seeing a poll from Breitbart, the Klan or Neo Nazis. (redundant, I know) — (((DeanObeidallah))) (@DeanObeidallah) June 27, 2019

They just tweeted it again because Gabbard drives internet hyperactivity which is also why she did well in Drudge's useless survey.



But The Hill is really showing its cards here: Traffic is apparently far more important than informing the public. — Philip Bump (@pbump) June 27, 2019

Reactions on social media like Facebook and Twitter are not representative. Focus groups are not representative. "Reader polls" like Drudge are not representative.



How the debate lands will depends on it's covered. We won't have good data for a few days.https://t.co/iDPMfJU3qv — Ariel Edwards-Levy (@aedwardslevy) June 27, 2019

It takes the combination of the hill and drudge working together to create something this dumb — Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) June 27, 2019

Oh, a self-selected online survey on Drudge.



It's not a thing.



It's way more likely that kittens won last night's debate. — Mieke Eoyang (@MiekeEoyang) June 27, 2019

EDITOR'S NOTE: Full disclosure, we note that Tulsi Gabbard is in second place in our highly unscientific snap poll as well.