Whatever Rachel Maddow’s merits, enlisting her to moderate a presidential debate is no different than enlisting Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh.

So it was no surprise that much of Wednesday night’s MSNBC debate featured the primetime host baiting Democrats’ already left-wing 2020 presidential candidates even further to the left.

Maddow opened up the evening asking how Democrats will convince their Republican colleagues to impeach Trump.

“Sen. Warren, you have said already that you’ve seen enough to convict the president and remove him from office,” Maddow said. “You and four of your colleagues on this stage tonight who are also U.S. senators may soon have to take that vote. Will you try to convince your Republican colleagues in the Senate to vote the same way? And if so, how?”

Maddow followed up, trying to secure Amy Klobuchar’s vote in any future Senate trial of President Trump.

“Senator Klobuchar, you’ve said you support the impeachment inquiry but you want to wait for a Senate trial to hear the evidence and make a decision about convicting the president,” Maddow began. “After the bombshell testimony of Ambassador Sondland today, has that view changed for you?”

Under the guise of moderating the debate, Maddow urged candidates to make “the president’s conduct uncovered by this impeachment inquiry” central to their future general election campaign.

But it wasn’t just Maddow. MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell also worked a solid attack on the Republican Party.

“Mayor Buttigieg, you have said, ‘I will never allow us to get so wrapped up in the fighting we start to think fighting is the point’,” Mitchell started. “The Republican Party never stopped fighting President Obama in his eight years in office. So what would you do that President Obama didn’t do to change that?”

Maddow even encouraged Joe Biden, should he become president, to criminally target Trump after he leaves office.

“Would you support a potential criminal investigation into President Trump after he leaves office even if you thought it might further inflame the country’s divisions?” she asked, hopefully.

“Sen. Warren, I’m going to push you on this a little bit for a specific answer to the question,” Rachel Maddow began another question: “Governor John Bel Edwards in Louisiana is an anti-abortion governor who has signed abortion restrictions in Louisiana. Is there room for him in the Democratic Party with those politics?”

To Maddow’s apparent delight, Warren suggested there was not room for Gov. Bel Edwards in today’s Democratic Party.



[Watch on YouTube]



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