Republicans Watch Fractious Democratic Debates and Like What They See

After two nights of debates between 20 presidential hopefuls that exposed a wide rift between the Democratic Party’s progressive and centrist wings, President Trump’s allies and Republican strategists said Thursday that they had gotten largely what they wanted: Five hours of a nationally televised clash where Democrats themselves questioned the practicality of prominent liberal wish-list items. …

Though they were realistic about their limitations — and the fact that the general election is more than a year away — Republicans said that the debates had given them fodder for what they say will be hundreds of millions of dollars of attack ads. CONT.

Jeremy W. Peters & Annie Karni, New York Times