LA Times Weighs in on the Election

Representatives from the Los Angeles Times discussed the sway of the Supreme Court and the fracturing of both the Democratic and Republican political parties after Wednesday’s debate came to an end.

The discussion forum was led by Christina Bellantoni, managing editor of the politics section of the LA Times, along with Seema Mehta and John Myer, both LA Times reporters. The event took place at the LA Times debate watching party held at the Ace Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. During the discussion, the LA Times representatives analyzed the debate and took questions from the audience.

Because of the Supreme Court’s influence on issues such as abortion and gun control, both Bellantoni and Mehta agreed that the Supreme Court was a huge factor in swaying Republican voters hesitant about Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to vote for him.

“This is an argument that Republicans have successfully made in a number of states with Republican voters who are skeptical of Trump,” Mehta said. “They also made the same argument by picking Pence as the VP because they have more conservative credentials.”

The LA Times representatives were also asked about the role of the media in this election, which has been questioned recently.

Myer associated some of these issues with the presence of social media, which has grown since the last election, while Bellantoni agreed that the media was in part at fault in their coverage of Trump before the primaries.

“[In the beginning] all of the media were giving Trump coverage as a reality star,” Bellantoni said. “They weren’t asking him all the same questions as they were asking Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio. Those men were being pressed in a different way in their candidacies than Trump.”

They also considered the schisms that would affect the two parties after the election.

“After Romney lost, the Republican Party did an autopsy report and I think if Trump loses this time, it’s going to make that look like playtime,” Mehta said. “There’s a real reckoning for this party to decide where they want to be, where they want to go from here.”

Although the Republican Party has been largely divided because of Trump’s campaign, the Democratic Party will also have it’s issues in the future, said Mehta.

“[The Democratic Party was] able to yield some of the [votes] more easily because Bernie Sanders did get behind Hillary Clinton and he got some changes in the Democratic Party platform,” Mehta said. “But, we’re already starting to see schisms in the Democratic Party in [California] about issues such as fracking or education.”

“I mean, the two party system has been pushed like it’s never been pushed before in this cycle,” Myer said. “If there is a third party ever that’s going to come out of America, this would be the chance, it would seem like.”

Editor’s Note: Kate Sequeira attended the debate watching party hosted by the Los Angeles Times.