Debate Shows Are Having a Moment. Here Come the Democrats.
On a recent Saturday night, more than 200 people crammed into a Los Angeles studio to watch Steven Bonnell, known online as the progressive streamer Destiny, debate supporters of President Trump.
The attendees, who each paid $39 to be there, grew excited when a behavioral therapist in a Trump T-shirt took the stage to criticize the far left as hypocritical and fragmented. The only mistake the president ever made, he argued, was conceding the 2020 election.
The room groaned, loudly. Then Mr. Bonnell, who has 850,000 subscribers on YouTube, methodically went to work on his opponent, calmly cataloging actions by Mr. Trump that he categorized as errors and abject failures. The audience, mostly young and male and decidedly left wing, switched to cheering and laughing, thirsty for the action like a crowd at an Ultimate Fighting Championship match.
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