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News 9 hosted a glitchy and hilarious GOP “5th District Forum”

9:00 AM EDT on June 25, 2020

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Last night, a bemused Amanda Taylor and snoozy Kelly Ogle hosted an online Zoom-style forum on News 9 featuring all nine Trump-sniffers vying to earn the GOP nomination for Oklahoma's 5th Congressional District.

From the candidates to their disturbing political views to the overall production of the forum, the whole thing was an amateur hour spectacular and unintentional comedy gold mine. Marred by technical gaffes, it seemed like Kelly and Amanda spent most of the forum simply trying to get people to mute and unmute their microphones...

The guy with the mic trouble is Charles "Tuffy" Pringle. Yeah, that's right. Tuffy Pringle. When I first watched Ole' Tuffy struggle with the microphone, I laughed hysterically but then felt kind of bad. The dude is 83 years old! At his age, he should be commended for even knowing how to turn on his computer!

But about 10 minutes later Kelly went back to Tuffy, and, well...

On a positive note, it looks like Tuffy finally learned how to unmute his microphone. On a negative note, it looks like Tuffy finally learned how to unmute his microphone. Could he keep that momentum through question 3...

Before we continue, I have a quick question. Is it responsible journalism for News 9 to host a forum like this and invite fringe candidates like Tuffy Pringle? On one hand, his views and candidacy should be treated as equally as the more qualified candidates that have party backing, an organized and funded campaign, and a legitimate chance to win. On the other, you're giving some 83-year-old zealot a large platform to share his bizarre extremist views and conspiracy theories on prime time television to impressionable viewers just because he paid a filing fee.

While you ponder that, let's get this  83-year-old hardcore conservative man's views on race in America:

Wow. How's that for some good old fashioned American racism? I guess the short answer to Amanda's question is "No, Tuffy doesn't understand why Black people and minorities are frustrated."

Anyway, although Tuffy stole the show, there were eight other talking heads who participated in the forum. If you want to watch them all try to out-conservative each other and kiss Donald Trump's ass, you can click here.

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