Senator Bernie Sanders sits for an interview on HBO documentary series Axios May 9. Sanders chats with Jonathan Swan, Axios national political correspondent, about the discord among Democrats, the challenge of negotiating with Republicans, police reform, and why the Democratic party isn’t resonating with working-class voters. 

May 9 will be the first of six new episodes. The premiere also checks in with Ben van Beurden, CEO of Shell, and Sarah Kate Ellis, GLAAD president and CEO. 

Matthew O’Neill and Perri Peltz direct and the pair executive produces Axios with Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen & Roy Schwartz. 

Axios is a co-production of HBO Documentary Films, Axios and DCTV. 

Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) has officially endorsed Joe Biden as the Democratic Presidential nominee.

That came on a video stream with Biden, where Sanders called on all Democrats and independents, and Republicans for that matter, to come together and make sure Biden defeats "the most dangerous President in modern history."

Sanders had said last week that he would remain on the ballot and try to collect delegates to have some leverage over the party platform, seeming to signal he was continuing the fight, at least rhetorically.

Related: Sanders Drops Out

But as a guest on Biden's livestream Monday (April 13), Sanders signaled that delegate collection or not, Trump was such a threat to the country that "we have to make Trump a one-term President and we need you in the White House."

Sanders said he and Biden's staff had been working together to create task forces on key issues, the economy, education, climate change, incarceration, immigration, healthcare and more. He said the task force would not paper over their differences, but that the task forces would work on "real solutions."

Biden thanked Sanders for the endorsement, calling it a "big deal." 

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has dropped out of the presidential race, making former VP Joe Biden the presumptive nominee, and reducing any pressure to hold primaries in a time of social distancing. 

Sanders, who early on was leading the delegate race and looking like the potential candidate, had advocated for a High-Speed Internet for All plan that would accomplish that, by funding government buildouts, regulating commercial broadband rates and breaking up or regulating "internet monopolies."  

He also talked about unwinding mergers approved under the present administration, singling out Disney/21st Century Fox.

Related: Sanders Would Break Up 'Conglomerates' Like Disney/21st Century Fox

Sanders, in a live stream from his Vermont home,  announced the decision after increasing calls for him to bow out given Biden's delegate lead and the current pandemic. Sanders signaled he could count delegates, too, but used the announcement to pitch his ideas rather than to rally around Biden.

Sanders said the future of the country continues to be with his ideas.  

He said he wished he could give his supporters better news, but now 300 delegates behind Biden, his path to the presidency would not be successful. He said if he believed there was a feasible path to the nomination, he would continue. 

But he said he would continue to fight for his ideas and for the people hit hardest by the pandemic thanks to the corporate greed that has led to income inequality. He said he would continue to fight for justice. He congratulated Joe Biden, who he called a decent man, but that was the length of his olive branch, at least for now. He also said he would stay on the ballot and try and collect delegates, as many as possible, so he could exert influence over the party platform.  

But he made it clear he would help Biden defeat what he called the most dangerous President in modern history. "Please stay in this fight with me. The struggle continues."

The above-mentioned President tweeted following the announcement:

[embed]https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1247914464319504385[/embed]

“Senator Sanders is a leader in our country and deserves tremendous credit for pushing our party to more fully embrace the progressive values of economic equality, healthcare for all, climate justice, and an America that works for working class families, not just the wealthy and big corporations," said former candidate Tom Steyer. "His message created a movement of young Americans dedicated to changing our political system for the better, a movement that will long outlast any one candidacy. We need these young Americans, from all walks of life, if we are going to defeat Donald Trump in November."

“Throughout his career, Bernie Sanders has demonstrated the kind of authenticity, clarity and passion that working people need in their leaders," said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who campaigned for Sanders.

Sen. Bernie Sanders said Donald Trump is a racist, sexist, homophobe, xenophobe and a religious bigot and must be defeated, and he is still the person to do it, something he hopes to show in the upcoming televised debate with Joe Biden. 

Sanders held a press conference (streamed on his Facebook page), following his disappointing showing in Tuesday's primaries (March 10), to say the majority of the American people supported his progressive agenda and he was still planning to advance it on the campaign trail.  

Sanders said his campaign was not only still winning the ideological debate, but the generational debate. He pointed out that his opponent, Joe Biden, while doing well with people over 65, his campaign continued to win the vast majority of the votes of younger people, and not just in their 20's, but 30's and 40's. 

Given that, he said to the Democratic establishment, to win in the future it needed to attract the voters who would build that future.  

He also said he was losing the debate over electability to Biden--Sanders strongly disagrees that he is less electable- and said he was looking forward to participating in the debate with Biden Sunday (March 15) on CNN. 

Sanders said that one-on-one debate would help determine whether he or Biden were in the best position to unseat Trump, as well as advance policies Sanders says are necessary to the sustainability of Democracy and the planet.

Sen. Bernie Sanders is the choice of a third of Latino Democrats planning to vote in the upcoming Nevada caucus. That puts him well ahead of former Vice President Joe Biden at 22%.

That is according to a new Univision poll conducted by Latino Decisions and North Star Opinion Research Feb. 9-14.

The general wisdom is that Biden, who did not win, place or show in either of the first two contests, needs to do well in Nevada and South Carolina.

Sanders also leads in a national survey of Latino votes commissioned by Univision, up 10 points with Hispanic Democrats since September. Biden is in second place, just barely edging out newcomer Mike Bloomberg.

South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg, who came out of the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary a definite contender, has only 5% of Latino Democrats in the national survey, with 20% saying they don't know enough about him.

The Communications Workers of America's largest local has endorsed Vermont Independent Senator Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination for President. 

The University Professional and Technical Employees (UPTE)-CWA 9119, representing 17,000 employees across the University of California system held member vote and Sanders got 66%. 

The union cited Sanders as the candidate for the working class and organized labor as pointed to his decision not to cross a picket line for the December debate in Los Angeles and to speak to a UPTE-CWA 9119 strike action last year. 

"I’m honored to receive UPTE-CWA 9119’s support today,” said Sanders in a statement.

Presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has unveiled a High-Speed Internet for All plan that would accomplish that, by funding government buildouts, regulating commercial broadband rates and breaking up or regulating "internet monopolies." 

Sander's said it would cost $150 billion to provide high-speed access to every household in America, which would come from government subsidized and supplied broadband.  

If that were accomplished, there would no longer be any debate on whether, as the FCC must determine in its annual Sec. 706 report to Congress, advanced telecommunications is being deployed to "all Americans" on a reasonable and timely basis. 

Related: Sanders Says He Would Break Up Disney, 21st Century Fox

Sanders' plan would "dramatically lower costs," the senator says, by mandating that commercial providers offer basic, "quality" internet at an affordable price.  He would also mandate a new definition of high speed at 100 Mbps download, 10 Mbps upload.

"We are going to take on the greedy internet, telecom, and cable monopolies and put an end to their absurd prices gauging," said Sanders. "Just as President Roosevelt fundamentally made America more equal by bringing electricity to every farm and rural community over 80 years ago, as president, I will do the same with high-speed internet.” 

That was also the analogy used by former Democratic FCC chairman Tom Wheeler to explain why he felt ISPs needed to be regulated into providing nondiscriminatory universal service. 

Sanders said under his presidency the internet will be treated like a public utility. That means he will rely on cities and states to build out service.

"Bernie believes it’s time to stop relying on profit-focused corporations to get to universal broadband," his campaign website proclaimed. "Bernie will provide the necessary funding for states, cities, and co-ops to build out their own broadband networks, and ensure all households are connected by the end of his first term."

The plan would:

• "Provide $150 billion through the Green New Deal in infrastructure grants and technical assistance for municipalities and/or states to build publicly owned and democratically controlled, co-operative, or open access broadband networks.

• "Require that all internet service providers offer a Basic Internet Plan that provides quality broadband speeds at an affordable price.

• "Break up internet service provider and cable monopolies, bar service providers from providing content, and unwind anticompetitive mergers.

• "Increase the FCC definition of minimum broadband speeds to 100 mbps for downloads and 10 mbps for uploads.

• "Set aside $7.5 billion to expand high-speed broadband in Indian Country and fully resource the FCC’s Office of Native Affairs and Policy.

• "Ensure people with disabilities have full access to the internet.

• "Guarantee all public housing residents free broadband services.

• "Ensure broadband infrastructure is resilient to the effects of climate change."

According to the latest Morning Consult poll, Sanders is currently in second place in the Democratic primary race with 20% to Joe Biden's 29%.

“We welcome proposals from all presidential candidates to ensure that media-and-technology policies serve the public, not corporate interests," said Free Press Action Policy Manager Dana Floberg. "Senator Sanders’ platform recognizes that the digital divide isn’t just a problem for rural communities, but also for low-income communities and people of color. He proposes promoting competition and lower prices to ensure universally affordable internet access. Free Press Action applauds this commitment to bridging the racial and economic divide that keeps so many of our most vulnerable communities offline, as well as Sanders’ support for investigating the disaster response in Puerto Rico and rebuilding resilient communications infrastructure.

Day two of the Democratic convention (Tuesday, July 26), with speakers including Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and former President Bill Clinton, continued to dominate the list of most-Tweeted TV shows according to Nielsen Social, but was down markedly from the first night, which featured Michelle Obama and Bernie Sanders' much anticipated reconciliation speech.

Tuesday night's coverage on broadcast and cable nets drew a total of 1,657,000 Tweets from 389,000 unique authors, more than ten times its nearest competitor, WWE SmackDown on USA Networks with 133,000 from 33,000 uniques.

Rounding out the top five were The Bachelorette on ABC with 110,000/53,000; America's Got Talent on NBC at 46,000/20,000 and Scream on MTV with 33,000/6,000.

Day three's combination of President Barack Obama, Vice Presidential candidate Tim Kaine and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg is likely to best that Day two number. Totals will be released later today (July 28).

Sen. Bernie Sanders says that the media are "far removed from the reality of where the American people are."

Sanders said that in an interview on C-SPAN (it will air Sunday, June 26, at 6:35/9:35 p.m. ET) after being asked about early press reports that his campaign was a long shot and could have money problems, and what had changed--he wound up pushing Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail and to the left on some issues, and raised large amounts of case in many small individual donations.

Sanders suggested that rather than anything changing, the media had gotten it wrong.

He cited David Brooks of the New York Times talking about how the pundits all got it wrong--Donald Trump's campaign was also given little chance by those pundits, and he is now the presumptive GOP nominee.

He said that despite what the establishment thought when talking with each other, it turned out the people wanted real change.

"There is an inside-the Beltway" bubble in which Congress, the media, the establishment, look at reality in a certain way." He said what has saddened him about the corporate media, and he said he used that term "Very advisedly because people have to understand that when they look at network television and major media, these are owned by large corporations. They are not some folks coming down from the sky trying to give an independent or objective perspective. They work for large, multinational corporations."

He gave the journalists themselves credit for being smart and hard-working, saying he could not believe how much they produced. But, he said, there is a view inside the Beltway that what campaigns are about is about personalities, like Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. "What about talking about the American people" But that is not part of what the media discourse is about."

He said he held four press conferences in California in the run-up to the primary talking about issues--climate change, fracking, healthcare, economics. "You know how much coverage that got? Very, very little, 'cause that is not what the media is interested in."

He says looking at politics as a baseball game or a soap opera is not where the American people are.

A majority of millennial supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will vote for his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, if he pulls out of the race, according to a poll conducted by MTV.

MTV says that 57% of the millennials who say they prefer Sanders say they will vote for former Secretary of State Clinton, 22% said they would write someone in, 18% won’t vote and just 3% said they’d vote for Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee.

The poll is part of MTV’s Elect This Campaign that looks at election year issues important to young voters.

For more of this story, please visit broadcastingcable.com.

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The official end of the fall-winter television season typically leads to a quieter, lighter summer for the industry. Thus far this year, though, events outside of the normal day-to-day business of TV have been anything but normal, and a couple of recent industry-related stories are already beginning to forecast what could be a very interesting and unusually busy summer in the world of television.

The presidential primary season has delivered its share of crazy twists and turns and unlikely scenarios that have driven ratings up for virtually all cable news networks. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any stranger or more unpredictable, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders contemplated debating each other in a very high-profile event.

Hoping to get in on the action, boxing promoter Bob Arum looked to bring the spectacle to pay-per-view. Arum’s Top Rank event promotion company was willing to put up a minimum of $20 million — as well as donate 80% of the net proceeds from “The Heavyweight Debate” between the two presidential hopefuls to a charity or charities of the candidates’ choice — in an effort to promote the show.

Trump ultimately backed out of the proposed debate prior to Memorial Day weekend, but given his penchant for creating media spectacles, can anyone rule out a potentially big, politically-themed PPV event before voters head to the polls in November?

Meanwhile, HBO’s Game of Thrones is one of the most digitally pirated shows on cable, but recently the pay TV service has taken its GoT digital piracy fight to the world of online pornography.

HBO is trying to curtail the uploading of titillating, nudity-laced scenes from its fantasy series to the adult Web service PornHub, according to published reports.

PornHub itself released audience figures that show site searches for GoT scenes and related adult parodies were up 370% on the site in the days prior to the show’s April 24 season six premiere, but the site’s traffic actually drops 4% during a Game of Thrones episode.

For its part, HBO has said in a statement that it is “aware of the issue and is in the process of getting material taken down from PornHub,” according to Business Insider.

Even the world of sports TV isn’t immune to the potential effects of unforeseen developments. The New York Daily News reported last week that some NBC employees are refusing to travel to Brazil to work on NBCUniversal’s massive coverage of the Summer Olympics this August for fears of contracting the dangerous, mosquito-borne Zika virus.

Brazil is struggling to control the spread of the virus, which has been linked to birth defects in children of pregnant women contracting the disease. NBC is expected to send more than 2,000 staffers to Brazil to oversee the company’s unprecedented linear and digital coverage of the games.

An NBC spokesperson told The Daily News that “the safety of our team members is always our first priority,” and that “no NBC personnel assigned to work in Rio will be required to travel if they believe that their personal health or safety is at risk.”

Fasten your seat belts. It could be a bumpy, unconventional summer in TV land.

In responses to letters from Capitol Hill Dems--and one high-profile independent--raising concerns about unauthorized charges on cable and broadband bills, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler put in a plug for his set-top box proposal.

The FCC has released Wheeler's response to independent and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and a trio of Senate Democrats on the issue in which he talks about Open Internet enhanced transparency rules and said the FCC does not have a way of determining how many folks have been charged unauthorized fees.

But he also notes his proposal to unbundle the programming streams of cable set-top boxes. That is because the proposal includes associated "robust billing transparency" requirements that would extend to cable modems.

The FCC is proposing to require MVPDs to separate out the charge for leasing equipment currently bundled into the price of service.

The FCC cited that proposal in not putting a modem fee-line item condition on the Charter/TWC deal and similar requests in other proceedings, saying it was more appropriately dealt with in the broader set-top proposal.

He said that will not solve all the legislators' concerns about cable and broadband bill transparency, but he says will give consumers a tool to ferret out error or unauthorized charges.

Wheeler could use some more selling points for his set-top (or navigation device) proposal given the pushback he has gotten from a number of Hill Democrats, as well as Republicans and ISPs and some minority groups and others.

The senators seeking the info included Al Franken of Minnesota, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Jeff Merkley of Oregon.

WASHINGTON — Speaking to New York City’s transit workers union on Wednesday (April 13), Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) said he was next headed to the picket line of CWA members striking against Verizon Communications.

He told Transit Workers Union Local 100 that he was joining in "that stand against the greed of Verizon," citing it as the kind of corporate greed his campaign was aimed at reining in.

Sanders has slammed Verizon, accusing it of not paying taxes, though the company has said it pays billions and that any suggestion it does not pay its fair share is untrue.

There were at least three Communications Workers of America-International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers picket lines set up in New York. The strike began at 6 a.m. and followed ten months in which the unions and Verizon could not come to terms on new contracts for about 39,000 wireline workers on the East Coast.

WASHINGTON — Free Press Action Fund released a 2016 Internet Voter Guide Monday (March 14) providing its take on the candidates views on the issues the net neutrality fan says are most important to Internet voters.

Nobody got particularly high marks on the issue of encryption, with free press saying no candidate has backed "strong, pro-consumer" measures.

"Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio have all challenged Apple’s right to protect the security of its users, and both Democratic candidates vaguely advocated for both parties to work together for a solution," Free Press said. For its part, the group has backed protests of the FBI's legal effort to get Apple to help it access info on the phone of one of the San Bernardino shooters.

The guide also out, for example, that Hillary Clinton in 2015 wrote a piece in support of the FCC's preemption of state laws limiting municipal broadband buildouts, while Ted Cruz wrote the FCC claiming it was a threat to states rights

Other takeaways:

• "While more than 34 million Americans lack truly high-speed Internet at home, Donald Trump and Cruz have been silent on the issue and Gov. John Kasich has suggested that consumers are to blame for high broadband prices. In the Republican field, only Rubio has backed legislation to expand affordable Wi-Fi deployment and further use of unlicensed spectrum for Internet access.

• "Though three-quarters of Americans have either no broadband or no choice of Internet service providers, Cruz and Rubio oppose community broadband networks, which give local businesses and residents alternative options for high-speed Internet access. Neither Trump nor Kasich have articulated positions on the issue.

• "Cruz was one of only four Republicans to sponsor the USA Freedom Act, which curbs some of the government’s mass surveillance powers, and Kasich agreed that it was a “step forward.” When Secretary Hillary Clinton was in the Senate, she cast votes that enabled NSA mass surveillance but has since called on the NSA to be more transparent. Sen. Bernie Sanders has opposed the Patriot Act and stated that he would 'absolutely' end sweeping NSA surveillance. Trump and Rubio are both in favor of government spying on Americans.

• "Cruz, Rubio and Trump all oppose the Net Neutrality protections that millions of Americans fought for: All three Republican contenders have come out against the FCC’s open Internet rules. Both Democratic candidates have advocated for enforcing strong Net Neutrality rules."

Fox News Channel’s Democratic Town Hall event last night (March 7) featuring presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders drew 2.6 million viewers, the network reported Tuesday.

The one-hour event, which marked Clinton’s first appearance on FNC in two years, also drew 473,000 viewers in the key adult 25-54 demo during the 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. time block, according to network officials.

The Detroit-based special, hosted by Bret Baier, preceeded today’s presidential primary election in Michigan. Hawaii, Idaho and Mississippi are also holding primaries today.

Bret Baier, host of Special Report With Bret Baier on the Fox News Channel, and chief political anchor for FNC,  will be hosting a special edition Town Hall Special Report… with the Democratic presidential nominees Monday night in Detroit in advance of the Michigan primary. The race has tightened with Bernie Sanders winning two of three contests on Super Saturday.

Prepping for FNC’s first interview with Hillary Clinton in a couple of years, Baier was diverted to the anchor chair for a couple of hours Sunday as the network covered the death, and looked back at the life, of former First Lady Nancy Reagan.

But Baier carved out some time to talk to Multichannel News about the Town Hall, the tightening presidential race, and why he is glad the Dems finally came on the top-rated cable news outlet.

You are doing the town hall solo?

Yes.

Why not tag team it with Chris Wallace and Megyn Kelly given your debate success. Or do you take a different approach to a town hall?

I think a town hall is a different animal. Megyn did a town hall on her show a couple of weeks ago with the GOP candidates and this was originally pitched as a Special Report.

Clinton initially declined to participate.

We started out confirming Senator [Bernie] Sanders. We were trying to get Secretary Clinton. She said she had campaign scheduling issues. Then we had out debate on Thursday. There was an outreach made [by Fox]. They changed their mind. Reconsidered and decided to become part of it.

We hope this will be the first of several with a single-moderator format.

How do you keep it from being one long campaign ad for each candidate?

There is interaction. There are questions from me and from the audience. They’ve been screened. They are undecided voters from Michigan. So, hopefully we will get some substantive questions and each candidate will have roughly a half hour to make their case and answer the questions.

As Fox’s chief political anchor, what to you make of what happened over the weekend, with the wins by Sanders and Cruz? Has there been a shift in this race.

I don’t think it’s over. For anyone who says it is, I think they need to look at the math and look at what’s happening.

The Cruz wins are significant. Donald Trump is still in the best position to become the nominee but it all comes down to those big states, Ohio, Florida…and Michigan will play a big role as well. Right now [Trump] he is pretty well positioned in Michigan.

On the Democratic side, it is clearly an uphill battle for Bernie Sanders. But there is a case to be made that he could run the table in some of these states and become a big factor, if not the nominee, really a factor in the party’s trajectory.

Why do you think the primary debates are drawing record audiences. Is it all Trump?

I have to give Mr. Trump some part of that. But, I find it funny when he says “the debates will only have a million viewers if I’m not in it.” And, obviously, he didn’t show up to the one in Iowa and we surpassed that number by quite a bit. (the debate drew 12.5 million viewers and is one of the most-watched telecasts in the network’s history].

I think that people are just paying attention more and there is a real interest in the political dynamic and the policy issues.  Not just the fighting. I just think that people are focused in on it a little more than in past cycles.

Do you think you will bring up the e-mail issue with Hillary Clinton?

We’ll see how it flows. I would imagine it would come up. It is one of the major things hanging over the back of the Democratic race. What happens with the FBI will obviously affect the likely nominee.

What is your goal in this town hall. To make news to cover the waterfront of issues?

I approach it as news first. There is a debate tonight that we will be watching and adjusting and perhaps cover some topics that they don’t.

I look at it also as a chance for Michigan  voters to ask some questions. We hope that this opens a door and we’re happy that the Democratic candidates finally came on the number one cable news station.

Newton Minow, who is on the presidential debate commission, said he thought the primary debates were too much about network self-promotion.

It should never be about us. That should be where all of our heads are when we do any of these things, town halls or debates. Hopefully that will come through tomorrow.

Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump appear poised to dominate in the Super Tuesday primary state voting March 1, and Trump has widened his lead nationally over a diminishing GOP field, according to various national and state polls.

Trump has 49% of Republicans, 33 points ahead of his closest rival, Marco Rubio, with Ted Cruz at 15% (essentially Rubio and Cruz are in a statistical tie for second), according to the latest CNN/ORC poll (conducted Feb. 24-27).

On the Democratic side, Clinton has 55% of Democratic voters to rival Bernie Sanders' 38%.

If Trump and Clintondominate, each will be in a strong position to grab their respective nominations, though Cruz is leading in his home state of Texas, which would give him more than a quarter (155) of the delegates at stake on the GOP side.

A dozen states (and American Samoa) hold their primaries March 1, with 595 delegates at stake on the Republican side and 865 on the Democratic, according to an NPR Super Tuesday primer.

A total of 2,383 delegates are needed to win the Democratic nomination and 1,237 needed to win the Republican nod. Political analyst Josh Putnam, interviewed for the Washington Post, said the different totals are because the Republicans only allocate three delegates per congressional district, whether is heavily Republican, while Democrats allocate more delegates in Democrat-heavy districts.

To mark the one-year anniversary of the FCC's partisan vote to impose Title II-based network neutrality rules, eight Republican senators including two presidential candidates co-sponsored a bill to nullify that vote and prevent any future reclassification of Internet access as a telecommunications service subject to Title II.

Presidential candidates Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Ted Cruz (Tex.) signed on to the bill, spearheaded by Sen. Mike Lee (Utah), along with former candidate Rand Paul (Ky.), John Cornwyn (Tex.), Tom Cotton (Ark.), Benjamin Sasse (Neb.), and Thom Tillis (N.C.).

The bill is essentially one paragraph, and states: "The rule adopted by the Federal Communications Commission....on Feb. 26, 2015 (relating to broadband Internet access service) shall have no force or effect, and the Commission may not reissue such rule in substantially the same form, or issue a new rule that is substantially the same as such rule, unless the reissued or new rule is specifically authorized by a law enacted after the date of enactment of this Act."

“The Internet has always been one of the best models of the free market,” said Rubio in a statement after the bill was introduced. “There are low barriers to entry, back and forth communication between consumers and providers, and a rapid evolution of ideas. “Through burdensome regulations and tight control like the net neutrality rule, the government only hinders accessibility and the diversity of content,” he said. “Consumers should be driving the market, and we can help by encouraging innovation, incentivizing investment, and promoting the competitive environment this industry needs.”

“The threat of anticompetitive behavior should always be taken seriously,” Lee said in introducing the bill, [b]ut it makes no sense for a five-person panel of presidential appointees to write a sweeping law aimed at solving a problem that might someday exist. There are more effective, more democratic, and less intrusive ways to address anticompetitive behavior, including existing antitrust and consumer-protection laws.”

The bill makes a statement, but is highly unlikely to make it into law. Republicans tried a similar net neutrality- blocking maneuver with riders on last year's omnibus budget bill.

On the other side of the presidential race, both former Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are big backers of net neutrality rules. Sanders, in fact, joined in an amicus brief from Democratic senators last fall backing the FCC in its court defense of Title II-based regs.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) joined with four Democratic senatorial colleagues to raise red flags about the Charter-Time Warner Cable merger proposal at the FCC and Department of Justice.

In addition to Sanders, Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Al Franken (D-Minn.), among the Senate's most consistent communications merger critics, as well as Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) expressed their concerns in the letters to FCC chairman Tom Wheeler and Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

They said the merger would create a new nationwide broadband duopoly, with New Charter and Comcast controlling two-thirds of the high-speed homes.

They also took aim at the debt involved in the deal, saying it could affect the build-out commitments Charter has made.

“Unfortunately, the proposed deal raises serious concerns about the future of this critical marketplace because it would establish a duopoly in the high-speed broadband industry," they wrote. "Comcast and New Charter’s dual dominance of the market could lead to a number of concrete harms to consumers, including higher prices and fewer innovative services."

But they did not ask the agencies to block the deal.

“New Charter must not only prove that this deal would not harm consumers, but they must also demonstrate that it would actually benefit them and promote the public interest.”

But the letter extended beyond the particular facts of the deal to suggest a wider concern: "Greater consolidation among existing broadband incumbents stands in contrast to what we need today," they wrote, which his "greater competition."

Charter responded with a statement it has issued before in response to criticisms of the deal.

“Charter is a different type of cable company—committed to creating American jobs, offering the most innovative products, preserving an open internet and advancing policies that are friendly to both consumers and online video providers. New Charter's consumer-friendly, pro-broadband policies and national footprint, will enable it to be an industry leader committed to providing superior broadband and video services at competitive rates, improved customer service and a better platform for online video and independent programming. New Charter has received broad support from leading OVD provider Netflix because of its online video friendly practices; independent programmers including AXS, Fuse Media and RFD-TV due to its commitment to diverse programming; national multicultural organizations like National Urban League, NAN and LULAC with whom it is collaborating to expand diversity and inclusion; and from the State of New York which recently approved the merger. These parties have taken a close and honest look at the benefits of these transactions and have all come to the same conclusion: these transactions are in the public interest.”

The FCC is said to be in discussions over possible conditions on the deal, which could have prompted the letter to insure that the broadband concerns are getting the FCC and DOJ’s full attention. The commission has signaled broadband access and deployment and video are all key issues in this and other mergers.

With all due respect to Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, the biggest winners at Monday night’s Iowa caucus were the cable news networks.

With viewer interest in this year’s presidential political campaign at unprecedented levels, its not surprising that Fox News, CNN and MSNBC drew big numbers for their coverage of the political primary season’s first voting night.

Fox News and CNN can fight over whose caucus coverage won over the biggest audeince – Fox News drew 4.3 million viewers during the 8 p.m. to midnight time period to top all news nets, while CNN reached a cable news network high 1.4 million viewers in the adult 25-54 category – but the fact is that coverage from all three networks easily bested their respective primetime audience averages.

The high ratings performances continues the trend begun last fall with the Republican Presidential debate telecasts notching record audiences for Fox News and CNN, as well as Fox Business Network and CNBC.

With the New Hampshire primaries a week away and primaries in Nevada and South Carolina later this month, look for viewers to continue to vote for the cable news networks as the primary outlets for their political fix.

CNN will air a Democratic town hall live from Iowa tonight (Monday) at 9 p.m. ET. The final pitch to Iowa voters comes during an event at Drake University's Sheslow Auditorium in Des Moines a week before the presidential campaign's first votes are cast at the state's caucuses.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont will appear first, followed by ex-Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley and then former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, CNN said Monday, amid a tightening in opinion polls between the top two candidates. Each will have 30 minutes onstage and will face questions from audience members as well as CNN anchor Chris Cuomo.

The Iowa Democratic Party and Drake University invited the audience, which will also include some CNN guests. The town hall will also be live-streamed online and across mobile devices via CNNgo, the network said. CNN International and CNN en Espanol will also simulcast the town hall.

Vice President Joe Biden has announced he is not running for president, which leaves the Democratic field open for the battle between front-runners Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

The vice president made the announcement in a Rose Garden speech flanked by his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, and President Obamasaying that as he was working through the grieving process over the death of his son and the decision about whether to make another run for the White House, the window of opportunity had closed on mounting a "realistic" campaign.

He said he was out of time to wage a winning campaign.

Media outlets were likely hoping Biden would jump in, at least for the additional political advertising it would have brought to the Democratic race. But at least they had gotten some "draft Biden" ads.