Lost Debate interview questions

This was the longest interview process I've done without meeting any members of the team that I would be working with if I got the offer. The first step was a phone screening with the recruiter. The screening was pretty casual, with an "I don't want to hear about your resume, I want to hear about you" vibe. In my opinion, this was a bit redundant since a cover letter was required to apply. The next step was sending work samples (pretty standard). Then a two-hour writing exercise (it was basically a pitch). I found everything up to this point to be pretty typical for the industry. The next step was an hour-long (it ended up only being 35/40 min) discussion about media controversies and an Obama speech. This conversation was still only with the recruiter. I found it unclear what the goal and expectations of this exercise were. About a week and a half later I got a rejection after following up with the recruiter. No response when I asked for feedback, which typically I would kind of expect, but with all the time they expected candidates to invest into the interview process in good faith, I personally felt a quick email back was the least the recruiter could do. Obviously this is my personal experience and others may feel differently.

The entire interview process took roughly a month and a half with a very ambiguous timeline. The process involved a two hour long research exercise. I made it to the 6th (and I think final) round of interviews but did not get the position.