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Trump-Biden Debate Wrap-Up
President Donald Trump faced former Vice President Joe Biden for the first presidential debate Tuesday night in Cleveland. It was a televised headache.
In theory, Chris Wallace was the moderator but immediately proved ineffective at controlling the two septuagenarians bickering for the next 96 minutes. By the end, it felt like the debate was between Trump and a Wallace/Biden tag team.
Trump came out swinging, peppering Biden with interruptions and real-time fact checks. He criticized the Democrat’s 47 years in Washington and pointed out how little he accomplished during that half century.
Biden lost his cool several times, telling Trump “Will you shut up, man?” oddly followed with “Keep yappin’, man.” He called the President a racist, a clown, a liar, and the worst president in US history. He directed most of his remarks into the camera, while Trump faced Biden throughout.
Overall, the Democrat held up well during the break-free debate, making minimal gaffes and keeping a level energy throughout. The Trump team lowered expectations so much that it ended up helping him. The President, however, was definitely the most energetic man on stage.
This is where I’d usually discuss the policies discussed but this brawl was far more UFC than Oxford Union. I offer sincere prayers for the transcriptionists trying to document this thing. It was an hour and a half of crosstalk.
Biden refused to answer whether he supported packing the courts, claimed his Biden-Sanders Manifesto didn’t exist, at one time criticized lockdowns then later supported them.
Trump pressed Biden on the lawlessness raging through Democratic-led cities, Hunter Biden’s sweetheart deals with shady foreign potentates, and the dangers of mass mail-in voting.
Wallace and Biden hit Trump hard on COVID, climate change, and critical race theory (which Wallace deceptively cast as mere “sensitivity training”). The “moderator” seemed balanced at first; by the end, he and Biden were shaking their heads and laughing with each other at Trump’s aggressive approach.
The New York Times headline says it all: “Chris Wallace Tries to Rein In an Unruly Trump at First Debate.” It is not the job of a moderator to “rein in” either side. The fact that a Fox News host ran interference for the Democrat does not bode well for bias at the next two debates.
The next debates are scheduled for Oct. 15 and Oct. 22. Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris will meet on Oct. 7.
Published in Elections, General
Jon, I think you missed the most egregious statement by Trump when he refused to tell the Proud Boys to go to hell, but instead said that they should “stand down and stand-by.”
Stand by? Stand by! There is no room for White Supremacists to stand by, where they can be recalled.
Good summary. Not really enjoyable. Biden may have harmed himself a bit with those to his Left by saying he “is” the Democrat Party so his word is the Dem policy and then waffling on the Manifesto. He helped himself by not going into a total brain freeze. He is a practiced liar and it showed to Trump supporters (if not to Biden’s own team). I think Biden tries to find a way to pack in the next two debates because I don’t see any upside for him.
Trump got no knock out punches but may have started some bleeding. We’ll see.
Wallace had a light thumb on the scale for the most part but it was clearly on the scale.
I don’t understand how you can on the one hand criticize Wallace for being ineffective at controlling the candidates, then on the other hand say that it wasn’t his job as moderator to rein in the candidates.
Eh. Don’t think this debate will change anything about the race.
The Proud Boys haven’t been engaged in violence, attacks on police, looting, or burning down buildings across America for the last 4 months. Antifa and BLM have. The Proud Boys drove through Portland in the cars and trucks and one of them was murdered in cold blood. So spare us your irrational fear about how dangerous the Proud Boys are.
But let’s not forget: “Antifa is an idea not an organization.” — Joe Biden
Really? The Antifa Idea has chapters in just about every major American city and cities internationally. They communicate and coordinate with one another. They are well-funded and well-supplied and many travel around the country to scheduled “protests” and riots. But whatever.
That was bad. So was Biden saying that the GND isn’t his plan, when his website says he supports it. He also refused to say that he would not support packing the Supreme Court.
@garyrobbins, since you still believe the “Fine People” hoax along with Wallace, there is nothing more Trump could say.
Yep, solid point, so let’s all vote for the Antifa/BLM/shooting/looting/burn-down-your-cities/domestic terrorist candidate. That’s the ticket!
He didn’t try to rein in “the candidates.” He tried to rein in Trump.
Trump must quickly and irrevocably renounce his acceptance of “The Proud Boys.”
What am I listening to? Why, I’m glad you asked, Chief. I got this advance from Inoperable Growth Records, a band called Toxic Paprika. They’re out of Oildale, CA and the album is called Stoic Fart. They do a great cover of Aqueduct Pocket’s “The Love That You Find Is The Love That You Shall Never Find Because It Is Just Not The Love That Is Always Able To Be Found.”
Oh, the debate? From Wolf Blitzer to George Snuffalupagus to Dana Bash (“s**t show”), it kind of feels like the corporate media is setting up a Biden exit from future debates, before Trump can drop bigger hammers. Remember, in 2016 he held back in first soirees before wiping the floor in future rounds.
Wallace is a disgrace. I’ve lost friends over “you watch too much Fox News,” when I don’t even have cable. Saying he was embarrassing is a compliment.
Somebody much wiser than I said, “We earned this.”
Nothing Trump was going to say or do was going to deter those of us planning to vote for him for the reasons we have all internalized. So the question was whether Trump was going to make headway with groups that have traditionally supported Dems. He put in some wedges with getting Biden to pull a Peter and deny Bernie and his weakness on law and order which does not play well with any productive person of whatever race or ethnicity.
Jon,
This is the interesting part. Either Biden had enough of a drug in him to hold him upright for 90 minutes or he has been rope-a-doping all along. If so he is truly the Manchurian candidate. He doesn’t care about any of the issues his party ran on or what they supposedly believe in. He lied about every issue his entire party has been backing for the last 12 years and reversed it all so he could sound rational.
That means he is a rat-faced lying rat. Considerably worse than a dog-faced pony soldier.
Regards,
Jim
Please give Trump some time. He’s been in a different space, a different mindset from being in a debate.
Incumbents always do badly in the first debate. That’s because they’ve been busy doing other things.
You will be much more impressed next time. I promise.
Proud Boys are not white supremacist. That’s a disgusting lie.
Please list the cities where the Proud Boys have terrorized residents and burned businesses to the ground. Please name those Proud Boys arrested in any of the most violent cities in America where dozens are shot every weekend. Please provide the names of the Proud Boys that have shot and killed police officers. Heck, just show me one report of the Proud Boys cornering restaurant diners into providing a salute to prevent further harassment, or possibly bodily harm. Gary, you are tilting at windmills while Rome burns (yes, a strange mixed metaphor, but it feels right.)
There are three incumbent Presidents who failed to be re-elected.
In 1992, George H.W. Bush lost to Clinton by 5.6%.
In 1980, Jimmy Carter lost to Reagan by 9.7%.
In 1932, Herbert Hoover lost to FDR by 17.7%.
I believe that after this food fight of a debate, Trump will lose to Biden by more than 17.7%.
Rather obviously, Trump was the primary one who needed to cool his interruption jets. That is hardly surprising, it is his standard debate strategy.
I’m guessing no “next time”. Biden’s got a bleeding campaign and he will take his stake from the table and go home. Watch Kamala to start talking about whether there should be a debate with Pence next week. Probably will happen, but predict some uncertainty about that.
Rationality is both bourgeois and racist, comrade.
And there are plenty of non-whites in that group. But I guess that doesn’t matter.
What is your evidence that the Proud Boys are white supremacists? Their web site says they accept anyone irrespective of race.
Wallace tried to enforce Trump’s own agreement. Trump is not used to being required to keep his word.
On Wallace’s interjections, he was not running interference, he was pleading for decorum, decency, and gravitas. That is not Trump’s style, so Trump refused to oblige.
James:
‘That means he is a rat-faced lying rat. Considerably worse than a dog-faced pony soldier.”
The incredibly brazen whoppers just regularly spewing out of Biden’s mouth were really startling. Biden’s habitual and unrestrained lying I think is the key to this campaign. To lie like his does means Joe, like Hillary and Buraq before him, is likely a certifiable psychopath. No lie is beneath him. He lies with such ease and without a hint of guilt. To do that you have to be way beyond mental. If the American People believe his unbelievable lies then there is no hope. We as a nation are toast.
They just engage in political violence. Which the President now implicitly supports. Oy vey.
Examples, please?
Beat me to that comment. Yes, it’s a lie, but lies don’t bother NeverTrumpers at all.
All Biden needed to do to “win” the debate was avoid appearing senile. That’s all Democrats and Trump haters need to vote for Biden. He succeeded.
Now the sound bite game begins. Hopefully, Trump’s team has snappier responses than the President offered.
For example, the effective response to Biden’s “I do so condemn violence” is not merely “He’s lying!” (he said, she said) but rather “Biden said nothing against the looting, the burning, and assaults for 3 months.” Then start listing statistics about businesses (and jobs) destroyed, murder rates, monuments defaced, etc, and quote Democrats promising more rioting after the election.
“Political violence”? As opposed to actual physical violence that Antifa and BLM engage in?