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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
Gary, you should look into the origin of the Proud Boys. It was started by Gavin McInnes as a fraternal social club for men of all races and backgrounds. A significant fraction of the membership is black and hispanic. Like many fraternal social clubs they have some silly hazing rituals like having a group of guys pummel you until you name 5 breakfast cereals (this is a straight holdover from Gavin’s youth). Gavin is not involved in the organization anymore, and it got more political when it started counter protesting to protect speakers like Ann Coulter, Ben Shapiro etc. from mobs around and after the 2016 election. Remember those? Violence instigated by leftists to stop people like Shapiro from speaking.
The proud boys are explicitly not racist, but they are a pretty unruly bunch not afraid of standing up to leftist protestors like antifa.
I am not a member of The Proud Boys, but I am a fan of Gavin. – He had an excellent interview series from 2012-2014 that you once could find on YouTube focusing on free speech issues. –
If not denouncing the Proud Boys is the hill you want to make your stand on, go ahead.
Yes. “Stand down [for now] and stand by.”
I’m a big fan of Gavin and your post is spot-on. The Proud Boys are not afraid to fight. Like Kyle Rittenhouse, they put themselves in wrong-place, wrong-time situations, which I disagree with. But they are not instigators. And they are far from being white supremicists.
Please see Page 1 results from searching “examples of proud boy violence” and clicking through citations on their wiki –
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/proud-boys-chat-logs-premeditate-rally-violence-in-leaked-chats_n_5ce1e231e4b00e035b928683
https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounders/proud-boys-0
https://www.wweek.com/news/courts/2019/10/05/right-wing-fighter-tusitala-tiny-toese-arrested-at-airport-for-2018-sidewalk-assault/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/19/proud-boys-fbi-classification-extremist-group-white-nationalism-report?CMP=share_btn_tw
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/22/nyregion/proud-boys-antifa-sentence.html
HuffPo? The Guardian? NY Times? These are anti-America propaganda rags.
C-SPAN debate vote (after 91,629 votes):
Tim,
I guess you missed the fact that Biden sold out his base on every significant issue and lied his way through the rest. It was one of the slimiest snake jobs I’ve ever seen. But you didn’t like Trump’s style. Chris Wallace is a trivial facsimile of his father. He refuses to grasp that the left has descended past Marxism and has made it all the way to Bolshevism.
The Democrats have destroyed all decorum, decency, and gravitas. They’ve replaced it with Bolshevik tactics and Marxist propaganda. No American political party has deserved to lose more than the 2020 Democrats. Anybody who helps them is either a useful idiot or a monster.
Regards,
Jim
Page 2 and following results for Proud Boy violence, which our President asked to “stand by”
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:WWUDL06Jyb0J:https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/08/22/portland-police-far-right-protest/+&cd=14&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
https://theintercept.com/2019/08/16/portland-far-right-rally/
https://orinocotribune.com/proud-boys-the-extreme-right-group-spreading-violence-in-the-us/
-https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep25259?seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents
https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2019/08/19/proud-boys-convicted-attempt-assault-versus-antifa-activists/
https://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/2020/09/kalamazoo-police-release-videos-from-proud-boys-protest-to-the-public.html
🙄
One unarmed Proud Boy was standing by when he was murdered in cold blood. Maybe they should stand by and take measures to protect themselves. Does Antifa own Portland? It seems that they do since the Portland DA releases them after they’ve been arrested so that they can riot and attack police more.
Has it been the Proud Boys who have been burning, vandalizing and murdering people in Portland and Seattle and elsewhere for the last 4 months? Or has that been Antifa and BLM? Biden still won’t condemn Antifa and BLM by name…but Trump must dance to Chris Wallace’s tune and condemn an organization that has been relatively quiet and law-abiding when compared to Antifa and BLM? Why didn’t Wallace ask the same of Biden?
Never have heard the Proud Boys say anything in support of racism. Have seen that they have Black and Hispanic members. Would like to hear examples of their racism,
Brian,
There seemed to be a consistent theme to all of these “confrontations” in the links. The Proud Boys marched and then a larger number of Antifa waited to attack them. Oddly, if they were “White Supremacists” they had no confederate flags. If they were “Fascists” they had no swastikas. On the other hand, “Antifa” is the name of a Bolshevik street fighting gang from the 1930s. They shout Marxist slogans and attack the police when there are no Proud Boys to attack. They regularly harass any ordinary citizen that is unfortunate enough to be surrounded by these psychotic bullies.
It is very clear even from these articles in very left-wing publications that it is Antifa who is aggressively spreading violence.
Regards,
Jim
Apparently Frank Lunz did a focus group tonight. A formerly uncommitted woman concluded that Trump appeared to be on crack and she was voting for Biden.
Hummmmm. The Proud Boys added Trump’s words on a sign for their group: “Stand Down, Stand By.”
On the more sane side, Hispanics think by a margin of 66% to 34% that Trump won. MAGA, baby!
There is no question is fully present cognitively and energetically. Trump? Trump acted like an idiot.
Biden would frequently address the American people. Trump kept interrupting him.
I am tremendously confirmed in my NeverTrumperness. The question is the degree that I will transfer my feelings about Trump to Trump Enablers.
The psychological term for this is “confirmation bias”.
Much better than the actual words “clutch the pearls”. Good on ya!
Which you don’t have?
You haven’t heard me articulate a position on the debates, have you?
Are you troubled by Biden’s assertion that Antifa is simply an animating spirit, a concept, and not an organization? It seems more pertinent, given that the left has produced 98.6% of the urban unrest.
It might be true in a meta sense, inasmuch as the leftist imperative to sow disorder transcends particular organizations, just as much as Jew-hatred and the desire for power can be Hamas or Hezbollah,. But I don’t think that’s what Biden meant.
I don’t think he supports the people putting bricks through windows, but he’ll wave away criticism of the people who back the brick-throwers. The real threat is the right-wing fascist organizations, you know. The people Biden supports who use a clenched fist as their symbol? Mostly peaceful. Fine people.
I plead ignorance. Who are these “Proud Boys” and what have they done that is so bad?
They must be closeted, self-hating white supremacists.
Ah, but you see:
1. They oppose Black Lives Matter
2. Therefore they believe black lives do not matter
3. Therefore they must be white supremacists
Q.E.D.
“Antifa is an idea not an organization.” — Joe Biden
The best articles I’ve read on the “idea” of Antifa and its century long history as a transnational insurgency movement, organizational structure, ideological origins, sources of funding, and efforts to exploit the death of George Floyd have been these two by Soeren Kern: Part 1 , Part 2
Biden could and should have been stronger on Antifa. But he didn’t instruct them to “Stand By.” That is very scary to me. “Stand by for what?”