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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
You are not fooling me. You are not scared by that comment. It’s just an excuse for you to bash Trump over a frivolous remark.
Then let’s hear him immediately withdraw it. Or will it take a week for him to do so like David Duke?
This is not going to take down only Trump, this is going to lead to the Dems winning a bunch of senate seats, in 1980, Reagan brought in a Republican Senate for the first time since the 1950’s. The failure of Republican Senators to be anything other than Trump Enablers is going to bring down their majority. Hopefully, during their time in the wilderness, the remaining Republicans will consider the importance of avoiding being part of a cult of personality ever again.
I love me some DJT, but tonight he was flat, and missed a lot of opportunities. His attacks on Hunter Biden went nowhere. He should have been able to easily deflect Biden’s calumnies, but he repeatedly missed his chance. If only his speechwriters could have stood in for him!
Biden is, to paraphrase Ronald Reagan, a pure demagogue. He may be a demented old man, but he’s been a skilled character assassin longer then most of us (not me, alas) have been alive. All he did was pull out of his bag the condensation act he used on Paul Ryan during the Romney campaign. Put on a knowing chuckle at your opponent’s ignorance, and, voila! You’re the wise old elder statesman.
Biden is vile, to be sure, but he knows the game and how to work it. God help us, that may be enough.
Chris Wallace is the Goddamned enemy. How is it that the Republicans keep handing the knives over to those who would slit their throats? Year after year, it’s Lucy and Charlie Brown and the football, over and over… will they ever get wise?
If our guy had an ounce of discipline or self-control, Wallace would have been inconsequential.
What, the proud boys didn’t get one vote?
Fraud!
I’ve read a lot of Gavin McInnes’s stuff, and I’ve never seen anything to indicate that he was a white supremacist.
I hope you are right and that viewers are still around to see it.
Really? And you just completely ignore Biden”s “Antifa is an idea not an organization”.
I don’t remember many ideas burning cities and killing people.
The Right is not the ones in the streets looting burning and injuring police.
You hold Trump to the standard of denouncing “White Nationalists”
But silent on Biden and Harris encouraging the Black Nationalists and Anarchists.
It’s your buddies. The ones you are supporting with money, votes, and working hard to get elected.
But that’s exactly what I expect from a Democrat.
Remember people.
The Never Trump crowd doesn’t care about winning.
They just want the clubhouse back.
Even if the country is burned down around it.
Just protecting your investment.
Dont get too excited. Once all the mail in ballots are received and counted we’ll see the real result. Shouldn’t be more than a month or two once the urban ballot harvest is brought in.
I followed all of the links. They were all long on assertions and short on facts corresponding to reality.
Sure, Biden frequently addressed the camera. What was the content of that address? Lies, bluster, and radicalism. As someone said earlier: oy vey.
The pressure that Trump personally has been under for the last four years has been unprecedented in the history of our presidencies. The attacks have all been personal, ending with the two days before the debate when the NYT released what they say are his tax returns–how they got them is the stuff of investigations.
Trump was not his best last night, but why would he be after all that he has been through personally in this job?
After every sleazy, thing Joe Biden has done while being an elected official over the course of his adult life, for him to be on that stage attacking someone who up until four years ago was a private citizen, must have knocked some logs loose in Trump’s mind. “I’m on trial here and not him?” That’s what I’d be thinking.
What I got out of that debate is that the Democrats have succeeded in landing their punches.
But I know Trump will come back stronger in a week or two.
This is not over.
Target: Liberate adult women and older Americans from opponent.
Trump Mission: Throw off Biden.
Biden Mission: Don’t appear senile.
Trump After Action Report: Some minor damage.
Biden After Action Report: Mission Accomplished.
Trump Strategy next time:
1. Repeat tactics to move fast & keep up with bombardment to get Biden to stumble, make gaffes.
2. Irritate Biden and get him to appear offensively rude.
Nah. I dont agree. By the end it was all just melee. However, at the beginning when President Trump was calm and direct, Wallace often cut him off, saved Biden, and engaged in argument of his own. Every time Trump was getting to substance Wallce rode in to interrupt or “move on”.
what have proud boys ever done but fight Antifa thugs? What is not to like?
That was a jaw-dropping moment.
On the whole, I thought the whole thing was a train-wreck, and I wished I hadn’t watched it.
This is Donald Trump’s “We Are Open for Business” speech at Davos two years ago. Listen to this in comparison to the President Trump we saw last night;
This election battle is not over. Don’t count out Donald Trump yet. We are actually watching some reality-politics-television version of Rocky. He’ll win. I know he will.
They’re not white supremacist. That’s an ongoing smear that the media keeps repeating.
It was nice of Wallace to give Biden long breaks during which Wallace debated with Trump while Biden rested.
Biden and Harris support the burning and looting of cities. I suppose the thousands of small merchants that lost their life’s work mean nothing to you and the party you support (democratic party). I hope you can tell them “tough luck” to their faces. Yes, too bad Biden wasn’t stronger on Antifa.
I was thinking that we hadn’t heard anything about them in well over a year, and then suddenly last night. Where did this come from? During all this summer’s riots, they’ve been MIA. The only people who seem to be attempting to counter antifa are that group that call themselves Patriot Prayer. And one of them got executed by an antifa goon just for existing.
Why are we now back to blaming violence on the Proud Boys? Anyone with half a brain knows who’s really doing the rioting.
You frighten easily.
Drew,
He frightens easily and selectively.
Regards,
Jim
That’s what you want. You should be happy. But all you do is complain.
A pack of blessings light upon thy back;
Happiness courts thee in her best array;
But, like a misbehaved and sullen wench,
Thou pout’st upon thy fortune and thy love.
Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable.
I disagree with your assessment of the Proud Boys.
This . . . surprises me. I see it more as evidence of the President’s unshakeable base rather than a response to his performance last night.
That pretty much says it all. Were those directly to Act Blue, Gary, or through the link on the BLM website?