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Post-Debate Reflections (from a Trump voter)
Because you need another one of these posts…
- Watching Trump interrupt and talk over the debate moderator was cringy and painful. I’m a woman and a millennial, so take that into consideration – I know a lot of people like seeing Trump’s aggression, and sometimes I do, too, but I don’t think this was a good look tonight. I don’t mind him talking over Biden as much because it is a debate, after all.
- The “Antifa is an idea, not an organization” nonsense from Biden was extremely offensive. Don’t remember ideas burning things down and terrorizing people all by themselves!
- I’m super glad I will never moderate a presidential debate, and I want to know why they never mute the candidates’ mics. If it’s a matter of pre-debate negotiations, then they need to negotiate that in next time.
- Biden saying he doesn’t want to defund the police or implement the Green New Deal was interesting – and I don’t know that I believe him, especially with Kamala Harris as his running mate. I’m curious to see if he ends up walking any of that back.
- I thought the debate was supposed to last until 11 p.m., so it was a pleasant surprise when it ended “early.”
- I believe Trump has disavowed white supremacy before, and I can’t believe we’re still bringing up the “good people on both sides” thing, but Trump handled that question horribly last night.
- So, who won? Probably those of us who chose to watch the debate as entertainment and Tweet/chat on Ricochet while we watched it.
Also – my favorite Tweet from the night:
Prior to this debate I Loved Trump, I loved his policies, I loved his aggressive NY tone. I was kinda sad about Biden’s ineffective dementia addled approach. After this debate I hated both. This leads me to believe that Biden voters will continue to support democrats ( not Biden per se, just not Trump) and Trump supporters will find their enthusiasm significantly damped down.
Re: Trump not denouncing White Nationalists? WTF? Call the Klan Krap. call White Nationalists Crap, then denounce everyone. The Violent Antifa, The Marxist BLM. Talk about the love of Black people and separate that from the violence, looting and firestorms of BLM. He blew that moment, more than any other during the debate.
I wasn’t paying as close attention to that second of the debate as I was paying close attention to the point in the debate where Chris Wallace repeated the “very fine people” lie, and where Joe Biden repeated the “very fine people lie” with no challenge from Chris Wallace.
And I was also paying attention to the part where Joe Biden refused to answer the court-packing question and Chris Wallace didn’t object; and I was paying attention to the unfair income tax question to Trump, and the three times that Chris Wallace repeated that unfair question.
Who are these white nationalists? Are they a major problem in America, and if so, where are they? How many are there? Three, five, at most eight? In a country of 330,000,000?
Eh. Trump came out swinging for the fences. No timing. No finesse. I felt like the strategy was to wear down and frustrate Biden, to the point he showed his buttocks.
Some timing, some finesse, Trump could’ve gotten the KO. Didn’t happen. Movin’ on.
They must be using this in the education complex, I had grandchild tell me this a few days ago. Who are all those people trashing the cities?
Two big reasons I support Trump: he’s pro-life and anti-Communist. There are several more important reasons: he’s pro-school choice, anti-regulatory pro-small business, pro-law and order, pro-Constitution especially the Bill of Rights.
I don’t know how solidly he is committed to each of these things, but his performance has been far better than any predecessor.
Biden denied every single allegation by Trump that Hunter Biden got money from Russia, Ukraine, China, etc. Expect the fact-checkers to all take a holiday tomorrow.
This was the same Trump who bulldozed his way through the GOP debates in 2016, the same Trump who takes reporters to task in press conferences, and the same Trump who tweets his mind and doesn’t give a flip what anyone thinks about it. He’s a loud, brawling New Yorker, not a politician.
Four years ago that scared me. In that time though I’ve learned that I could care less what he says, I only care what he does because he does almost everything right, and some things better than I would have thought possible. So go ahead and let the bull smash up that China shop. I wish somebody had done it decades ago.
I don’t watch debates. First of all, these aren’t real debates. They’re just Q&As designed to make Republicans look bad. Second, debating is a skill. Like good lawyers, a good debater can argue both sides of an issue, which means you can never really know what a good debater actually believes.
All Biden needed to do last night was to not seem like someone who needed to be on Alzheimer meds, and he accomplished that.
When the MSM has conflated all right wing groups as white supremacists, giving blanket condemnation is not a good idea. Trump handled that as best he could.
I said much the same to Jerry. He responded, “Hey we’ve discussed many times that this is Trump. He’s not gonna change. Let it go.” Sigh.
Same conversation here. Although I did talk (loudly) to the television a few times. Made me feel better. ;)
I made my husband take a vow with me that we wouldn’t add commentary to what was happening. I failed miserably.
I think Wallace conflated white supremacists with “militias”, as if all militias were white and white supremacists. Did Wallace mention the BAMN (By Any Means Necessary) and the armed “Not F**king Around Coalition”. He could have asked Biden to condemn these as well.
The reason why it didn’t bother me that he didn’t condemn “white supremacists” is because that question was all about getting Trump to condemn Proud Boys and he knew it. Everyone knew “white supremacists and militias” meant Proud Boys.
Good on Trump not to leave them hanging.
If the media wants unequivocal denunciation of nazis, white nationalists, and white supremacists, they should be more circumspect in who they apply the label to. Since you and I are racists just by virtue of being on the Right, I’m good with our president not playing along.
Vince,
Yeah!!! I’ll have what Vince is having.
Regards,
Jim
If truth was the purpose of these debates, they would mute the mics regularly, regardless of the particular candidates.
I would set a little more time for answers. Then alternate who gets the question. If a candidate deems it important to respond to an opponent’s rebuttal, he or she can sacrifice a bit of that extended time to returnbto the previous question.
But we will never see a sensible debate structure because truth is not a priority in politics or news media.
Again, I didn’t watch, but these “gotcha” inane questions really are of the type — “doesn’t deserve a response.” At most the President should pointedly suggest that everyone go read the whole transcript of his comments on Charlottesville, because the media and the Democrats (but, I repeat) are lying about it. Period. End of issue.
I hate this debate structure. That’s awful. Time should be built in for rebuttal – not use time from another question to rebut.
I understand people were offended by Trump’s interruptions, but shouldn’t we be just as offended by Biden’s blatant lying about Trump? It seems to me that Trump only interrupted when Biden was engaging in name-calling and insults.
And blatant lies. Trump was contradicting Biden’s presumptions and statements.
And definitely better than his opponent!
I know – I was hoping for some funny gaffs and they just weren’t there. Lol.
Haha
Interesting thoughts – I guess I had never really heard of the Proud Boys before the debate lol, but I have since learned that they include minorities, so I’m not sure how they could be considered white supremacists?
Because they have the gall to show up in Seattle or Portland and counter protest Antifa.
Basically, anyone the left doesn’t like is white supremacist.