This was nothing more and nothing less than a national disgrace. It wasn’t a presidential debate, it was a Godsmack mosh pit. Trump’s sole goal was to turn the entire 90 minutes of the debate into nothing more than white noise, and he gave it his best shot.
And already it isn’t being particularly well received, even on the right. Just after the debate, on FOX News, “Bush’s Disgraced Brain,” Karl Rove was asked for his opinion. Even Rove was forced to admit that this was not going to swing any minds. He admitted that Trump’s most ardent base would be well pleased by his scorched earth attitude, but nobody who was actually trying to make up their minds would be favorably disposed to Trump after the debate.
This was nothing short of a travesty. Biden showed up ready for bear, prepared with facts and figures. Trump showed up with no other plan in mind than to disrupt the debate for the entire 90 minutes, and in so doing, keep Biden from causing any more damage than has already been done. But it didn’t work.
Because even Donald Trump can’t talk without taking a breath for 90 minutes, and it was what happened in the quiet interludes while Der Gropinfuror searched his mind for his next brainless rambling where the shining moments of truth and differentiation came through.
First of all, I have no problems with FOX moderator Chris Wallace. Although I thought he tried to sneak in a couple of sucker punches on Biden, he actually spent much more of his time trying to muzzle Trump so that Biden could complete a sentence. Wallace consistently chastised Trump for his interruptions, and in a couple of cases restored time to Biden to make up for the distraction. And more importantly, Wallace reminded Trump that both sides had agreed to the rules in advance, and that meant Trump giving Biden his allotted two minute without interruption.
Trump didn’t care. He was on a one man mission to filibuster the entire 90 minutes of the debate. And he did whatever he wanted. But it cost him. Because there were tines when Trump didn’t seem to understand what was being said, and those were the moments when Biden absolutely killed him.
For instance, on the subject of the coronavirus, Biden managed to tie Trump to the loss of life, and the destruction of the economy with barbed wire. He was able to remind everyone that Trump downplayed the danger to keep from upsetting the stock market.
And on that subject, Trump immediately swung to the raise of the stock market, and how well the economy was doing. In a few seconds of blessed silence, Biden managed to remind everyone that the stock market is not the economy, looked into the camera and said something like,. But how about all of you out there sitting around the kitchen table, are you doing better now than you were four years ago? Are you looking at an empty chair at the table that used to be filled by someone who sadly died from this virus? Biden also slammed Trump with his own statement, It is what it is, there’s nothing anybody could do. It is what it is. Trump immediately pivoted to a nonsensical argument about Obama and Biden and Obamacare.
On the subject of election security and fraud, Biden caught Trump asleep at the switch. Biden looked squarely into the camera, and said something like, Just vote. It doesn’t matter how you do that, just vote. If you’re going to vote by mail, vote early. If you’re going to vote in person, do it safely. Because it’s this simple. Every vote will count. And if all of the votes are counted, it doesn’t matter what he thinks, if I win, he’ll be out of office. Trump immediately ceded the field by ranting about the fraud rate of mail-in ballots, which is non existent.
Biden also made a strong rebuttal to Trump about him calling the military “losers” and “suckers,” recounting his now dead son’s service in Iraq, and called Beau’s fallen brothers “heroes.” Trump fell back on an old saw of tired argument, bur never expressed the slightest sorrow for Biden’s loss, but more importantly never denied that he had said it.
And one more thing. If there is another debate, until then, Biden is now living rent free in Trump’s head. Biden humiliated Trump tonight. Biden repeatedly called Trump a liar, right to his face. Biden also repeatedly and audibly laughed and snickered at comments Trump was making. At one point, he actually referred to Trump as a “clown.” And he also repeatedly said, Can’t you shut up for one little minute That kind of casual disdain is a deadly toxin for Trump’s overinflated ego, and there were points where you could almost see steam erupting from Trump’s ears.
This debacle was a total shit show. But through all of that, there were moments of blessed silence, when Biden was able to get his points through without interruption. And he did it every time, which is more than Trump can say. It was ugly, but if nothing more, Biden did himself no harm, and Trump more than certainly did himself absolutely no good. And when you’re down by more than the margin of error in every battleground state, that isn’t good enough.
I watched. And I listened. And Biden did well. Trump was a bully. And too noisy.
I saw a lot of comments about the need for mikes that can be shut off by someone like the sound engineer.
And several groups, including the Biden campaign and a D candidate in TN, are now selling tees that say “will you shut up?”
I thought of the muted mic during the Trumpades……the moderator should control the kill switch.
TIn the first question, Wallace asked them to defend their stances toward the Supreme Court vacancy, and asked Trump to go first. Trump gave no defense. The first words out of his mouth were to the effect, “Because we can.”
Going to google that one right now!
Barbara McQuade also asked on Twitter where to get bumper stickers with that on them. I fervently hope those actually turn up.
This is what I expected. Joe did just fine, Trump did not, and probably lost more women with his triggering, abusive behavior.
Yes, another good performance by Joe in a difficult environment full of distractions and provocations. Trump’s attitude toward Beau was despicable. It was like Trump did not know Joe even had another son. And Trump’s first response to Joe’s story about Beau was to attack Hunter.
I was watching otter videos. I did get to see Jill Biden for a moment. She stopped by the Biden/Harris drive-through swag giveaway where I was hanging out with other local Democrats. Then I came home and watched otter videos.
Thanks for the recap, I can’t stand to watch this kind of thing without going off the deep end.
Same here. I was following the coverage and clips but couldn’t watch the whole thing. I don’t need to go to bed outraged.
Forget the bombast and focus on the quiet moments? I thought the bombast WAS the quiet part. The rest was lunatic raving, lol.
Thanks for the analysis…I’m on board with all your points. What I’d add is that I think the fact that Biden humiliated Trump is going to be a slow burn for the president. As he sees the media focus on him being a buffoon and child, I think he will get angrier and angrier. And if a poll comes out over the weekend with Biden increasing his lead…oh man.
I have no idea what this wack job will do as he realizes this didn’t work and he’s still losing.
I try to avoid seeing or hearing tRump, so I knew watching this ‘debate’ would be painful, that himself would look, act and sound like a damned fool, which he did. It’s alarming that he put out an alert to his pals in the white supremist groups to ‘stand by’, and as quickly as they got their little logo for it together, I wonder if this wasn’t already in the works, and they were just waiting for his dog whistle. Biden got in a few good shots. Trump was 90 minutes of word salad as usual. I know I was exhausted by the garbageman, and it wore on Joe, but despite a few verbal stumbles (who wouldn’t when being subjected to a constant onslaught of spewing), he hung in there and got the job done. I felt sorry for him before this started, and don’t envy him having to go back into the pits for additional ‘debates’. Hopefully they can install a mic shut off so rump can be curbed.
We could see why Trump didn’t bother to prepare for the debate. To him, it was just another rally, an opportunity to use the same tired false talking points over and over again, and he has those memorized.
His impulsivity was not comforting to watch as the ‘leader’ of the free world, showed his arse once again. Joe didn’t really need 2 ‘swing’ voters, Frump does. Most people probably felt they were getting a root canal watching him.
Before going to bed (I live in the eastern time zone) I learned CNN’s Dana Bash had called last night’s debate a shit show. I don’t know if there’s an actual word or slang descriptor but it was more a masturbatory version of a cluster fuck. Using nasty looking wild, small and stubby mushrooms. Biden missed some opportunities starting with not mentioning Merrick Garland and later when Trump mocked the prior administration for leaving him so many judicial vacancies pointing out THAT was McConnell’s doing by refusing to confirm judges nominated by Obama. But overall he, no doubt summoning every bit of self-discipline he possesses kept his cool, and sometimes got an opening to look directly into the camera and talk straight to the American people. Trump didn’t do himself or down ballot Republicans any good at all. In fact, except in the most ruby red of states and parts of states he did a lot of damage. Even the RWNJ religious types had to be thinking “WTF? Well, we got our judges and three or four decades of what we want so maybe it’s time to start fixing all the messes that got created so we could get them because things are sure as hell messed up!” One thing in the post debate coverage has been sticking in my mind too – all that talk about what the news (even Fox) will have to say today and the rest of the week because it won’t be the praise Trump walked off that stage figuring he’d be getting. Some on Fox will of course try to “fluff” him but even there there’s bound to be some criticism. Hell, the entire network up to ole Rupert Murdoch himself are probably experiencing that feeling the entire Fox & Friends crew felt that epic morning when Trump was in live, bat-shit crazy mode and despite attempts to get him to end the call he kept right on jabbering. Lawrence O’Donnell insisted that night that it took Rupert himself calling the control room and taking Trump off the air. I’ll bet at Fox they were all wishing their big boss had been able to do the same thing last night.
The line of “Will you shut up man?” (which ironically gave me flashbacks to Gene Hackman in Superman The Movie) pretty much sums up last night.
That Proud Boys ‘Stand By’ moment and their responses to it were what shook me. These people are incredibly violent, and he basically ordered them to become his personal army.
And they answered.
Terrifying.
I agree. This was among Trump’s worst comments of the night. It wasn’t Biden’t fault how the debate went. He was trying to “debate”; Trump was just yelling nonsense for 90 minutes. It was a disgrace and made him look like an idiot. I felt sorry for Biden because he spent hours preparing for the debate whereas Trump spent almost no time.
If this is his plan for the next two debates, they should allow the moderator to switch off the mike when the other candidate has his two minutes.
I would be more terrified if they were more coordinated. But do recall how they couldn’t even crack the 1000 mark in their joke of a rally in Portland. They’re at best play Nazis and at worst the kind of cannon fodder terrorist organizations send out when they don’t want to bother wasting scut work on their more skilled assets. In short, they’re losers.
Himself may have thought that was telling them to stand down…but as usual, he got it Rong.
I’m reliving times with my narcissistic mother (PTSD.) Vortex spinning. 45 spun for all he was worth last night. Divert. Deflect. Lie. Spin, spin, spin. I get why Joe got ticked off a few times. That’s part of 45’s goal. He wanted to push Joe as far as he could so Joe would blow up and 45 could use that. But….Joe said what we all wanted to say. Except I would have said STFU. Proud Boys will “stand by.” WTH? He had an opportunity and took it for himself. Black folks always knew he was racist – hope this wakes the hell up out a few that want 45. Anyone else exhausted?
Wore the hell out, Bead, no lie. And them boys keep pushing it too far, they gonna find out pride got a price.
There were times while Trump was babbling that I laughed at him, times when I shook my head and thought, “OH MY GOD!” There were times when I was rolling my eyes. There were times when I wondered if Trump would ever shut up so Biden could talk. In my 82 years of life, I have never seen so many lies spewed out of a man’s mouth as with Trump in 90 minutes. I can hardly wait for the next one on October 7th.
Only a fool argues with a fool… Well, unless you have to debate the dumb SOB. But Joe did the best he could. AT LEAST WE’S NOT TALKING ABOUT THEM THERE TRUMP TAXES!! (Hard to to type Southern… Texas is big… southern and western… and a whole lotta everything else by now 🙂 ). The quiet parts. There had to be a contrast… because it would be the first (and last ?) time most of the USA would see and hear (and have no excuses).
It think the only way to debate our fool in chief is to verbally dominate him and I don’t mean by interrupting or yelling.
Seen elseweb: Samuel L Hall should be the moderator for the next two debates. (IMO, he should also be able to shut off the mikes.)
I did see a meme somewhere with a pic of Samuel L Jackson where the caption read “I SAID two minutes, muthafukca!”
I saw Samuel L. Jackson and Robert DeNiro as two possibilities. ?
Here is an argument against taking any measures that may actually help Trump present himself in a better light. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwiB8jPUQAs
Gonna leave this here: Joe Biden’s head on Walter Sobchak’s body with the caption: Shut the fuck up, Donny!
Trump really showed his stupidity ….