Day 1,349: At first debate with Biden, Trump proves, again, to be a dangerous embarrassment
With the first highly anticipated presidential debate on Tuesday, tens of millions of Americans tuned in and heard Donald Trump incessantly whine and interrupt Joe Biden, sweat through his bronzer and give incoherent ramblings while threatening the election and encouraging white nationalists to continue their menacing and violent actions.
Trump’s campaign spent a considerable amount of time in the run-up to the debate, without evidence, playing up the crazy idea that Biden would be on drugs to improve his debate performance and possibly had a listening device in his ear to let his campaign feed him answers. At the same time, in an attempt to lower expectations, they also let it slip that Trump didn’t bother preparing for more than a couple hours for the debate. It showed.
The candidates discussed an array of topics and Trump flubbed nearly everyone.
On the election, Trump unleashes conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory including ballots “dumped in rivers” and again refused to accept defeat if he loses an independently-certified election.
Thrown the biggest softball of the evening by moderator Chris Wallace, Trump refused to denounce white supremacists and asked them to “stand back and stand by.”
Trump had no real answer about showing his tax returns after the bombshell New York Times report showing Trump paid just $750 in taxes in 2016 and 2017.
He lied about the timeline for a COVID-19 vaccine and his administration’s putrid response.
Trump seemed to think “[getting] rid of the individual mandate” is a healthcare plan and tried to filibuster a question relating to his still-missing and long-promised plan.
On climate change, he continued to deny the science and spoke nonsensically.
And when called out for interrupting Biden nonstop, Trump acted like a petulant child.
Biden, for his part, promised to concede the election if it was independently-certified that he lost. He spoke against violence, by both police and protesters. He put forth plans for climate change, health care and COVID-19. He explained why Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination was fraught with danger, from both a procedural and substantive standpoint. There was a real thought and policy discussion while Trump continued to turn the debate into a mere shouting match. Biden spoke from the heart, calm and presidential for most of the night.
Perhaps most poignantly, Biden reminded the public that the election had nothing to do with the families of the men standing on stage, but the ones watching at home.
1,349 days in, 113 to go
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