More takeaways from yesterday's debate

 

There was, believe it or not, a more or less coherent transcript made of last night’s presidential debate. We could tell from the start that Donald Trump and his supporters were going to flout decorum and rules. Chris Wallace announced that “This debate is being conducted under health and safety protocols designed by the Cleveland Clinic, which is serving as the Health Security adviser to the Commission for all four debates.” That included the requirement of audience members to wear face masks. What we saw was that all of the audience members on the Trump side removed their masks as they sat down as a show of “solidarity” with Trump and his continuing efforts to downplay the pandemic--and that included his family members. Reportedly a health official was denied access to the Trump group to remind them of the mask requirement.

Of course everything went downhill from there. It has been pointed out that Trump’s executive order on prescription drugs doesn’t actually lower their cost, but shifts the cost to higher premiums for those on Medicare; furthermore, the “overseas” importation of drugs isn’t exactly “overseas”--it is across the border, in Canada. Forbes and others have pointed out that this is also unlikely to lower drug prices because Canada only has the capacity to fill a tiny portion of this country’s drug needs. Trump’s executive order on preexisting conditions is also largely a fraud, because it is unenforceable, and would require the “cooperation” of insurers, which is highly unlikely unless a law is passed to require it--and we already have that law, the ACA, which Trump is trying to kill. But who are we to argue with brain-dead Trump supporters who believe that he actually has their “interests” at heart, as if he has one?

Now, we should have been able to hear a clear-headed discussion about this, because the agreement that both candidates said they would abide by was that each candidate would be able to answer the moderator’s questions without interruption. One suspects that there was a real fear in the Trump camp that Biden would sound more rational and provide a holistic vision for the country, which would play better to independents than Trump’s speaking to his white nationalist base. The “plan,” one suspects, was to repeatedly interfere with Biden’s monologues so that listeners could not get a clear sense of what he was saying. Take for example this exchange, when Wallace asked Biden about a single-payer health system; Biden reminded him he supported a public option for those too poor to afford health insurance or not provided one by their employers. Biden was about to launch into his second point when Trump belly-flopped into his answer:

President Donald J. Trump:
Joe, you agreed with Bernie Sanders, who’s far left, on the manifesto, we call it. And that gives you socialized medicine.

Vice President Joe Biden:
Look, hey.

President Donald J. Trump:
Are you saying you didn’t agree?

Vice President Joe Biden:
I’m not going to listen to him. The fact of the matter is I beat Bernie Sanders.

President Donald J. Trump: 
Not by much.

Vice President Joe Biden: 
I beat him by a whole hell of a lot.

President Donald J. Trump:
Not by much.

Vice President Joe Biden:
I’m here standing facing you, old buddy.

President Donald J. Trump:
If Pocahontas would have left two days early you would have lost every primary.

Vice President Joe Biden:
All he knows how to do-

President Donald J. Trump:
On Super Tuesday, you got very lucky.

Vice President Joe Biden: 
Look he’s the deal. I got very lucky. I’m going to get very lucky tonight as well.

President Donald J. Trump:
With what?

Vice President Joe Biden:
And tonight I’m going to make sure.

President Donald J. Trump:
With what?

Vice President Joe Biden:
Because here’s the deal, here’s the deal. The fact is that everything he’s saying so far is simply a lie. I’m not here to call out his lies. Everybody knows he’s a liar.

President Donald J. Trump:
But you agree. Joe, you’re the liar. You graduated last in your class not first in your class.

Vice President Joe Biden:
God, I want to make sure-

Chris Wallace:
Mr. President, can you let him finish, sir?

Vice President Joe Biden:
No, he doesn’t know how to do that.

President Donald J. Trump: 
You’d be surprised. You’d be surprised. Go ahead, Joe.

Vice President Joe Biden:
The wrong guy, the wrong night, at the wrong time.

President Donald J. Trump:
Listen, you agreed with Bernie Sanders and the manifesto.

Vice President Joe Biden:
There is no manifesto, number one.

Chris Wallace: 
Please let him speak, Mr. President.

Vice President Joe Biden: 
Number two.

President Donald J. Trump:
He just lost the left.

Vice President Joe Biden: 
Number two.

President Donald J. Trump:
You just lost the left. You agreed with Bernie Sanders on a plan that you absolutely agreed to and under that plan [crosstalk 00:15:10], they call it socialized medicine.

Chris Wallace: 
Mr. President.

Vice President Joe Biden:
I’ll tell you what, he is not for any help for people needing healthcare.

President Donald J. Trump: 
Who is, Bernie?

Vice President Joe Biden: 
Because he, in fact, already has costs 10 million people their healthcare that they had from their employers because of his recession. Number one. Number two, there are 20 million people getting healthcare through Obamacare now that he wants to take it away. He won’t ever look you in the eye and say that’s what he wants to do. Take it away.

President Donald J. Trump:
No, I want to give them better healthcare at a much lower price, because Obamacare is no good.

Vice President Joe Biden:
He doesn’t know how. He doesn’t know how to do that.

President Donald J. Trump:
I’ve already fixed it.

Vice President Joe Biden:
He has never offered a plan.

President Donald J. Trump:
We’ve already fixed it to an extent. Obamacare, as you might know but probably don’t, Obamacare is no good.

It was a disgraceful performance by Trump, and both Biden and Wallace were put in an impossible situation. What could Wallace have done? Perhaps he could have just said that if Trump refused to allow Biden to speak without interruption he would end the debate right then and there, and place the blame squarely on Trump’s shoulders. But if Wallace had done that, we might not have come to this exchange:

Chris Wallace:
You have repeatedly criticized the vice president for not specifically calling out Antifa and other left wing extremist groups. But are you willing tonight to condemn white supremacists and militia group and to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence in a number of these cities as we saw in Kenosha and as we’ve seen in Portland.

President Donald J. Trump:
Sure, I’m will to do that.

Chris Wallace:
Are you prepared specifically to do it.

President Donald J. Trump:
I would say almost everything I see is from the left wing not from the right wing.

Chris Wallace:
But what are you saying?

President Donald J. Trump:
I’m willing to do anything. I want to see peace.

Chris Wallace:
Well, do it, sir.

Vice President Joe Biden:
Say it, do it say it.

President Donald J. Trump:
What do you want to call them? Give me a name, give me a name, go ahead who do you want me to condemn.

Chris Wallace:
White supremacist and right-wing militia.

(Biden mentions the Proud Boys)

President Donald J. Trump:
Proud Boys, stand back and stand by. But I’ll tell you what somebody’s got to do something about Antifa and the left because this is not a right wing problem this is a left wing.

Vice President Joe Biden:
He’s own FBI Director said unlike white supremacist, Antifa is an idea not an organization-

President Donald J. Trump:
Oh you got to be kidding me.

Vice President Joe Biden:
… not a militia. That’s what his FBI Director said.

President Donald J. Trump:
Well, then you know what, he’s wrong.

As we recall, Trump defended the actions of Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot dead two unarmed protesters in Kenosha. Rittenhouse did not even live in the state, let alone the city; he was just there to act like a tough guy, and shoot people if they gave him an “excuse” to do so. Trump has frequently incited his supporters to violence in the past; Wallace should have brought up the subject of mass shootings by far-right extremists, like the El Paso shooter who was clearly influenced by the anti-immigrant rhetoric coming out of the Trump administration and Fox News. And now here he is doubling down on his refusal to call out the far-right extremists in his base, intensely hypocritical in regard to his repeated and false claims that Biden is beholden to the “far left.” And not only is he refusing to disown his white supremacist base, he is acting as if he is literally their “commander-in-chief,” calling on them to “stand back” and “stand by” until he blows the dog whistle for them to attack.

Naturally, the morning after, the Trump camp realized how badly this went down and is trying to spin it however they can. But make no mistake, we have seen this before, and Trump always reverts to form, usually the next day, or the next tweet. Oh please America, be the “patriots” you claim to be and turn this monster out this November with the kind of unmistakable clarity that even he can “understand.”

First presidential debate a good argument for not having another one

 

In the first presidential debate, moderator Chris Wallace tried as best he could, but there was no stopping Donald Trump and his bullying, rude behavior, non-stop spewing of lies and misinformation, and nauseating self-congratulatory superlatives. The debate went out-of-control almost from the start; Joe Biden attempted to stay on message, and a few times managed to look into the camera and explain what he was going to do as president. But it is tough to talk when some loudmouth jerk is talking over you and frustrating you with ridiculous accusations that are patently false. At one point Biden actually told Trump to “shut-up,” which may be “unpresidential,” but then again, it was easy to forgive Biden that one “slip-up”given Trump’s playground antics.

It was horrible. Trump, like many on the right who are arrogant in the "logic" of "gut feelings," thinks that just because he says something loudly and “decisively,” that what he says is “plausible.” One has to admit that Trump tell his falsehoods and blows-up the truth “real good.” It is frustrating to deal with such people because their simplistic claims require rational discussion to refute, and there simply isn’t the time in a debate that lasts a little over an hour, and even if Biden took the time to refute Trump’s irrational claims about things he doesn’t know anything about--like, say, climate change and forest management, and things he pretends to know something about, like the COVID-19 and the economy--that Trump would just keep interrupting and shouting over him. “Keep yapping, man” Biden told Trump at another point.

I have to say that I didn’t think that Biden’s performance was particularly strong, but it would have been difficult for anyone up against a rude braggart like Trump. Wallace had to repeatedly intervene on Biden’s behalf when Trump kept cutting in before he could even begin to answer a question. I thought Biden made a miscue when he said he didn’t support the Green New Deal; what he should have said was that many of its ideas were good, and were helpful in formulating his own “Biden Plan” for green energy. On the other hand, Trump had been accusing Biden of being beholden to the “radical left” so often, that every time Biden would assert a policy position that wasn’t “socialist,” Trump would proclaim “he lost the left.”

But Biden did impressively undercut Trump’s claim that he did more for blacks than he did, by simply allowing Trump to run on without interruption, looking on with astonishment as Trump rambled about why he ended racial sensitivity training in the Justice Department. He claimed that people were being asked to do things that were “insane” without explaining what those insane things were. Trump complained about “radical revolution” in schools (he probably isn’t aware of the power of the right-wing Texas State Board of Education to insert their vision of the nation’s history in school books), and he implied reverse-racism. It was all “very bad,” “very sick ideas.” Teaching people to hate our country. It was an astonishing, stupid admission by Trump, as stupid was his refusal to denounce white supremacist domestic terrorism.

Trump certainly thought his claim that he had universal support from law enforcement was a winner, and it no doubt was for his base support. But because he claimed that there was no systemic racism in this country or in law enforcement, it was obvious that he could not be a “healer” of racial division, because he could only see the white grievance side of the equation. Biden “surprised” Trump by stating what he has said many times before--that he did not support defunding police, but did support insuring that police had the “tools’ to police themselves. Biden sent Trump into a head-shaking frenzy when he asserted that Trump was cutting assistance to state and local law enforcement by $400 million in his 2021 budget proposal; in fact the number is actually over $500 million, about one-quarter the amount of previous budgets.

Biden was able to make Trump look foolish when he talked about his late son Beau, who served in Iraq, and contrasted that with Trump’s comments on “losers” and “suckers.” Trump tried to interject claims about Hunter Biden, which fell flat as a pancake, or a cow patty. 

On the topic of health care, Trump can only call the Affordable Care Act “terrible” and a “failure” so many times before you expect him to tell you why. The only thing he can come up with was the individual mandate--which frankly few who were supposed to pay it did--and it “cost a lot.” As I talked about before, Trump’s more affordable health care “plan” is probably a lot like the one he signed an executive order to allow people to sign-up for a full year instead of three months--basically a cut-rate “mini-medical” plan that offered pathetic benefits and no preexisting coverage, which the ACA was intended to “fix.” When Biden claimed that 100 million people had preexisting conditions, Trump rolled his eyes, apparently unaware that factcheckers mostly backed Biden’s number.

Trump bragged about an economy that saw a record string of weekly new unemployment claims of over one million, falsely claimed that the economic recovery from the Great Recession was the slowest in U.S. history, and made numerous wild claims about mail-in balloting, He preposterously asserted that if Biden had been president, 2 million Americans would have died from the COVID-19. He kept making such claims, before Biden in exasperation told Wallace that he was not there to call out every lie that Trump said; everyone knows he is a liar and doesn’t know what he is talking about.

When it was over, a CBS instant poll showed Biden “won” the debate, but less than 50 percent thought so. 83 percent thought the debate was “negative” in tone, and 69 percent were annoyed by it. It was indeed a frustrating spectacle, mainly because of the uncouth behavior of Trump. A CNN poll did seem to suggest that Biden had a considerable edge in "truthfulness," and the "fairness" of his attacks. Still, one wonders if there should be another debate between Biden and Trump, unless Trump is put into a sound proof box with a microphone that can be shut on or off.