First Trump - Biden Debate

 

First Trump - Biden Debate

 I recorded the debate between President Trump and ex Vice President Biden this Tuesday evening.  After reading and listening to the mostly scathing criticisms of the “great orange ogre” by most of the mainstream media, I decided to watch the debate again. I must admit that after first viewing the debate, I was left with an image of a very aggressive Trump, interrupting, and really going after both Biden and moderator Chris Wallace. This was reinforced by Trump’s loud and distinctive voice, and Biden’s more subdued, more “whiny” voice.

 On the second viewing, I watched for actual content on issues, ad hominem attacks and interruptions.

 One of the things I found early in the debate, is that it was Biden, who first interrupted what was the third two-minute soliloquy by Trump. So, Biden started the spate of interruptions, of which there were many. Also, most, if not all, of the ad hominem attacks and name calling came from Biden. Examples are “clown”, “liar”, “not smart”, all Biden school yard epithets.

 Many of Trump’s interruptions were to counter Biden’s accusations and outright lies. One major example is the accusation that Trump is a racist, and Biden’s memorized and well-worn litany of Charlottesville white supremacists “carrying torches, with veins bulging, and spewing anti sematic chants”, and Trump referring to these as some of the “good folks on both sides”.

 Trump, of course, was actually referring to people disagreeing about historical statues. He has denounced white supremacists’ numerous times through the years, although we would not know it from the biased anti-Trump media, who once again have taken Trump’s “stand down and standby” comment about the right wing “proud boys” to mean tacit approval of white supremacy.  To clarify, Trump later said he meant more “stand down”, than “standby”.

 Trump consistently, (and sometimes interrupting and overwhelming both Biden and Chris Wallace), hammered at Joe Biden’s leftist socialist agenda. His goal seemed to be to get Joe to admit to the socialist Biden-Sanders-AOC “manifesto”, and alienate his moderate backers, or deny it, and risk lose his Bernie/AOC socialist democrat backers.

 He got Joe to renounce the “manifesto” and “the green new deal”. Biden instead called it the “Biden Plan”, and that “he was the democratic party” and that “he was America first”, to Trump’s chortling in the background, that “you just lost the left”.

 When pressed, Biden said that he would “shut down the country again” if recommended by the scientists, notwithstanding the damage that this would cause to the country’s other health issues and economy. Biden also was unequivocal that he would rejoin the Paris climate accords, with all of the restrictions that this would place on our business, commerce and industry.

 Biden would not answer Chris Wallace’s direct question whether he would support packing the Supreme Court and bringing back the filibuster. Instead, he deflected with what seemed a memorized appeal to vote.

 Trump tried to discuss the violence in the streets and Antifa’s active role in it. Biden opined that Antifa was more of an idea, rather than a violent group. He cited FBI Director Wray’s opinion in this regard. Trump could be heard interrupting that ideas don’t burn down buildings or hit people with baseball bats.

 Biden fended off Trump’s assertion that his son Hunter profited from his father’s name after being “thrown out of the military”, saying that all accusations about Hunter’s finances had been discredited. He quickly deflected to his other son Beau, who served in Iraq and as Attorney General of Delaware, and who died of cancer in 2015.

 It was apparent to me after re-watching the debate, that irrespective of the interruptions and disruptive nature of the debates, Trump fielded many more substantive issues than Biden, who after a while defaulted to typical left-wing victimhood. Biden was well enough prepared and rehearsed to come up with memorized deflections at appropriate times to counter this.

 Trump’s interruptions gave Biden the time and wherewithal to draw on his rehearsed phraseology to keep the debate going. Biden was already beginning to falter in his responses as the debate wore on. If Trump had interrupted less, and let Biden stew more in pregnant silences and brew more confusion, it would have accentuated his uncertainty. Unfortunately, Trump just can’t shut up, so it is what it is.

 After a second look at the debate, Trump easily won on content if his disruptive nature can be excused. Biden won the sympathetic vote for the debate from all the victims in left-world, for not folding under Trump’s pointed and aggressive onslaught.

 

 First look and comments on the debate

 Well, it wasn’t Lincoln-Douglas, or Clay-Webster.  It was more like Ali-Tyson.

 Trump tried to pin Biden down on issues that would split him off from his extreme left backers, to no avail, and by continuing to interrupt both Biden and Chris Wallace, Trump came across as a bit of a bully.  Biden would not acknowledge the Bernie-centric “manifesto” that he originally subscribed to, and denied his son Hunter’s profiting by millions using the Biden vice presidency.

 Biden also did his share of interrupting, and faltered and stuttered toward the end, but did not exhibit the senility of several past outings.  He was well rehearsed, and did not confuse his thousands and millions, or dates.

 By degenerating into lies and exaggerations and personal attacks from both antagonists, the whole effort lost meaningful content on issues, and reminded me of a schoolyard brawl.

Ray Gruszecki

October 1, 2020