There were no winners during the first Presidential debate. There were, however, three losers.
I’m going to start off by saying that I really don’t like getting lied to. It happens all the time and I’m getting tired of it.
But both candidates did it.
President Trump stated that Joe Biden called the military “stupid bastards”. Technically, he did call them stupid bastards. But it was a joke. Anyone who has bothered to see his comment in context understands that. I’m certain President Trump understands that. So, he shouldn’t have brought it up during the debate.
Similarly, Joe Biden claimed that the President called the military who lost their lives “losers and suckers”. This claim started with “unknown sources” telling The Atlantic of the President’s comments. But, numerous people have stated that this isn’t true and that the President has great respect for the military. There is no proof to back up The Atlantic’s claim. So, Joe Biden shouldn’t have brought it up during the debate.
Those are just two examples but there were many more instances where both candidates flat-out lied during the debate.
The candidates, and the moderator talked over each other all evening. In fact, Chris Wallace was actually debating with the President at numerous times during the debate. That’s not what a moderator should do. A moderator shouldn’t become part of the debate.
What a moderator is supposed to do is to keep things on point and make sure that the debate is handled in a fair manner. Participating in the debate doesn’t appear to me to be a fair thing to do.
All evening the three men talked over each other. I’m pretty sure technology exists that would have given Chris Wallace control over their microphones. If things got unruly or one of the candidates interrupted the two-minute “protected time” of the other candidate, their microphone should have been simply cut off.
The debates should have focused on what either candidate would do if he were elected. We should have gotten a chance to hear about their policies and how their plans for leading the country going forward. Instead, both candidates simply talked about how bad the other person is. I didn’t learn anything new about either of their policies.
There were two instances where I really wanted to hear what the candidate was going to say. The first instance was when Chris Wallace asked Biden if he would support ending the filibuster or packing the court should he get elected. After changing the subject and challenged by the President to answer the question, he said, “I’m not going to answer the question.” Chris Wallace should have forced the issue. We could have learned a lot about Joe Biden. But we didn’t.
The second instance was when Chris Wallace challenged President Trump to condemn white supremacists and militia groups. Ultimately, he sort of did it but it wasn’t the moment I was hoping for. It could have been a great moment in the debate. But instead, it was just another example of the three of them talking over each other. Chris Wallace should have paused and let the President answer. This could have been either an “gotcha” moment for the Democrats or a strong win for the Republicans. Instead, we got neither.
The candidates should have been asked the same or at least similar questions so we could compare their responses. For example, if Chris Wallace wanted to push President Trump on condemning white supremacists, then he should have pushed for clarification when Joe Biden claimed that “antifa is an idea, not an organization”. Alternatively, he could have asked Biden to denounce the violence, rioting and looting used by the BLM protesters.
Finally, and maybe I’m the only one that noticed this, why was Biden’s camera moving so much? The camera on Trump barely moved at all but Biden’s camera kept moving back and forth a few inches. The Declaration of Independence was identically placed behind both of them. The cameras could have been locked so the document was framed behind them in exactly the same way. But, Biden’s camera was, for some reason, always wiggling around. Whenever we were supposed to be focusing on what he was saying, I found myself looking at the background. It was distracting. Perhaps that was the point.
There were no winners last night. No one changed their mind after watching the three of them argue (calling it a debate is being too kind). Everyone is going to vote the same way today that they were going to yesterday. Because the whole thing was a disaster.
