It Was Not a Debate, But An Assault On American Democracy

I have said for years that the The Commission On Presidential Debates and the media should stop insulting the English language and our intelligence by calling what they do a “debate.” It is in no way a debate, and never has been.

What happened last night was exponentially far worse than all preceding presidential “debates” combined. What happened last night was not a debate, but an assault on American democracy by Donald Trump.

Donald Trump assaulted his opponent Joe Biden, assaulted the debate moderator Chris Wallace, and more importantly, assaulted the American people with his belligerent behavior. I suspect many Americans felt violated after this assault, and felt the need to take a shower afterwards because it made them feel slimed by Trump.

I believe The Commission On Presidential Debates, in order to preserve any shred of integrity that it may still have left, must now cancel the remaining two presidential debates. The Commission cannot allow itself to become an accomplice to Donald Trump’s assault on American democracy. It should not knowingly and willingly subject Joe Biden, future debate moderators, and the American people to further rounds of assault. It does not serve any useful purpose other than to demonstrate that Donald Trump is wholly unfit to serve as president, something we already know from suffering the abuses of this abuser.

I quickly flipped through all of the networks immediately after this disaster of a debate ended to check the reaction of the commentariat. The collective shocked and stunned response was “What the hell just happened?”

CNN’s Jake Tapper managed to sum up the night precisely: “That was a hot mess inside a dumpster fire inside a train wreck.”

"That was a hot mess, inside a dumpster fire, inside a train wreck,” says @JakeTapper about the first presidential debate between Pres. Trump and Joe Biden. “We’ll talk about who won the debate, who lost the debate … One thing for sure, the American people lost.” #Debates2020 pic.twitter.com/wjMnUmt2WS

— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) September 30, 2020

John Harris, a cofounder editor of Politico, is correct in his judgment: this was An Epic Moment of National Shame: The Debate Was an Embarrassment for the Ages. Donald Trump degraded the presidency, and humiliated America on the world stage.

The best headline today comes from The Daily Beast. Trump Planned to Go Feral on Biden. Now His Allies Want to Call Animal Control.

This is exactly what I was thinking while watching this debate. This psychopath president behaved like a rabid feral dog, foaming at the mouth and totally out of control. I kept waiting for animal control to come out with a snare to capture this monstrous animal for the safety of the public.

The USA Today headline in The Arizona Republic today mischaracterizes this travesty from last night as Trump, Biden bicker in first presidential debate. “Bicker” is what my wife and I do when we can’t agree on something.

The New York Times media critic, James Poniewozik, calls bullshit on this “both-siderism” headline at The Arizona Republic. Donald Trump Burns the First Debate Down:

The advantage to being the one who derails a debate is that people assign symmetrical blame for asymmetrical behavior. They throw up their hands and complain about the bickering from “both sides.”

So let’s be clear here: If the first debate was a dumpster fire, it is the president whose hands were stained with kerosene.

Rachel Maddow at MSNBC made the most incisive observation: Donald Trump is not running against Joe Biden, he is running against the election. Trump is trying to undermine and discredit the entire democratic process because he does not believe that he should have to face reelection. Don’t count the ballots, he should remain in office. “This sort of debate shouldn’t happen in a democracy.”

Fact checking this debate as if it was a normal debate does not do justice to the travesty that happened last night. Nevertheless, the media continues to pretend as if everything is fine as America’s house is being burned down by an arsonist doing Vladimir Putin’s bidding to destroy American’s faith in democracy and our electoral system.

CNN fact checker Daniel Dale: Trump unleashes avalanche of repeat lies at first presidential debate: The first 2020 presidential debate Tuesday night in Cleveland featured an avalanche of lies from President Donald Trump — while Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was largely accurate in his statements, though he did make some false or misleading claims.

Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler: Trump repeatedly relies on false claims that have been debunked throughout his presidency. Biden, by contrast, stretched the truth on occasion.

Associated Press: AP FACT CHECK: False claims flood Trump-Biden debate: President Donald Trump unleashed a torrent of fabrications and fear-mongering in a belligerent debate with Joe Biden.

Donald Trump’s feral “mad dog” attack did not sit well with focus groups. GOP Pollster Asks For 1-Word Reviews Of Trump’s Debating. The Answers Are Wild.

Conservative public opinion pundit Frank Luntz asked 16 voters from assorted states for their takeaways after watching Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden go head to head Tuesday night. The 90-minute roller coaster was characterized by incessant crosstalk and interruptions from the president. Fox News moderator Chris Wallace was forced to scold Trump on multiple occasions for talking over both Biden and himself.

Luntz asked his participants to each provide one word to describe Trump’s performance. The responses were:

“Horrid,” “chaotic,” “unpolished,” “crackhead,” “eh,” “puzzling,” “Un-American,” “unhinged” (twice), “an ass, but a confident ass,” “classic Trump,” “forceful,” “bully,” “arrogant” (twice) and “typical.”

Asked about how Trump could improve, Michelle from Florida said he needed to stop talking over people. “It’s very rude and just gives a bad impression,” she said.

Politico adds:

Out of 15 undecided voters in a virtual focus group conducted by veteran Republican pollster Frank Luntz, four said they were supporting Democratic nominee Joe Biden after watching the debate and two backed President Donald Trump. The rest remained on the fence. There were nine men and six women and they hailed from Arizona, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Nevada.

“You just saw 90 minutes. How can you still be undecided?” an incredulous Luntz asked. “Please explain that to me?”

The roughly four voters who ended the night in Biden’s corner were stunned by Trump’s performance. Ruthie, a voter from Pennsylvania, described it as trying to “win an argument with a crackhead.”

Joe from Arizona said he entered the night leaning Biden and after the debate decided to vote for the former vice president. Trump didn’t defend his record on the unrest in American cities and protests, he said. “He inflames a lot of anger in this country,” said Joe. And on the pandemic, he said, Trump “couldn’t defend his record on slow-walking” the government’s response.

Luke from Wisconsin was one of the two participants to say he’s now voting for Trump. “Trump is annoying, he’s unpresidential,” Luke said, but on the economy and “law and order” he trusts Trump.

The majority of the focus group remained undecided after the lengthy, chaotic debate. Many put a greater onus on Biden to deliver strong answers than Trump — excusing the president’s behavior as “typical” or just Trump being Trump.

I’m sorry, but this is an unacceptable answer. This is not some goddamn reality TV show, this is the presidency of the United States. After this disaster of a debate, these so-called “undecided” (they are not) voters need to pull their heads out of their ass.  This is not for your entertainment or amusement, this is about choosing a president who can make life and death decisions over your life (205,000 Americans are already dead because of Trump’s ignorance, indifference and incompetence).

Politico Magazine invited a range of insiders to look past easy takes on debates and to offer their insights on what really shifted in the campaign. ‘Trump’s Strategy Is to Turn the Debates Into a Dumpster Fire on Steroids’:

After Tuesday night’s presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, things were different. Asked what the most important moment of the debate was, our contributors hesitated … and as the answers began to trickle in, the responses felt as much like a verdict on American democracy than commentary on the 90-minute political slugfest they’d just seen. Across the political spectrum, the reactions echoed almost eerily: “It’s chaos. It’s anger.” “Undignified, unpresidential.” “Not since the Cuyahoga River caught on fire … ” “A total disaster.” “A dumpster fire on steroids.” “No strategy, just kill and eat.”

[I]t wasn’t hard to pinpoint a list of norm-shattering moments: a sitting president who balked at considering the election fair, invited a white-power group to “stand back and stand by,” and ran roughshod over time limits, the moderator and his opponent’s attempts to speak.

So what did all that mean? For people who care about the well-being of civic society, nothing good. “It’s going to be an ugly sprint to Election Day,” wrote one.

Thomas Friedman of the New York Times warns, Trump Sent a Warning. Let’s Take It Seriously.

President Trump has made it unmistakably clear in recent weeks — and even more crystal clear at the Tuesday debate — that there are only two choices before voters on Nov. 3 — and electing Joe Biden is not one of them.

The president has told us in innumerable ways that either he will be re-elected or he will delegitimize the vote by claiming that all mail-in ballots — a time-honored tradition that has ushered Republicans and Democrats into office and has been used by Trump himself — are invalid.

Trump’s motives could not be more transparent. If he does not win the Electoral College, he’ll muddy the results so that the outcome can be decided only by the Supreme Court or the House of Representatives (where each state delegation gets one vote). Trump has advantages in both right now, which he has boasted about for the past week.

I can’t say this any more clearly: Our democracy is in terrible danger — more danger than it has been since the Civil War, more danger than after Pearl Harbor, more danger than during the Cuban missile crisis and more danger than during Watergate.

* * *

If Trump’s monstrous performance left you feeling that you want four more years of his presidency — that he will respect the outcome of the election if it goes against him, that he will reunite the country, that he will do the presidency proud and surround himself with people of the quality that the country deserves — then you and I were watching different debates.

To get back a semblance of unity and sanity, Biden has to win. And that is why I have only one answer to every question now: Vote for Biden — do it by mail early if you must, but if you can, please, put on a mask and do it in person. If enough of us do that, Biden can win outright with the votes cast on Election Day, instead of waiting for all the mail-in ballots to be counted, thereby giving time for Trump and Fox News to muddy the outcome.

So help register someone to vote for Joe Biden. Phone bank for Joe Biden. Talk to your neighbor about Joe Biden. Volunteer for Joe Biden. Drive someone to the polls to vote for Joe Biden.

Do it as if your country’s democracy depends on it, because it does.

The choice on the ballot is between American democracy vs. Trumpism, the new American fascism. History will judge you.