America felt the frustration that Chris Wallace, the moderator for the recent Presidential Debate, was beginning to feel as he tried repeatedly to get Donald Trump to stop interrupting everything Joe Biden was trying to say during his turns to speak.
“It’s hard to get any word in with this clown…I’m sorry, person,” Biden responded when Wallace was trying to tell the former Vice-President that it was one of his moments to get the last word in one of the questions.
“Here’s the deal,” the normally calm and collected moderator tried to explain after having to raise his voice to stop Trump from interrupting. “We have six segments. We have ended that (last) segment, we are going to go to the next segment. In that segment, you each are going to have two uninterrupted moments. In those two uninterrupted segments, Mr. President, you can say anything you want…”
Many networks and publications, one being The Washington Post, further explained how Wallace’s experience during the two-hour debate was like a “runaway train”. Directly following the debate, reports indicated how so many Americans were likely frustrated with trying to hear what the two presidential candidate’s solutions to the real issues of race inequality, COVID-19, and the current state of the economy were.
Highlights from the 1st Presidential Debate Between Biden and Trump
Some of the best moments during the debate on Joe Biden’s part was when he maintained sticking to the facts as Trump relentlessly attempted to interrupt him. He pointed out exactly how many people were currently dying (and have died) from COVID-19 for example, and made viewers remember how Donald Trump told the public that the Coronavirus would go away on its own earlier in 2020.
Biden also resonated directly with the American people because, several of the times when Trump tried to interrupt Joe from speaking the facts, the former Vice-President would then look straight at the camera as if he was looking the millions of viewers at home in the eye, and talk to them straightforwardly about Coronavirus.
“You folks at home,” Joe began. “How many of you got up this morning, and had an empty chair at the kitchen table, because someone died of COVID? How many of you were in a situation where you lost your mom or dad, and you couldn’t even speak to them? You had a nurse holding a phone up so you could in fact say goodbye…this is the same man who told you that, by Easter, this would be gone by the warm weather, that it would be gone, miraculous, like a miracle…”
Biden went on to reference how when Trump was presented with the number of deaths from the pandemic, he previously responded “It is what it is…” something former First Lady Michelle Obama also had pointed out in her speech at the Democratic National Convention several weeks before.
“Well, ‘it is what it is’,” Biden said, “because you are who you are…”
The debate moderator, Wallace, who is an Anchor for Fox News, then asked Trump would he be willing right then and there to condemn white supremacists and militia groups to stand down, and add to the already horrible violence going on in cities across the United States.
“I’d be willing to do that, but I would say that almost everything I see is from the left wing, not from the right wing. I’m willing to do anything…”
Wallace then gave him the go-ahead to denounce these violent racist groups. “Then do it, sir…”, said the moderator.
Trump asked him what group in particular was it that the moderator wanted him to instruct to stand down, and Wallace said The Proud Boys, who are, according to The New York Times, a violence-advocating, white supremist group who Trump has been denying to denounce since 2016 when he was first elected as President.
“Do it,” Biden also asked Trump to do. “Say it.”
“Proud Boys,” Trump said, “Stand back, and stand by. But I’ll tell you what, somebody’s gotta do something about Antifa and the left, because this is not a right wing problem, this is a left wing problem…”
Trump not only refused to denounce the white supremacy organization, but also said how he wouldn’t accept it if he thought the election ballots weren’t accurate. “I’m urging my supporters to go into the polls,” he said, “and watch very carefully, because that’s what has to happen, I am urging them to do it…I hope it’s gonna be a fair election. If it’s a fair election, I am 100% on board, but if I see tens of thousands of ballots being manipulated, I can’t go along with that…”
Trump had also recently (before the presidential debate with Biden) not fully committed to a peaceful transfer of power from president to president.
Reactions to the 1st 2020 Presidential Debate
People are now brainstorming how to make the head-to-head presidential debate better, and Joe Scarborough from MSNBC has one of the best suggestions…to turn off the microphone from a candidate if it’s not their turn to talk. According to The Hill, Scarborough actually parted with the Republican party not long after Donald Trump was elected as Commander-in-Chief, and the host of the popular program “The Morning Joe” tweeted that they should “cut his mic” so that ideas can be communicated more clearly.
Vice-Presidential hopeful Kamala Harris, who was previously the 32nd Attorney General of the State of California and who Joe Biden chose as his running mate in early August 2020, was asked by CNN does she think that Joe should do another debate with the way Trump acted in this first one. “Joe Biden’s never gonna refuse to talk to the American people,”she said, “and have any opportunity that he can to speak directly to American families, speak about the issues, speak the truth, and address the facts of where we are now.”
Senator Bernie Sanders was another politician to respond to how the presidential debate went. He did so on Jimmy Kimmel’s post debate show. “I think Biden was able to make some very important points tonight,” he said, “while Trump continues to lie in an incredible way.”
Comments 2