Presidential Debate 9/29/20 Discussion Thread

[Ridgerunner]

doesn’t even try to hide his racist attitudes toward Blacks and immigrants.

Well go ahead and quote his overt racist comments so we can know what they are too.

The good thing to come out of the presidental debate is that is has prompted changes in the debate format.

It needs change. The moderators need to ignore the trivia “talking point” stuff and get down to real subjects like "what, specifically, are you doing to do about Covid if you’re elected, at the beginning of your explanation, state the concrete steps you will take and then explain why it’s more likely to result in fewer cases than the plan of your opponent. You will each have ten minutes, with five minutes rebuttal apiece.

So you believe RBG hated the U.S. Constitution

I never said that.

 

[meltzerboy2]

Did not Trump called Mexicans “rapists”? Did he not, in the 1970s, refuse to rent to Black people? Did he not in 2016 ridicule a Muslim Gold Star family? Did he not accuse a Mexican judge of being biased only because the judge was Mexican? Did he not disparage countries in Africa? The list is endless…

I tend to think Trump is not anti-Semitic, however. After all, his own daughter converted to Judaism. Still, his reluctance to disavow White supremacists does not speak well to his opinions of Jews, or Catholics for that matter. He doesn’t want to lose some of his base, who is no doubt also racist and anti-Semitic. But there is often a fine line between political convenience and true belief.

 

[7_Sorrows]

I am so disappointed that a sitting president of the US cannot condemn white racism. He used the ploy of demanding ‘which group’ and then still could not make his face criticize a racist group. So sad.

The Trump apologists will say ‘what about antifa’ and the rest, but the fact still stands. Once again at the penultimate time Trump has failed to condemn racism and deliver a message of unity.

@Nepperhan

He did condemn it and has condemned it.

Biden is clearly past his prime and has been in Washington too long.

Trump probably watched the debate between Ryan and Biden in 2012 and saw how Biden was rude and interrupted Ryan throughout the debate.

Biden represents to Trump the people who have set him up for the Russian collusion and who have done their best to kick Trump out of office the past 3 years.
Biden represents the corruption in Washington and the swamp and people who are consumed with power and not the good of America.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Did not Trump called Mexicans “rapists”?

He did not call all Mexicans “rapists”. He said Mexico was deliberately sending its criminals here, which was true. That was the context of his reference.

Nobody has yet proved he refused to rent to black people. It has been shown that one of his companies was fined for a civil rights violation in his rentals. But I have never seen anyone actually provide details. Civil rights violations can be based on numbers and nothing else. When I was in banking, the examiners pored through approved and rejected loan applications, comparing them to the published demographics of the trade area in order to find “violations”, including “redlining”. In one trade area town there were no black people, and I told them that. So they spent a couple of days in that town trying to find some. They didn’t. I also occasionally got “shaken down” by “activist organizations” who felt that if I showed my “good faith” by “donating” to their organization, they would “dismiss the complaints” they had received about the bank’s civil rights record.

Disgusting. But I’m sure it still goes on.

his reluctance to disavow White supremacists

he has.

does not speak well to his opinions of Jews, or Catholics

Catholics? For goodness sake, man, both Kavanaugh and Barrett are Catholics. Not only that, they’re actually observant Catholics. Trump took a political risk appointing them, since the left media and the Dem party does not like observant Catholics.

He doesn’t want to lose some of his base, who is no doubt also racist and anti-Semitic.

Why do you think his base is any more racist or anti-semitic than that of Biden? While I don’t share the evangelical beliefs regarding Israel, those people would die for Israel. If you ever watched Fox, you would see the frequent commercials for “Christians and Jews Together” an organization that raises money to aid Jews in Israel and the former Soviet Union. If they didn’t get money from that effort, they wouldn’t be doing it.

Attacking Israel is not quite the same thing as anti-Semitism, but it “rhymes”. The right does not attack Israel. That’s all from the left. You surely know that.

And where are all the black people he underpaid among the thousands of people he has employed over the years? If he was a racist against blacks, they would be on TV constantly. The left media would see to that. And if Bezos paid ten WaPo reporters to do nothing but dig up dirt on Trump, (and probably still does) don’t you think it’s remarkable that they came up with no black former employees willing to attack him?

Maybe they’re saving that for the week before the election.

 

[7_Sorrows]

I think trump did his best to confuse and rile Biden up. He succeeded in one way that Biden couldn’t get out answers.

Two parts disturbed me.

One part got me to use a bad word in front of the family.

1: when asked if he would denounce White Supremacy. Answer should have been “yes!”

He told the proud boys to “stand back and stand by”

1. When Joe Biden was talking about his dead son Trump interrupted and said:

“Oh, really? Are you talking about Hunter?" Trump asked.

When Biden said he was talking about Beau Biden, who served as Delaware’s attorney general, Trump said “I don’t know Beau."

Who interrupts a man talking about his dead son to criticize another son?

@F_Marturana

He answered “Sure!”

The actions and dealings of Hunter Biden should not be ignored.

 

[Peeps]

I thought last night’s debate was “fiery but mostly peaceful”.

Interesting. I kinda had the same reaction. It was a “hold-your-breath and wait to see who’s still standing” type of debate, but I didn’t have a negative reaction like much of the rest of America.

I’m wondering if it’s because we had 20 shootings (no deaths! Woo hoo!!) in our city this past weekend, so a little word sparring and a few “shut ups” sounds really mild to me compared to daily life my city.

I wish people here would scream at and insult each other instead of shooting each other.

 

[7_Sorrows]

Trump looked tired and angry, He was debating 2 people - Wallace and Biden. Wallace was clearly biased and continued to interrupt Trump when he was making a good point.

 

[PennyinCanada]

I can no longer support President Trump.

Does that mean you’re voting for Biden or just not going to vote?

 

[Allie1]

1. When Joe Biden was talking about his dead son Trump interrupted and said:

“Oh, really? Are you talking about Hunter?" Trump asked.

When Biden said he was talking about Beau Biden, who served as Delaware’s attorney general, Trump said “I don’t know Beau."

Who interrupts a man talking about his dead son to criticize another son

When Trump was attacking Biden’s son, Hunter, and it came out the Hunter was discharged from the military for using drugs. I thought that Biden’s defense of his son was, for me, a very powerful moment.

My oldest Brother also uses drugs. And there are many families who have to cope with relatives with addictions. My wonderful parents and myself have cried many tears over it. For me personally, learning that about the Biden’s. I felt empathy for Joe Biden. I thought Trump’s attack was cruel and below the belt.

 

[7_Sorrows]

F_Marturana:

1. When Joe Biden was talking about his dead son Trump interrupted and said:

“Oh, really? Are you talking about Hunter?" Trump asked.

When Biden said he was talking about Beau Biden, who served as Delaware’s attorney general, Trump said “I don’t know Beau."

Who interrupts a man talking about his dead son to criticize another son

When Trump was attacking Biden’s son, Hunter, and it came out the Hunter was discharged from the military for using drugs. I thought that Biden’s defense of his son was, for me, a very powerful moment.

My oldest Brother also uses drugs. And there are many families who have to cope with relatives with addictions. My wonderful parents and myself have cried many tears over it. For me personally, learning that about the Biden’s. I felt empathy for Joe Biden. I thought Trump’s attack was cruel and below the belt.

Look how the democrats have attacked Trump’s family over the last 3 1/2 years. Have you had any empathy for their Dad because of what they have endured?
@Allie1

 

[Rau]

I can’t really blame Wallace at all. I’m not sure what the network can do except mute the mics while the other person is speaking which I’m assuming won’t/can’t ever happen.

Yes, it surely can. If you are supposed to be silent during the other guys statement - then why not? And while Wallace was very fair, he was far too polite, particularly to the President who really invited a stern warning. Biden transgressed too, but Trump excelled in that department.

 

[Allie1]

Look how the democrats have attacked Trump’s family over the last 3 1/2 years. Have you had any empathy for their Dad because of what they have endured?

Yes. I do have empathy for them actually. I don’t support attacks on either of these candidates families.

 

[Rau]

Trump looked tired and angry, He was debating 2 people - Wallace and Biden. Wallace was clearly biased and continued to interrupt Trump when he was making a good point.

What debate were u watching? Trump interrupted wallace when a difficult question was being posed. Trump interrupted Wallace when the latter told Trump his time was up! Trump interrupted Wallace when the latter told him to return to the topic. Wallace was fair but weak.

 

[LeafByNiggle]

Anybody who has ever debated competitively knows two minutes is not adequate time to develop anything.

Anybody who has ever debated competitively knows that you are not allowed to interrupt your opponent during his turn.

As to the length of time needed, that depends on the complexity of the question. A very limited question may need only 2 minutes. If you want ten minutes responses, maybe they should ask more general questions.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Anybody who has ever debated competitively knows that you are not allowed to interrupt your opponent during his turn.

No. That’s in court where that happens.

As to the length of time needed, that depends on the complexity of the question. A very limited question may need only 2 minutes. If you want ten minutes responses, maybe they should ask more general questions.

More general? Less general would be better. These candidates gave the public no clue at all as to what they would do in the next four years. And part of the reason was that the questions were not sufficiently specific to elicit anything other than vague generalities or the occasional lie.

One of the additional problems in too-short speaking periods is that parties can “debate the clock”; throw out enough highly debateable blurbs that the other party won’t have time to respond. There was plenty of that.

No. The format was terrible, capable only of eliciting empty talking points. And it barely even did that.

 

[Jeanne_S]

Trump had a lot of pent up frustration re the bs he has had to endure the past four years. In seeing a recap of clips of the debate,it is pretty apparent Trump won and exposed the empty suit that is a JB.
Hopefully the next debate will be moderated in a more organized fashion and both candidates will settle down.

 

[Jeanne_S]

He held Biden’s feet to the fire re his being hamstrung by the left.Biden really couldn’t commit to anything out of fears of turning off the far lefties,he really doesn’t stand for anything.When queried by CW as to how he would better handle the Covid issue ,all he could say is would have a plan,yet he couldn’t expound on what exactly that plan would be.
He actually refused to answer most questions.He hurled prerogatives at Trump all night instead.
Having said that,hopefully the next debate will go more smoothly .

 

[_Ruby]

Anybody who has ever debated competitively knows two minutes is not adequate time to develop anything. Even ten minutes is tight.

Anybody who has ever debated knows that inadequacy to make your argument in the time allotted, does not excuse you for (continually) interrupting the time that is not yours.

The whole showing was pathetic.

 

[Jeanne_S]

Yet Biden couldn’t say how he would do things differently.
Trump with his talking over Biden,actually bailed Biden out.He should have just been quiet and ,et Biden fumble along for two minutes.Hopefully he will next debate.

 

[Jeanne_S]

Seems we’ve been through this before.Trump followed the advise of the “ experts” .To think Biden would have handled things better,one only need to look at what a hot mess Ca. Is with Gan ,keeping the economy closed,which btw JB has said Joe would do.