[Written 10:15 pm ET, with 15 minutes to go. With a number of additions]
Biden doing very well.. Trump doing very badly. And overall way too much interruption, mainly from Trump.
So far: Trump supporters would be disappointed Biden supporters would be cheered.
Trump answered the question about the $750 tax payment very badly. I could’ve answered it better.* His answer on Critical Race Theory was a mess. Biden gives better, more coherent and on-point answers. There are many issues I don’t agree with Joe, but on which he gave a more compelling answer.
*Chris Wallace: “Is it true you paid only $750 tax in each of 2016 and 2017?” Answer Trump should have given: ”No, it is not true. I paid $1 million in tax in 2016 and $4.2 million in 2017. Later the IRS did its calculation based on new rules on deductibles and said we should have paid just $750 each year. (By the way, that change to deductibles was made by the Obama administration!). We were therefore due a refund on the tax paid. However I did not ask for this refund, but instead let the amount we’d already paid be rolled over for future tax obligations.” [Ref]
[Instead of which Trump answered in such a dog’s breakfast-y way that he clarified nothing and confused everyone]
Trump was very weak on the “fine people hoax”** which Biden again repeated. Trump should have had the clear response. He did not.
So far, my conclusion, this is bad for Trump. Good for Biden.
It’s very clear that Biden practiced. And that Trump did not.
Trump constant interrupting is very annoying and moderator, Chris Wallace, called him out several times, one quite sharply.
Trump refused to condemn White Supremacy.** How easy is it to condemn, when specifically asked to do so? Trump did not. Why not? Oh dear.
Also: Trump doesn’t answer the question, over and over.
Written with ten minutes to go.
LATER: CNN: “chaotic and combative debate”. Fox: a “train wreck”.
Van Jones on CNN: the big issue was T failure to condemn White Supremacy. Other commenters: Biden “put to bed” the worry that “he didn’t have enough gas in the tank to get through the night” (true). Wolf Blitzer: worldwide this was an embarrassment for the US. Fox has turned to other programming. Maybe also embarrassed by T’s bad showing. LATER: Fox now saying the big issue was Biden refusing to answer the question of whether the Dems would pack the Supreme Court.
**ADDED: Re Charlottesville hoax and White Supremacy. Here is how Trump should have answered: “It’s wrong to claim, as Joe has just done, that I said Nazis were 'fine people'. I specifically said, at the time, in Charlottesville, ‘I’m not talking about neo-Nazis and white nationalists, who must be condemned absolutely’. This was cut from the video just so people like Joe could make me look bad”.
[Sidebar]: At 1:58 in this video Trump says “…and I’m not talking about neo-Nazis and white nationalists, who must be condemned absolutely”. Trump makes a complete hash of the main point he’s trying to make, which is that there were people on both sides of the issue of whether statues should be toppled in a Charlottesville park. But it’s clear, however much of a hash he makes of it, that he is not talking about Nazis and White Supremacists when he says there were “fine people on both sides”. Sadly, during the debate today, he botches it again. There was plenty of warning Joe would raise it.
And THEN: when Chris Wallace later asks “will you condemn White Supremacy?” Trump can answer “Of course I do. Just as I did clearly and forcefully at Charlottesville”. But he didn’t. Botched it again. Made it look like he supports White Supremacy, and gives the Dems yet more ammunition. How hard could it have been to get this right? Answer: not very. Shows lack of seriousness and lack of preparation. Or a major “I don’t get it” factor.
