About to watch the debate a few hours late, and the ominous reaction from Twitter is giving me The Fear.
I hate to start by saying Trump is correct, but I kind of admire the honesty in him saying 'We control the white house and senate so we get to ram through a Court pick, and if the Democrats were in the same position they'd do the same thing'.
Years into this and journalists still have not figured out a way to deal with Trump just straight-up lying about things ('We HAVE produced a comprehensive health plan').
I can't imagine the 7.5 million Americans who use insulin, or their families, will respond well to Trump saying that he's made it so cheap 'it's like water'. Rough current monthly retail cost: $300.
Obviously I don't like the guy but the sheer obnoxiousness of Trump - the constant interrupting, the random insults and outbursts - really is pretty astounding and I can't imagine it will play well with anyone who isn't already a diehard supporter.
"Will you shut up man?" Biden losing his cool - hard to blame him but it's the kind of clip that will be recut and played without context over the coming weeks.
"That was really a productive segment wasn't it" Biden says sarcastically, probably the most in-touch-with-the-electorate thing anyone will say all debate.
15 minutes in and Chris Wallace already looks utterly defeated.
Biden racking up points on COVID, an obvious area of Trump weakness. Trump's attempted counter of 'well you would have done worse' is not a great look.
Interestingly when Biden says that Trump said people could inject bleach in their arm (which isn't quite the quote although not far off), Trump responds by saying he was speaking sarcastically, which is a shift from his previous Fake News retort to this.
I wonder whether Trump really believes it when he says a vaccine will be available in weeks? I kinda suspect he does.
Honestly, I am obsessively interested in politics and I'm a half hour in and already finding this unbearable. Lord knows how anyone normal sat through the whole of this.
"Biden wears a mask too much" is a...weird argument for Trump to make.
Trump on stronger footing when it comes to the economy - his argument that restrictions need to be lifted and things opened back up is arguably deeply irresponsible given the COVID situation but will appeal to a lot of people out there who are worried about their jobs/businesses.
Biden says 'Scranton', down your drink.
"New York is a ghost town" is a Trump statement that's obviously untrue but it's exactly what his rural base want to hear.
Biden struggling to pin Trump down on his taxes. Trump's retort that he was simply taking advantage of an Obama era tax code is...pretty effective.
Biden: "That was number one. Number two...number three..."
Trump: "You're on number two.

Expect to see that doing the rounds on right wing media. Emblematic of the second third of the debate. Biden faltering a bit.
With that said, Biden had a good line with "I brought back Chrysler and General Motors to Ohio and Michigan. They're gone. He blew it."
Biden: "He talks about the Art of the Deal, China's perfected the Art of the Steal."

Urgh.
Chris Wallace: "Mr President, please stop," articulating the thoughts of the nation.
Three elderly white guys talking about black people is an unfortunate metaphor for America.
"1 in 1000 African Americans has been killed by the coronavirus" is a genuinely shocking statistic.
Trump being asked what he's done for African-Americans and responding that he has the support of military leaders and law enforcement is pretty revealing.
Biden: "I support peaceful protest."
Trump: "What is peaceful protest? Is it running through towns burning down businesses and killing people?"
Biden: "No that is not peaceful protest."
It's pretty depressing that both candidates spent almost the entirety of the section that was supposedly about racial issues discussing law and order, particularly when Chris Wallace follows that up by saying "we're now going to discuss law and order."
Trump repeatedly saying "he doesn't want to say law and order' after Biden has repeatedly says he supports law and order is very strange.
Trump: "If they ran the country the way he wants to run it our suburbs would be gone!"
Biden: "He wouldn't know a suburb if he took a wrong turn!"
Trump: "Oh I know so much about suburbs."

I genuinely think I'm going insane.
Wallace saying there's been a hundred days of riots in Portland is just straight up untrue
White supremacist militias are the single biggest threat to the US. Trump telling the Proud Boys to 'stand back and stand by' should be the central point of every headline. That will be interpreted by every single member of militant organisations as a call to arms.
Wallace getting steadily more infuriated by Trump is endlessly funny.
Trump's attacks on Hunter Biden's drug use are really, really ugly.
Trump on the environment: "We have the lowest carbon."
Trump's continued insistence that forest fires are caused by there being too many leaves on the ground is one of the weirdest quirks of his presidency.
Trump once again going back to his weird story about talking how the leader of a 'forest country' with 'forest cities' told Trump about how their trees are more explosive than in the US.
Biden's fairly unimpressive on the environment but he's not, you know, insane.
Trump: "They wanna take out the cows". Incredible.
Wallace: "Answer his final question."
Biden: "I can't remember which of all his rantings the final question is."
Wallace: "I'm having a little trouble myself."
A few times during the debate - particularly after Biden said he supported law and order and didn't support the Green New Deal - Trump has said "Biden just lost the radical left." Which is a weird strategy because (a) it highlights to centrists that Biden isn't a radical and...
(b) because the famously centrist, neoliberal Biden has never had the support of the radical left to begin with.
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