Fox News host Chris Wallace, the moderator for
the first 2020 US presidential debate, has faced criticism for struggling to
rein in interruptions and outbursts from Donald Trump. Throughout the 90-minute
broadcast on Tuesday night, the president continually broke the agreed rules of
the debate, refused to stick to his own speaking time and steamrolled over both
Wallace and Biden
Donald Trump ensures first presidential debate is
national humiliation
Trump plunges debate into chaos as he talks over Biden
David Smith
in Washington
@smithinamerica
Wed 30 Sep
2020 08.19 BSTFirst published on Wed 30 Sep 2020 06.19 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/30/trump-debate-national-humiliation-analysis
Cry, the
beloved country. Donald Trump ensured Tuesday’s first US presidential debate
was the worst in American history, a national humiliation. The rest of the
world – and future historians – will presumably look at it and weep.
More likely
than not, according to opinion polls, his opponent Joe Biden will win the
November election and bring the republic back from the brink. If Trump is
re-elected, however, this dark, horrifying, unwatchable fever dream will surely
be the first line of America’s obituary.
Only one
man looked remotely presidential on the debate stage in Cleveland, Ohio, and it
was not the incumbent. He interrupted, ranted, raged, spewed lies and
interrupted some more. Oh, and he passed on an opportunity to condemn white
supremacists, instead telling them to “stand back and stand by”.
The debate
moderator, Chris Wallace of Fox News, did not cover himself in glory either. He
was a like a school supply teacher, hopelessly out of his depth as unruly
children run riot. He did not enforce the rules or cut the president’s mic.
Facing this
asymmetric bullying, Biden showed self-control and stood his ground. He spoke
for tens of millions of Americans when he demanded: “Will you shut up, man?” –
the Biden campaign rushed out this slogan on a T-shirt before the debate was
even over.
Five weeks
before the election, the debate pitted an ageing white male against an ageing
orange male sweating like Richard Nixon in 1960. Anyone hoping for elegant
verbal jousting or rapier-like wit was in for a disappointment.
Perhaps it
was just as well that coronavirus guidelines ensured the men stood apart at
separate lecterns on blue carpeted stage beneath an eagle symbol with the words
“The union and the constitution forever”. No handshakes, no prowling by Trump
as he did behind Hillary Clinton’s back in 2016, no physical violence. Katie
Hill, a former Democratic congresswoman, tweeted: “I literally don’t know how
Biden is not running over and punching him in the face.”
Trump
looked more like a challenger than an incumbent, butting in and hurling petty
insults such as: “Don’t ever use the word ‘smart’ with me … There’s nothing
smart about you, Joe.” The hapless Wallace struggled to gain control as viewers
heard only a cacophony of voices. “I am the moderator of this debate, let me
ask my question,” he almost pleaded.
Sometimes
Wallace was too easy on Trump, though he did tell him at one point: “Frankly,
you’ve been doing more interrupting.”
Biden
mostly kept his cool, preferring to laugh in world weary bemusement. “That was
really a productive segment, wasn’t it?” he said sarcastically early on. “Keep
yappin’, man.”
Other
memorable lines included: “You are the worst president that America has ever
had”; “The fact is that everything he’s saying so far is simply a lie. I’m not
here to call out his lies. Everybody knows he a liar”; “It’s hard to get any
word in with this clown – excuse me, this person”; “President Trump wouldn’t
know a suburb unless he took a wrong turn.”
And, on the
coronavirus crisis, which has killed more than 200,000 people in the US: “‘It
is what it is’ because you are who you are,” Biden said as he blamed Trump for
mishandling the pandemic, and added: “Maybe you can inject some bleach into
your arm, that would take care of it.” At moments Biden cut through the chaos
by looking directly at the camera and appealing to voters: “This isn’t about
his family or my family,” as the attacks turned highly personal. “It’s about
your family.”
He also
avoided some of the missteps that plagued his Democratic primary debate
performances. He brushed off the Trump campaign attack that he is beholden to
the far left, insisting: “I am the Democratic party right now.”
Biden
condemned Trump over recent reported comments denigrating dead soldiers as
“losers” and “suckers”. He said of his late son Beau, who served: “My son was
in Iraq. He spent a year there. He got the Bronze Star. He got Conspicuous
Service Medal. He was not a ‘loser’. He was a patriot.”
Trump
clumsily tried to change the subject to Biden’s son Hunter. Biden retorted:
“I’m talking about my son Beau Biden,” and then addressed the attack on Hunter,
falsely claiming he was dishonorably discharged from the military.
“My son,
like a lot of people ... had a drug problem,” Biden shot back. “He’s overtaken
it. He’s fixed it. He’s worked on it. And I’m proud of him.”
There was
not on iota of sympathy from the president or effort to pay tribute to Beau
Biden, who died of a brain tumor in 2015.
It was a
brief moment of emotional clarity in an otherwise nightmarish, incoherent mess.
Worst of all, when Wallace asked Trump if he was willing to condemn white
supremacists and militia groups, the president couldn’t do it, saying: “Proud
Boys, stand back and stand by! But I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do
something about antifa and the left.”
It is hard
to imagine Trump won over a single voter in the suburbs, where he is
particularly trailing Biden, or anywhere else. Most viewers will have likely
been left feeling angry or sad and may have switched off long before the end.
Wallace
mused earlier this week: “If I’ve done my job right, at the end of the night,
people will say, ‘That was a great debate, who was the moderator?’”
The near
universal verdict was - expressed in the words of CNN’s political correspondent
Dana Bash – a “shitshow”
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