President Trump and former Vice President Biden, exchange blows in a rather confusing debate that was barely coherent and entirely venomous.
On great demand, the 2020 debate finally happened and made everyone wish it never had. Moderated by Fox News Host Chris Wallace, who previously grilled the President on his claims that he was intellectually certified, the debate was but an endless spat between Donald Trump who could not refrain from spouting factually incorrect statements and Joe Biden, who in fact began distancing himself from the progressive left who have been lending him the support he needs to beat Donald Trump.
The debate had many key moments, with Trump accusing Joe Biden's son Hunter of accepting money from the wife of the mayor of Moscow (a claim that has been discredited), to Biden calling Trump a clown. In fact, none of the questions asked really got any answers. According to a graph by fact-checkers at NBC news, neither of the candidates were able to stay on topic.
In a particularly disturbing moment, Trump refused to condemn white supremacists and asking them to stand down, and instead said "Proud Boys — stand back and stand by.”
Members of the Proud Boys, a far-right group that has endorsed violence, celebrated calling the president’s comments “historic.” In one channel dedicated to the Proud Boys on Telegram, a private messaging app, group members called the President’s comment a tacit endorsement of their violent tactics. In another message, a member commented that the group was already seeing a spike in “new recruits.”
This is particularly problematic since Trump was already endorsed by David Duke, far-right politician, a convicted felon, and former grand wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. He has also previously refrained from condemning white supremacists and their violence, saying "There very fine people on both sides".
Meanwhile, Joe Biden didn't do much of a better job either. Trump constantly bashed him for his record while Joe Biden, in efforts to ignore him, was barely able to get 10 words through in the debate at all. He also made little clarifications on his stances, and refused to answer a question regarding the Democrats' threats to pack the Supreme Court or end the fillibuster if conservative judge Amy Coney Barrett gets approved to fill in liberal judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat.
He also seemed utterly indecisive about his pact with the progressives and the Green New Deal, first touting the sweeping climate change plan embraced by liberal activists as a job creator and then disavowing it. When asked about young voters and climate change, Biden emphasized that he has his own plan for tackling climate change separate from the outline put forward last year by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.).
“I don't support the Green New Deal,” Biden said when pressed by Wallace. “I support the Biden plan I put forward." Former Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway immediately jumped on this and tweeted it out only to elicit this response from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez:
In fact, the one thing the debate really revealed was the structural flaw in the presidential debates. The Commission on Presidential Debates announced Wednesday that it would add “additional structure” to the remaining faceoffs between President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden following Tuesday night’s chaotic clash in Cleveland, saying “more orderly discussion is needed.”