Saw part of it -
Herd immunity
“The China Virus sent to us by China”
As if that would make a difference to his supporters!
I’ve got Biden on. He IS benefiting from the chance to answer at length. No dim-witted bully around to scream and posture–that’s a good thing.
But Trump will get higher ratings. Both his fans and people who hate him will be giving NBC those sweet, sweet numbers.
I hate that. Trump won’t stop crowing about it for weeks.
(Twitter was overloaded this afternoon—probably not with NBC-dislike, but by Trump fans enraged by the platform’s decision not to help Trump by letting the various Biden-conspiracy-theories be posted or linked. It wasn’t possible to get tweets or replies to post.
(I had wanted to post: Anti-Trump people, don’t give him the ratings he craves! Watch the train-wreck later—YouTube, CNN, etc. will have plenty of clips. ----not that it would have reached millions, but it might have given a couple or three people something to think about…)
It’s happening. Not watching but following CNN updates. So far
“On the masks, you know, you have two stories: You have a story where they want, a story where they don’t want,” Trump said.
On QAnon, after refusing to denounce them , this The President claimed that all he knows about the conspiracy theory movement, which has had a prevalent presence at his campaign rallies, is that “they are very much against pedophelia” and that he agrees with that sentiment. “I know nothing about it,” Trump claimed. “That was a retweet — that was an opinion of somebody. And that was a retweet. I’ll put it out there. People can decide for themselves.”
But Guthrie responded, “I don’t get that. You’re the President. You’re not like someone’s crazy uncle who can retweet whatever.
The IRS, full of former administration officials, treats him very very badly
Trump is coming across as a crying, whiny baby.
“No Faaaair! The IRS is so Meeeean to me!”
…despite NBC’s best attempts to use him for a ratings boost.
Just said 85% of people who wear masks get COVID
Reading CNN and NYT coverage and analysis
This REALLY doesn’t seem to be going well for Trump.
He’s being pinned down, while at the same time Biden is explaining policy and coming across as a “man with a plan” with detailed analysis of policy.
It’s funny that Trump is being called a “crazy uncle” while Biden is having a proper policy discussion
Not for that reason. It would just be so great to see!
Are people from an audience asking Trump questions?
Yes, though who could claim it would be a surprise?
There’s not a lot of surprise in this. Trump’s foibles (if we’re being polite) are only obvious to people who pay attention. Most Americans don’t, so the debates and the hoopla around the election are their only chance to actually see him and what he’s really like. Tens of millions tune in to watch. On a good night, Fox News might pull in 5 million.
People just assume there’s hyperbole involved when they hear the POTUS is stupid or insane or possibly demented. Now they know there’s no exaggeration. He actually is that crazy uncle blathering literal insanities while those around him offer justifications and excuses.
And 4 years of deliberately avoiding situations where he might actually be questioned have reduced his already abysmal ability to handle even softball questions. And led him to believe he’s actually good in front of a crowd of people who aren’t already motivated to cheer everything he says.
It would honestly have been better for him to have done a virtual debate. He could have at least tried to read canned responses, which would not have satisfied him but would not have been such a turnoff to everybody else.
From Fox, live comments -
NBC’s Savannah Guthrie is grilling the president with tough questions about white supremacy, Q-Anon and his response to the pandemic, while Joe Biden is getting questioned much more gently on ABC.
Poor, poor pitiful Trump. As usual, WTF. Biden was asked about court packing and the crime bill, defunding the police etc
Is Trump still yammering? If so, he’s not on my local NBC schedule.
CNN says Trump’s town hall is over. Biden’s goes until 9:30 Eastern.
For those who have the stamina to listen to Donnie, first, thank you, and second, how does he sound-- out of breath? Shaky? Strong physically or questionabl e?
Oh I sure as hell wasn’t listening. Did the rest of you guys that were make it all the way through?
I went off to start making dinner but continued to listen to Biden as he answered questions from mostly Republicans who had voted for Trump in 2016. He is listening, he answers the questioners directly, he is sincere and is finally able to take his own time to outline his plans in a more thorough manner.
Trump, by comparison, was already pre-complaining about how he was being set up by NBC, completely ignoring the fact that he asked for the platform. Nobody fucking forced him to stand there for an hour and make an ass of himself (some more). Frankly, I don’t think he expected NBC to accommodate him. And I think NBC knew exactly what they were doing when they said, “Why, yes!”
LOL, and I’m sure Chris Hayes is thinking to himself, “I got preempted for that??”
I intended to watch some of the town halls live, and peruse better coverage and commentary tomorrow. I debated on which one to watch first. I thought, I know Joe and what he’s likely gonna say. So I started with Trump, catching the live feed about 7 minutes in, wherein the woman was trying to pin him down about masks. After muttering ‘Lie’ after every sentence and even fragment of a sentence that he uttered, I threw in the towel before she even got to another question. Judging from the responses to this point, I only missed more of his usual obfuscation. yawn
It just finished (went a couple of minutes long).
Unfair! Trump’s ended right on time, the moderator stopped it. And he only got one hour! Rigged!