Yes, we had the final Presidential election campaign debate last night as we all know and yes, The Orange Man, The Trumpster, "President" Trump is now taking hits on it as he rightly should this morning. Here are but some.
Right off the bat, let's put this up front.
Post-debate CNN poll: Biden wins final presidential debate
Joe Biden did a better job in the final debate on Thursday, according to a CNN Instant Poll of debate watchers. Overall, 53% of voters who watched the debate said that Biden won the matchup, while 39% said that President Donald Trump did.
Viewers once again said that Biden's criticisms of Trump were largely fair (73% said they were fair, 26% unfair), and they split over whether Trump's attacks on Biden were fair (50% said yes, 49% no).
On from there.
It's difficult to tell just where this President Trump gets his information.
On the news this week that 545 migrant children's parents couldn't be located after the Trump administration separated them, the parents from the children, The Trumpster had this response.
Forget that they're children.
Forget that they're abandoned.
Forget that they're now in institutions.
Forget that they're no doubt scarred for the rest of their lives by this experience, these experiences.
Trump says they're "so well taken care of."
Right. Sure they are. Just as well as if they were, what? With their own family? With their own parents?
An excellent summary of the final debate comes this morning from Forbes Magazine, I think.
Just a bit from the article gives a great deal of good information.
- On the Covid-19 death toll, Trump claimed that “2.2 million people were expected to die,” a misleading number which he has stated multiple times to claim that his administration saved 2 million lives. The number is based on the worst-case scenario modeled by the Imperial College of London which hypothesized what would happen if no action was taken during the pandemic and people continued to live their daily lives as normal, with no change in behavior. The model, however, acknowledged that such a scenario was unrealistic.
- Trump incorrectly stated that the country was “rounding the corner” on the pandemic, despite the number of new infections rising once again to nearly 60,000 a day, following a dip in the late summer.
- Trump also falsely claimed that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the federal government’s top infectious disease official, had described Covid-19 as “no problem” and predicted it would “go away soon.” In reality, even back in January, Fauci said that the U.S. had to take the disease seriously, while in February he said that the risk was still low but cautioned “this could change.”
- Trump accused Joe Biden of receiving $3.5 million from Russia and the amount came through Putin, a claim based on a politically charged report released by Senate Republicans last month into Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Russia and Ukraine. The report, however, does not accuse Joe Biden of any wrongdoing or claims that Hunter Biden’s business dealings influenced the Obama administration’s foreign policy. Hunter Biden’s lawyer has also denied that he was the “co-founder” of the company in question.
This one is a particular favorite for me.
- In one of the most bizarre statements of the night, Trump claimed that Biden’s platform is pushing to force buildings to replace their existing windows with smaller ones, or remove them altogether, in the name of energy efficiency. This claim is false since Biden’s platform makes no mention of windows anywhere, nor does the Green New Deal, a more expansive proposal to fight climate change endorsed by many progressive Democrats but not Biden himself.
It goes on from there.
- Under fire for his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, Trump tried to shift blame, repeatedly accusing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) of acting slower and accusing her of “dancing on the streets in Chinatown in San Francisco” and urging street fairs and parades. Pelosi made a visit to San Francisco’s Chinatown in late February, where she urged people to take precautions and to be vigilant while advocating the patronage of Chinese businesses. A day later Pelosi called for a broader and more forceful response to tackling the virus, according to the Washington Post.
- During the debate, Biden claimed that Trump had caused America’s trade deficit with China to “go up, not down”. According to PolitiFact, this is mostly false since the U.S. trade deficit with China in goods and service was lower under Trump in 2019, than it was in any of the final three years of the Obama administration, where Biden served as vice president. Biden’s campaign is pointing to a narrower evaluation that includes trade in goods only, where numbers under Trump have generally been higher than they were under Obama.
- Under fire for his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, Trump tried to shift blame, repeatedly accusing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) of acting slower and accusing her of “dancing on the streets in Chinatown in San Francisco” and urging street fairs and parades. Pelosi made a visit to San Francisco’s Chinatown in late February, where she urged people to take precautions and to be vigilant while advocating the patronage of Chinese businesses. A day later Pelosi called for a broader and more forceful response to tackling the virus, according to the Washington Post.
- During the debate, Biden claimed that Trump had caused America’s trade deficit with China to “go up, not down”. According to PolitiFact, this is mostly false since the U.S. trade deficit with China in goods and service was lower under Trump in 2019, than it was in any of the final three years of the Obama administration, where Biden served as vice president. Biden’s campaign is pointing to a narrower evaluation that includes trade in goods only, where numbers under Trump have generally been higher than they were under Obama.
PBS wrote this today.
President Trump’s very first line of the night, about COVID-19 deaths, was false and set the tone as he and Democratic rival Joe Biden unleashed a torrent of claims in their last presidential debate.
Of course, this will all be said to be "fake news" by this President and his followers but so it goes.
As a final but important side note here today, it needs to be pointed out that EVERY modern day candidate for the presidency turned in their taxes. EVERY ONE.
Just not this one. Not Donald J "Jenius" Trump.
In summary today:
- Hunter is not running for President.
- We are not “rounding the corner” on Covid-19.
- Vaccines are not weeks away.
- Trump can actually behave better if enough people tell him to, if it's absolutely required.
- Yes, we know when the cages were built, and we also know for what purpose.
- The stock market is still not the economy.
- Trump comparing himself to Lincoln is bizarre.
- Release your taxes, Mr. President. We know the audit excuse is complete nonsense.
- This debate probably didn’t change anyone’s mind.
- Meanwhile, too, not one word from this "President" on what he would do if he were, God and heavens forbid, reelected. Not one.
Thanks, Mr. President.
Thanks, Republicans.
BYEDON
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