Final Presidential Debate--Trump Takes More HIts

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. 

Trump says that windmills kill 'all the birds' after saying he knows 'more about wind' than Biden

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.

Trump says children separated from their parents were "so well taken care of"

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.

The Biggest Falsehoods Of The Final Trump-Biden Presidential Debate

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.

AP FACT CHECK: Examining claims from the last Trump-Biden 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:

1. Hunter is not running for President. 
2. We are not “rounding the corner” on Covid-19. 
3. Vaccines are not weeks away. 
4. Trump can actually behave better if enough people tell him to, if it's absolutely required.
5. Yes, we know when the cages were built, and we also know for what purpose. 
6. The stock market is still not the economy.
7. Trump comparing himself to Lincoln is bizarre. 
8. Release your taxes, Mr. President. We know the audit excuse is complete nonsense. 
9. This debate probably didn’t change anyone’s mind.
10. 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.

Now, let's do this.

86 45

BYEDON

Still more:

Who won the debate? The first polls say Joe Biden

Why Joe Biden won the final debate

745 Economists sign an Open Letter Opposing Trump's Re-Election

More than 700 economists including Nobel laureates oppose Trump reelection

Trump's debate performance was too little, too late

More than 300 military family members endorse Biden

Quotes of the Day -- Presidential Debate Edition

After last evening's debacle of a debate, it seemed a good time to maybe quote some evaluations of it. Mind you, too, most of these are from conservative sources, too.

"I can’t say this any more clearly: Our democracy is in terrible danger....And that is why the only choice in this election is Joe Biden. The Democrats are not blameless when it comes to playing politics, but there is no equivalence to the Republicans. The Democratic Party sorted through all the choices, and, led by older Black men and women in South Carolina, rejected the Democratic socialist candidate and said they wanted a moderate unifier named Joe Biden.

The Republicans — who in the past voted for Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, sane conservatives who could be counted upon to uphold the common good — have done no such equivalent thing. They have fallen in line lock step behind a man who is the most dishonest, dangerous, meanspirited, divisive and corrupt person to ever occupy the Oval Office. And they know it. Four more years of Trump’s divide and rule will destroy our institutions and rip the country apart."  

--Thomas Frieman

After that fiasco, Biden should refuse to debate Trump again. The president was petulant and puerile, so what is the point? I wasn’t in the crowd of people who believed Joe Biden shouldn’t deign to debate President Trump, but put me in the crowd that believes he shouldn’t debate him again. Not after Tuesday night’s horror show: a disgrace to the format, an insult to the country, a nearly pointless 90 minutes. And, I should add, a degradation of the presidency itself, which Trump had degraded so thoroughly already.

--Frank Bruni, The New York Times

This debate was disgraceful and painful to watch; everyone knows the reason was Trump. The psychological effect of this debate will be fairly profound on the majority of Americans, which is, “I can’t bear four more years of this.” Trump is the most intensely unlikable candidate in American history, and that matters.

--Peter Wehner

Chris Wallace..."utterly failed at the job assigned to him, which was to make the president behave like a normal human for 90 minutes."

--Alyssa Rosenberg

"For all his heckling, shouting and nonsense talk, Trump made one thing perfectly clear: He’s getting ready to take his chaos and mayhem from the debate stage and use it to try to disrupt the election itself."

---Dana Milbank

"When faced with questions about his actual record and policy, Trump threw up word salads, switched topics, made scurrilous accusations and convinced any rational viewer he is in over his head. He mostly interrupted, repeatedly and falsely accusing Biden of harboring positions that his more progressive opponents in the Democratic primaries held. Trump was a walking Twitter feed — no facts, all bluster and all insults. Unfortunately, moderator Chris Wallace was never able to control Trump, so the debate devolved into constant interruption."

Chris Wallace "...should have halted the debate or cut Trump’s microphone until he agreed to abide by the rules. Trump’s strategy was to be so obnoxious and aggressive that he could avoid answering questions and defending his record. Trump’s job was to win over voters. It’s hard to believe anyone not already part of his cult would be persuaded to support a rude, blustering know-nothing."

--Jennifer Riubin

Let's do this, folks.  Vote. And vote blue.

86 45

BYEDON

Highlights and Results From That Debacle of a Debate

Donald Trump was, once again, childish, immature, rude and, as ever, bullying last evening in what was the first and possibly last "presidential" debate with Joe Biden. I use the word presidential here very, very loosely as this President was anything but presidential. Herewith, some results and takeaways from it all.

Unfortunately for most of us, it either scared or insulted so many of us.

Presidential debate didn't help Trump catch Biden, but horror show scared America

Usually always, it's a presidential debate between 2 mature adults and both have manners. In this case, one, Trump, is neither, of course--not a mature adult and certainly without manners. Or decency.

How do you keep up with a 74 year old man child that incessantly interrupts?

Who would have thought this is where we would be with an American President?

Trump blows up the debate — and himself

Then this was stunning.

Trump was asked to denounce white supremacy. 

He wouldn’t.

A President of the United States was asked, publicly and on camera, to denounce white supremacy and he would not and did not. Stunning.

At least Joe got this in last evening.

Joe Biden Tells Donald Trump 'You're the Worst President America Has Ever Had' During Debate

And he's right, of course. Harding, Buchanan, Nixon, they're all pikers compared to this divisive, ignorant, reckless, dangerous, colluding fool of a President.

Joe also got this in. Thank goodness.

It was fair. It was certainly fair in this one regard, Joe getting that in.

I think it seems extremely clear to most of the voting, adult population of our nation that the time has long since come for the moderator of these debates to have a mute button, capable of cutting off a speaker if they go over their time or are rude and/or interrupting. That much seems clear. That time is now. It's overdue. Long overdue.

Face it, ladies and gentlemen. We need to face the truth, the facts. Donald Trump is dangerous. Surprisingly, frighteningly, legitimately dangerous. No exaggeration or overstatement. Read this next article.

At the debate, Trump made it clear he's already decided the election doesn't count

Then check out some of the results. This is where and what really counts. This is one of the most important results of last night's debacle.

Undecided voters describe Trump as a 'crackhead,' 'arrogant' in post-debate focus group

And this.

BREAKING: CNN instant poll gives it to Biden by 32 points!

The first post-debate polls say Biden won

Oliver Darcy  @oliverdarcy -- CNN instant poll of debate watcher: 60% say Biden won, 28% say Trump won.

As this article above points out, sure, things could still change but this is, of course, a great short term result from last evening. That is a pretty huge margin of win for Joe Biden right there, folks.

One thing seems to be coming clear, too. That is, Donald Trump looks as though he is going to also be the one who gets this Donald Trump presidency defeated.

That 'debate' was bad for America. 

But it was even worse for Trump

Then check out Joe's other great, great result from last night. Another of the most important things that can or could or even should take place in this insanity called a presidential election campaign.

Joe Biden smashed his single-hour fundraising record after the first presidential debate

Ultimately, of course, this, this is what we need.

David Frum: "Trump yelled, threatened, interrupted--and changed nothing. He's Losing."

So there's some hope, folks. Some big things and they went and are going our way, certainly. We can take nothing, nothing for granted, however. 

We must VOTE. 

And we must VOTE BLUE come November 3.

#BLUEWAVE2020

More:

Even America's CEOs are dumping Trump like bad rubbish