Donald Trump, who has destroyed or impaired so much of what we cherish and deem important in America, took his pickaxe to the First 2020 Presidential debate tonight, interrupting Joe Biden almost every time he spoke. And though Chris Wallace weakly protested this disruption many times, he failed to stop Trump's rampage. Wallace should have cut off Trump's microphone, or requested the audio engineer to do that.
Nonetheless, Biden did break through a good number of times, beginning with when he said to Trump, early in the debate, "will you shut up, man". Biden went on to be very effective when he looked at the camera and spoke directly to the American people about his positions about health care, Black Lives Matter, the importance of voting, and other crucial issues.
I just heard Nicole Wallace say on MSNBC that Trump abused Chris Wallace as moderator. That may be true, but the more important point is that Wallace had a responsibility to keep this abusive President in check. And although he tried from time to time, he let Trump interrupt Biden over and over again.
I've enjoyed Presidential debates since Kennedy-Nixon in 1960. Tonight's debate, although I thought Biden the better candidate won, was a disgrace. Civilized discourse lost, another victim of Trump and his contempt for reason. I hope subsequent moderators do better.
2 comments:
I think Chris Wallace did the best he could w/o a mute button. What else could he do, he couldn't punch him in the nose, even though Trump might have deserved it.
Thanks for the comment, Patricia. I think he should have stood up, and told Trump and the audience (in-person and televised) that he was not going to continue the debate if Trump kept on interrupting. Or, he could have asked the audio engineer to mute Trump right then and there (Chris Wallace had to know that was an audio engineer, actually more than one, taking care of the sound for the debate). My point is, Wallace needed to do something. As it was, he did little more than complain about what Trump was doing, instead of doing anything to stop it, which is what a responsible moderator should have done.
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