September 30, 2020: Trump Shatters Debate Norms - Also Claims He Won

 

9/30/20: What did I miss while driving south from Mt. Rainier, to Underwood, Wash., over the worst road I’ve ever been on?

 

*

 

“Stand down but stand by.”

 

ACCORDING TO MOST PUNDITS, the Trump-Biden debate was the worst presidential debate in history. Naturally, Trump insists he won. The debate commission is so appalled, they plan to change the rules and may include a mute button when a candidate interrupts the other during any future debates.

 

Naturally, Trump objects to changing the rules, unless he’s picking a Supreme Court judge. (See: 9/20/20.)

 

A writer for Time described the televised contest as “like nothing I’d ever seen or imagined” and said the president had “shattered” debate norms.

 

Asked about the disaster, moderator Chris Wallace said the president “bears the primary responsibility for what happened.” Speaking to colleague Bill Hemmer, Wallace cited a Fox News analysis, that Trump interrupted Biden 71 times, and Wallace 74. That would be 145 interruptions in 130 minutes.

 

Did I mention Trump thought he won? Well, there were those who agreed. Sean Hannity, for one. And the Proud Boys, for sure. Asked to denounce white supremacists during the debate, Trump couldn’t do it. He insisted the real threat in America is Antifa, then fumed, that the Proud Boys “should stand down but stand by.” You know. In case he lost the election.

 

Then: gunfire, maybe?

 

His former National Security Adviser, H.R. McMaster, said the president’s failure to condemn white supremacy was like blowing a wide open layup in basketball. Or, to use a sports metaphor of my own: It was as if Trump were cheering for the racists who tried to keep Jackie Robinson from playing for the Dodgers. You know. In 1947. When America was “great.”

Jackie Robinson rounds first base.

 

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE (1/20/21): On this last day of Trump’s tenure, I am editing my blog for clarity, and polishing punctuation. My joke about the Proud Boys, above, has turned out not to be a joke, as authorities begin arresting individuals responsible for the mayhem on January 6, 2021.

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE (6/27/21): Chris Wallace later tells students participating in a George Washington University webinar, that in his earpiece he could hear his director admonishing him to get the debate under control. “And I’m thinking, what does he expect me to do? Does he expect me to hit a trap door and have the president of the United States go down? You know, there’s not much you can do in that situation.”