The First Trump-Biden Showdown: Trump's Humiliation
On This Day In 2020
Debate or disgrace? The first Trump-Biden debate showcased a lot of what made Trump’s presidency a disaster: Yelling, lying, name calling, changing the subject, lying, lack of accountability, lying…Trump brought out all of his classic tactics.
From his complaints about Biden’s family, to conspiracy theories, to refusing to commit to a smooth transfer of power …OTDI 2020 America was still reeling from what they had witnessed the night before. It might have been one of the costliest nights of Trump’s political career.
A few choice quotes:
“This (election) is not going to end well. This is going to be a fraud like you’ve never seen.” Trump started to sow the seeds of the eventual insurrection even before voting started.
“They came after me trying to do a coup. We’ve caught ’em all…President Obama, he knew about it too. So don’t tell me about a free transition.” He can’t seem to let even the 2016 election go, so he makes up stories about it.
“Why is it, just out of curiosity, the mayor of Moscow’s wife gave your son $3.5 million?” Not only has this claim been fact-checked and shown to be yet another Trumpian lie…but it’s also typical in that he accuses others of doing the things that only he himself has done. They call it "class projection." In this case, there’s evidence that Trump sought favors to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. And, he’s so fixated on this "issue" that he brought it up again in the Harris debate a few weeks ago. And even if it is true (which it’s not), it pales in comparison to the billions of dollars foreign governments have given the Trump Family and their firms.
“Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.” In one of the more shocking moments, Trump declines to explicitly condemn white supremacist violence. Instead, he winks and nods at the far right Proud Boys, who then became instrumental in his January 6th Insurrection.
To be charitable, perhaps his brain was addled with Covid that night? (See yesterday's OTDI).
Dive Deeper
CNBC has the breakdown of the debate with some more crazy quotes