Biden to Trump: Why don't you shut up, man?
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(CNN) -
The first general election debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden is (thankfully) over.
It was, in a word, awful.
Here the best and worst of the night.
Successes
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This was an absolutely terrible debate that did absolutely nothing to educate the public about the two candidates and what they would do if they were given four years to serve as President of the United States.
It was, without a doubt, the worst debate I have covered in my two decades in this work.
The fact that it happened even when more than 200,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and projections suggest that the number could double, by January 1, made the lack of seriousness even more surprising ... and painful.
In short, it was a disservice to democracy.]
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Trump speaks during the debate.
He was on the attack most of the night, frequently interrupting Biden.
Jim Watson / AFP / Getty Images
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The moderator, Chris Wallace of Fox News, had a hard time getting the candidates to not speak at the same time.
At one point, Wallace spoke directly to Trump and asked him to stop interrupting: "Mr. President, your campaign accepted that both sides would have two minutes to respond. No interruptions. So your side agreed. Why don't you follow what Your campaign accepted as the rule of the game? "
Patrick Semansky / AP
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Biden underscores a point during the debate.
His frustrations toward Trump were evident throughout the debate.
Morry Gash / Pool / AP
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The University of Notre Dame was originally the venue for the debate, but it was pulled out in July due to coronavirus concerns.
The 90-minute debate was held at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
Matthew Hatcher / Bloomberg / Getty Images
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The debate and focused on six topics, each of which lasted approximately 15 minutes: "The Trump and Biden records", "The Supreme Court", "Covid-19", "The economy", "Race and violence in our cities "and" The integrity of the elections. "
Morry Gash / AP
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Biden gestures in debate.
Julio Cortez / AP
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People watching the debate from the Market Garden Brewery in Cleveland.
Maddie McGarvey for CNN
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Moderator Wallace gestures to the candidates.
The Committee on Presidential Debates said that only he selected the questions.
Morry Gash / AP
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Trump answers a question.
Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty Images
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Biden entered the debate Tuesday night leading the polls.
Olivier Douliery / Pool / Getty Images
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Television screens show the debate at the Walters Sports Bar in Washington.
Sarah Silbiger / Getty Images
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Biden makes a point during the debate.
Matthew Hatcher / Bloomberg / Getty Images
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Trump holds up a mask while speaking at the debate.
"I don't wear a mask like Biden, every time you see him, he has a mask. He can be talking at 60 meters and he shows up with the largest mask I've ever seen."
Jim Watson / AFP / Getty Images
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Trump's shadow on the text of the Declaration of Independence.
Scott Olson / Getty Images
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Biden reacts during the debate.
Scott Olson / Getty Images
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Trump and Biden offered different versions of the federal response to the pandemic.
Matthew Hatcher / Bloomberg / Getty Images
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Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Trump and Biden did not shake hands.
Scott Olson / Getty Images
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Jill Biden hugs her husband at the end of the debate as Melania Trump approaches the president.
Morry Gash / Pool / Getty Images
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The audience maintains social distancing between the chairs.
Brian Snyder / Reuters
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Jill Biden wears a mask while watching the debate.
Kevin Dietsch / UPI / Bloomberg / Getty Images
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Eric and Ivanka Trump watch the debate.
Olivier Douliery / Pool / AFP / Getty Images
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Balloons of 'Trump baby' on the ground at a protest in Cleveland before the debate.
Maddie McGarvey for CNN
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A Trump supporter wears a "Make America Great Again" mask.
Brian Snyder / Reuters
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Final preparations within the place where the debate took place.
Meg Vogel / Cincinnati Enquirer / USA Today Network
LEE
: 6 conclusions of the first derailed debate between Biden and Trump
Faults
* Donald Trump:
Remember that the president needs these debates to change the dynamics of the race.
Because if he doesn't, he's likely to lose (and a lot) to Joe Biden.
I saw absolutely nothing in a tortuous 90 minutes that changes anything.
Yes, Trump dominated the debate, but that was because he intimidated, interrupted and cajoled both Biden and moderator Chris Wallace throughout.
Sure, that will cheer up your staunch followers.
But do you really think they needed a debate performance like this to get excited and vote for it?
The interruptions made the debate literally impossible to watch.
In fact, I found myself repeatedly wondering why someone who, like me, is not being paid to watch the debate stayed watching it for more than the first 10 minutes.
Trump made a series of outlandish claims: "I brought football back" is my personal favorite, not to mention false statements about his own and Biden's records.
By the way, he misinterpreted Biden's reference to his son Beau's military service so he could turn around and attack Biden's other son, Hunter.
He turned down the direct opportunity to convict the Proud Boys and other white supremacist groups.
("Get away and wait," Trump told the Proud Boys, whatever that means.)
It was disastrous.
All.
* Chris Wallace:
Look, no one, and I mean no person currently living on Earth, could have handled this debate effectively.
Trump is like a rhetorical hammer: he just talks and talks and talks.
He has no respect for the rules.
Or other people.
Or courtesy.
Or answer questions.
You get the idea.
That said, Wallace simply couldn't pin down Trump (or Biden, for that matter) in almost any detail about themselves and their policies that we were not aware of as we entered this debate.
(One notable exception: Wallace repeatedly pressed Trump on whether he had paid $ 750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017, as
The New York Times reported
, forcing the president to finally say that he had paid "millions of dollars "On federal income taxes. Which, well, hmmm.) Wallace, who I've said before is one of the best interviewers in political journalism, lost control of the debate in the first five minutes.
And he was never close to getting it back.
The result was a festival of crisscrossing screams, which hurt anyone who tried to witness this debacle.
* Rules of debate:
The two presidential campaigns spend months negotiating the rules to govern the debates.
In particular, that each candidate would have two minutes of uninterrupted time to answer each question before there was time for a more general conversation.
That never happened.
Not even once.
Instead, Trump intervened almost as soon as Biden began to speak.
Wallace would later remind Trump that his campaign had accepted these rules.
Trump interrupted him.
A debate without rules is not a debate.
Or rather: a debate in which one of the candidates refuses to follow the rules is not a debate.
* Joe Biden:
The former vice president started slowly.
His answer on why he shouldn't fill the Supreme Court seat before the elections was vague and, frankly, bad.
Which is shocking given that Biden HAD to know that they would ask him that question.
I thought Biden strengthened a bit in the middle of the debate, particularly when he argued that Trump's mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic has cost American lives.
But too often he was dragged down the gutter of Trump.
And while the Democratic base no doubt rejoiced when he told Trump to shut up and called him a "clown," it's hard for me to see how that agrees with Biden's core message of restoring decency and leadership in the House. White
As I noted earlier, this debate is likely to change very little in terms of the overall dynamics of the race, which is good for Biden because he is ahead.
But Biden too often played Trump's hand with insults and outlandish claims.
He forgot the first metaphor of debating a candidate like Donald Trump: don't get in the mud with the pig, because they both get dirty and the pig likes it.
* Future debates:
There are supposed to be two more presidential debates before Election Day.
Can anyone who has seen that disaster believe that we need more?
And if you are from Biden's team, why would you allow your candidate to face that hell two more times, knowing that just by showing up, he will be undermined?
The Commission on Presidential Debates is a powerful organization.
And both campaigns know that these debates attract more looks than either of them can get on their own.
But even with all that taken into consideration, it seems to me that now we need to have a serious conversation about whether having more debates is really bad for voters, and how they are trying to decide who to vote for.
READ
: CNN Poll Post Debate: Six out of 10 say Biden won
* Political Lovers:
I have been an unapologetic lover of politics for decades.
I love the pageantry, the competition, the strategy, the story, the battle of ideas.
And at the top of the list of what I enjoy the most about politics and campaigning has always been the debates.
They have long been an effective distillation of the combination of performance and politics required not only to get elected president but to get the job done right.
Because I love politics so much, it was deeply disappointing to see the debacle on my television screen on Tuesday night.
It didn't make me mad.
It saddened me.
Because politics is, and has to be, better than this.
Presidential debate United States
