We thought we were tuning in for a presidential debate Tuesday night, but what we watched was more akin to a geriatric WWE match, where two old men hurled spiteful vitriol instead of folding chairs and the moderator failed to call foul.
It would take an entire newspaper’s worth of space to address all the falsehoods, half-truths and exaggerations made over the course of the “debate.” Instead of addressing those here, we encourage you to seek out fact checks. We recommend FactCheck.org and PolitiFact.com, both of which are non-partisan. That said, there were so many lies in Tuesday’s debate that neither source was able to cover every single one.
What we’re going to address is the disgraceful performance during the debate. Donald Trump acted with all the maturity and self-control of a toddler throwing a temper tantrum and Joe Biden lost his composure on a number of occasions, stooping to Trump’s level with low-blows and petty insults.
We expected Trump’s disgraceful and undignified performance. We expected his multitude of lies and misleading half-truths. (Trump did West Virginia no favors by spouting on national television an untruth about a West Virginia mailman selling ballots.) We expected disrespectful nicknames and cries of “fake news.” We expected hurled insults and revived smear campaigns. However, we did not expect Trump to refuse to abide by the agreed upon rules. We did not expect him to yell over his opponent continuously for the entire first hour and then turn around and berate the moderator. We also did not expect him — when prompted to condemn white supremacists — to instead call them to action: “Proud Boys,” Trump commanded, “stand back and stand by.” Tuesday night was quite possibly the most un-presidential conduct we have ever seen from him.
From Biden, we expected more decorum. We had hoped he would embody Michelle Obama’s “when they go low, we go high.” Granted, facing down Trump’s mudslinging without reacting takes a saint-like patience few possess but that we search for in our leaders. Biden’s composure cracked a few times, and he rose to Trump’s bait, letting himself be derailed from the topic presented by the moderator. While we aren’t exactly aglow with pride for his performance, we do appreciate Biden’s attempts to block out Trump and address the American people. We hope he’ll be better prepared to maintain his poise for future debates.
Our sympathy for and disappointment in Chris Wallace are equally matched. That may have been the worst debate in history at which to be a moderator. Trump was unruly and belligerent; but how does one respectfully restrain the president of the United States? That said, Wallace didn’t try very hard for the first hour. There were entire segments where Wallace let Trump run roughshod over Biden, to the point Biden’s answers couldn’t even be heard. That was absolutely unacceptable.
It seems every political debate sets a new precedent, but we hope Tuesday night’s disgraceful performance is not one that will be repeated.
