Was this the first real fail of a presidential debate?
This upcoming election is one of the most significant in U.S. history. As racial injustice reaches a boiling point, and as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage the globe, this country has seen a major divide. While some believe that Donald Trump is helping our country, many others believe that he is a disgrace and needs to be removed from office.
On Sept. 29, Trump and Joe Biden went head-to-head in their first debate. So many people already think our country is an absolute mess, and this debate has sealed the deal for them. A standout moment for many viewers of the debate was Biden’s frustrated exclamation, “Will you shut up, man?” Some may have deemed this comment necessary, but it wasn’t a very professional way of handling the situation.
Several journalists shared their thoughts on the debate.
“Yet the original design of the party-controlled general-election debate has slowly morphed from Republican Party-Democratic Party negotiation into something wholly different: a free-standing group of self-anointed, self-important Beltway Brahmins,” wrote Hugh Hewitt, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post.
I agree with this statement. While watching the debate, I did not see a civilized discussion between two men of high power, I saw two men fighting against each other instead of fighting to save the United States.
NBC 7 San Diego’s Sarah Glover also responded to the debate, highlighting moderator Chris Wallace’s response to Trump’s interruptions.
“I think the country would be better served if we allow both people to speak with fewer interruptions,” said Wallace. “I’m appealing to you, sir, to do that.”
This statement by Wallace shows that even the moderator was trying to tell Trump that he needed to let others speak. While telling Trump to shut up was not the answer, anyone who watched the debate could see that Trump was being inconsiderate. A debate is supposed to be back and forth between two or a few people, not one guy “mansplaining” to everyone.
Trump would not stop talking, making it hard for Biden to get a word in. Despite Biden’s visible frustration, I think that telling Trump to shut up was off target. Viewers believed that these men had high standards to uphold, saying that Biden’s exclamation made him sound childish and immature. This kind of response also encourages children to make similar comments.
Brian Niemietz of The Daily News emphasized Biden’s “smirking” after trying to silence Trump.
Although this outburst may not have been the most mature, Biden’s smirking demonstrated his pride in telling Trump to shut up. While his polls did rise after he made the comment, it is never a good idea to stoop to someone’s level instead of taking the high road.
Walter Hassell • Oct 22, 2020 at 10:20 am
I enjoyed this piece. Trump really IS like a reputational black hole – the closer in proximity one gets to him, the faster one’s values and integrity seem to vanish. This obviously applies to his GOP lackeys, but interestingly it also applied to Biden (a man of great character) during the debate.
1 minor nitpick: you start the 2nd sentence with “as racial injustice reaches a boiling point,” but that’s not where we are. We’re living in the LEAST racist moment in America’s history and have made tremendous progress thanks to the 60’s civil rights movement. What IS reaching a boiling point is the widespread social unrest & moral panic over the idea that there’s an epidemic of racist police violence directed at BIPOC – but all of the data we currently have suggests this is false. (Ex: https://scholar.harvard.edu/fryer/publications/empirical-analysis-racial-differences-police-use-force)
Just because there’s smoke, doesn’t mean there’s fire.