"Will you shut up, man?" US Politics October 2020

"Probably"

Biden proffered his shoot'em-in-the-leg thing again.

in a few weeks maybe someone should put this strategy to the test since he's such a fan

I will say, I just tuned in to Biden for a second, and he was cogent, coherent, thoughtful ...

Just switched on Biden, trying to talk about not defunding the police. In terms of communication and sentence structure, he's as incoherent as Trump, but he's very much trying to communicate a positive message, not one of blame and hate. His actual words are unfortunately very much the opposite: doubling down on "shoot 'em in the leg" (right down to the apostrophe), saying we have to pay the police more so they can be trained in deescalation and community-based policing, but saying that the problem is that the cops already have to do to much of this, like school teachers, and it's too much for their brains to cope with. Most cops don't like bad cops - they don't - they don't! - despite the fact that he also said in the debate that the bad cops have infected and ruined the entirety of American policing.

As Alfred says, he's an old man doing his best; one can hope that people who understand issues better than he will actually have the full responsibility reforms and policies if he's elected.

big xposts

reading these posts about Trump and the news coverage tonight I won't be surprised if he wins again, so many people seem mesmerized by him

Some idiot now asking Biden how he'll avoid the temptation to punish Trump once he's out of office; Biden responding with endless waffle about good intentions and understanding and an infrastructure bill??!?

Four more years of infrastructure week

There's a weird setup whereby Reagan's awful Transportation Secretary Drew Lewis' son wants Biden's reassurance about #bipartisanship or something. But, wow, the guy's in tears. Ugh.

Dude who asked the question looks mid-60s, and is trying to hide his frustrated confusion at Biden's inability to complete a sentence.

reading these posts about Trump and the news coverage tonight I won't be surprised if he wins again, so many people seem mesmerized by him

― Dan S, Thursday, October 15, 2020

Trump? He's shouting again as if he had no COVID. He's reassured his base again.

Biden did not dismiss expanding the Court btw.

“I know nothing about it,” Trump said. “That was a retweet. That was an opinion from somebody. I’ll put it out there — people can decide.”
“I don’t get that,” Guthrie replied. “You’re the president, not somebody’s crazy uncle."

Oh, I missed that he was someone in particular

Ron Howard Narrator Voice: He was, in fact, somebody's crazy uncle.

I think Biden sounds fine, like a normal, boring politician. I'm having no problem following him, as far as that goes. Trump, I have trouble just hearing him.

Watched The Candidate (1972) last week; the seats in the televised debate there were as far apart as Biden and the moderator guy tonight.

Has anyone asked the less-evil one about weed because it's fucked up if they don't even give more of us a chance to buy drugs legally.

Biden is boring. Trump is awful. He fucking said dangerous bullshit about masks again. I can't believe there's even a comparison.

Harris said decriminalise weed and expunge convictions in her debate; there's no added value in asking Biden about it.,

The most it would do is scare geriatrics who aren't already using cannabis for medicine.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/15/adelson-trump-super-pac-429688

Too bad he wasn't at the White House superspreader event

Fracking question! It has made citizens sick and killed wildlife in SW PA. We're transitioning away from fossil fuels in the region itself. What other technologies would you promote?

"First of all, let me be clear that I will NOT ban fracking."

ABC: 366,211 watching now
NBC: 184,421 watching now

— Adam B. Vary Scared…SO VOTE, PLEASE AND THANK YOU (@adambvary) October 16, 2020

not that this shit matters but I am petty enough to want Trump to lose in the ratings because that's all he cares about

Wonder how much of the rough ride trump sounds like he’s getting is due to internal nbc politics

not that this shit matters but I am petty enough to want Trump to lose in the ratings because that's all he cares about

the viewers are rigged. defund Nielsen.

hearing a lot of grousing about how unfair the mod has been to Trump so I assume his event is not going well

Art of the steal...Art of the deal

I have about 70 pro-trump blue checks on a twitter list, they aren’t celebrating Trump’s performance, only attacking the moderator. That’s not a good sign.

— Josh Russell (@josh_emerson) October 16, 2020

Seems like the expression "so dumb he could fuck up a two-car funeral" ought to be replaced with "so dumb he could lose a one-person debate".

it will never sink in for the trump campaign that they just let their guy walk into a textbook A-B experiment https://t.co/MRLU27LE01

— kilgore trout, kiss me mr. president (@KT_So_It_Goes) October 16, 2020

otm

Mother of a trans daughter asks about what he'll do to restore protections etc for LGBTQ ppl; Biden says "I'll flat-out change the law. I'll reverse those executive orders" -- good precedent. Reversing 99.2% of all executive orders should be a day-two priority, then restaffing govt depts on day three.

Trump bailing on the debate, even one conducted remotely, was a terrible decision. It wouldn't have changed anything, but it was much harder for him to bluster his way through in the setting he found himself in. Didn't he realize that no matter who NBC picked, the moderator would be lying in wait?

Wonder how much of the rough ride trump sounds like he’s getting is due to internal nbc politics

Quite sure this factored in too, after the grief they got.

xp to me, same question:

Biden uses his folksy/family schtick in a good way; tells a bullshit-sounding pat anecdote version of something that probably really happened - an eight-year-old grandson or grandnephew or s/t pointing across a car park to some LGBTQs holding hands and saying "they love each other" - then suddenly realises he has a more relevant fact to relate, and says "and by the way, my son who died, Beau Biden, when he was attorney general, he had a staffer, a man who became a woman, right there in the office." (not exact quote)

Good to hear him saying the more sincere-sounding thing that he didn't have a soundbyte for, even though it could have undermined the prepared bit.

(And the prepared bit was a good way of presenting "acceptance" to dumb olds who might be swing voters)

I didn't care for this thing at all, but the transgender answer sounded to me like one of his few good moments -- and the mom looked as if she responded.

Good point. People *hated* that guy. https://t.co/m5zZSzAPjc

— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) October 16, 2020

Joe Biden appears to have started a second town hall, staying in the room and trying to convince the voters in the room as he answers more questions.

— Matt Viser (@mviser) October 16, 2020

But despite fears that the event would amount to a free promotion for Trump’s campaign, it ended up being one of the toughest grillings he has faced as president, with questions about white supremacy, covid-19 deaths and his taxes.

While the event was nominally a town hall, featuring questions from Florida voters, it included a lot of direct pressing by the moderator, “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie, who repeatedly challenged the president’s evasions.

At one point, after pushing Trump on his retweet of a QAnon-linked conspiracy theory, Guthrie said, “I don’t get that. You’re the president. You’re not like someone’s crazy uncle who can just retweet whatever.”

When Trump said he wasn’t familiar with QAnon, Guthrie said “you do know,” to which he replied: “No, I don’t know. You tell me all about it. Let’s waste the whole show. Let’s go. Keep asking me these questions.”

After questioning him about his frequent claims of election fraud, Guthrie told him, “There is no evidence of widespread fraud, and you are sowing doubt in our democracy."

When Trump said he couldn’t release his taxes because he’s “under audit,” Guthrie repeatedly countered by saying, “You aren’t.”

For his part, Trump protested Guthrie’s questioning, saying, “I knew you’d be doing this. … You always do this.” He complained that Biden got much easier questions from moderator Lester Holt when he participated in a similar event held by the network on Oct. 5. “He was asking questions like Biden was a child,” the president said.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2020/10/15/trump-town-hall-savannah-guthrie-biden/

Guthrie us doing a good job

Trump campaign statement: "President Trump soundly defeated NBC’s Savannah Guthrie in her role as debate opponent and Joe Biden surrogate. President Trump masterfully handled Guthrie’s attacks and interacted warmly and effectively with the voters in the room. "

— Philip Klein (@philipaklein) October 16, 2020

congratulations on defeating the moderator Mr. Trump

I'll be honest and I'll probably get a lot of shit for it, but I'm an undecided voter. After watching this town hall, I believe my decision has been sealed. Tomorrow I will be casting my vote for Savannah Guthrie.

"Warmly and effectively"--well, he didn't insult or attack any of the town-hall questioners, and he hasn't yet tweeted out any photoshopped pictures of them, so sure.

I will never get tired of politicians not knowing the price of things

Watch Joni Ernst fail to know the price of soybeans in Iowa and then fight w/ the moderator before simply giving up #iasen pic.twitter.com/kMhGR8malp

— Justin Barasky (@JustinBarasky) October 16, 2020

So my mom is a Trumper. She also is fond of Archie Bunker and Ralph Kramden. Some people are drawn to loudmouths who “tell it like it is,” or, say out loud what they feel they can’t say.

But I don’t understand how anyone can watch an episode of All in the Family and not realize that Archie is an asshole. People see what they want to see.

Here’s the other part of that #IASen exchange, where Theresa Greenfield nails the price of corn pic.twitter.com/BMoTDJAKX7

— Iowa Starting Line (@IAStartingLine) October 16, 2020

It's one soybean, what could it cost, ten dollars?