Trump embarrassed himself, and scared a nation, during the first debate
Have you ever been attacked while you sit in a chair watching TV? Head on. So violently, in fact, that you squirm uncomfortably as with large, red ants in your pants. You, holding on to the side of a chair, standing, sitting again, now more distressed, making you quickly jump to the leather one in the corner hoping to find a kind of shelter from the violation you are witnessing… you don’t.
The first presidential debate of 2020 is over. And interestingly, it’s not who won; it’s who lost — the election. The biggest loser, though, was the country. It was shameful to watch a president of the United States act like the unruly and petulant child he is, still, at the age of 74. And for those who doubted his bigotry, President Trump showed them during the second half of a 90-some minute violent tornado that disquieted me to the point of not allowing me sleep till later in the wee hours of Wednesday. Trump looked like a hulking, almost reddish-orange figure whose face seemed ready to explode while he refused to condemn white supremacists and armed militia members after a question by moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News.
Wallace had referenced the violent right-wing fringe groups who have violently attacked racial justice protesters around the country. He asked the president if he was “willing to condemn white supremacists and militia groups and to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence in a number of these cities?”
Trump jumped with a “sure,” then added, “I’m prepared to do that, but I would say almost everything I see is from the left wing, not from the right wing.” Biden quickly brought up the Proud Boys, a far-right and neo-fascist organization that promotes and engages in political violence, and who have been the attackers in places like Portland, Oregon. Trump responded to Biden, loudly, by ordering, “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by,” as if an order by a general on the battlefield. That moment left everyone, including Wallace the moderator, stunned.
Biden will win
Before tonight, I was convinced that Donald J. Trump would lose in November. After the debate, I am now sure Biden will be the 46th president of the United States. And surely, there are millions who probably applauded the performance of their candidate who never stopped trying to bully, interrupt, insult and lie to the American people on national TV. All qualities on exhibit that, I suppose, make Trump feel “great again.” All an angry act from a playbook that must have scared voters, even a majority of the undecideds watching, who had seen enough to reject him in a country that has started to vote, already, in some states. For those who viewed this as a show of strength from the president, the victory will turn out to be a pyrrhic one come November 3.
What stood out mostly, though, and I know it drove many on the Biden side crazy, was how composed the former vice president behaved most of the night. He may have lost it, once or twice, when he called the president “a clown.” But even then… who can argue with that, after the unhinged performance of their commander in chief.
A little after 10:30, when it was all over, a huge sadness descended over me. And it had nothing to do with Biden’s performance, or even Trump’s clown act before the world. Minutes after the debate, I got a phone call from my 15-year-old daughter. This is her first real presidential contest. One where she still cannot participate as a voter, but where she holds strong opinions and has taken sides on.
The first thing I told her was that what she had witnessed was not normal. It’s not how it should be, I tried to explain. Then I thought of the thousands of young people who had watched their first presidential debate. What are they thinking now? Will they see this as how politics is played? The violence unleashed, what’s expected in this country? A winner-takes-all mentality Americans should embrace as their own?
I’ve never expected much from Trump, but if there is harm he has caused this country — and that can be enumerated starting with the coronavirus pandemic down to the violence on our city streets — this example to our young people may have been his greatest crime since taking office in 2017.
What an example for the youth of this country and the world, I thought, from the president of the United States…
A hulking Trump, the perfect example of the ugly American, trying to bully a man whose reason for being attacked were his attempts at answering simple questions from Wallace. In fact, not only did he try his ruffian act on Biden, but he went after the debate moderator himself constantly interrupting, trying unsuccessfully to control the discussion.
In the end it was a performance which should convince enough Americans that this man is dangerous, not only to the rest of the world, but to U.S. citizens he is supposed to be protecting.
Donald J. Trump unearthed his grave on Tuesday. November 3rd American voters will bury him.
