As NBC’s Lester Holt said last night after the debate between Trump and Biden ended last night, “I’m at a bit of a loss for words here to describe what we’ve just witnessed.”
Us too. So we’ll let some media heavyweights break it down for us.
“That was a hot mess, inside a dumpster fire, inside a train wreck,” said CNN host Jake Tapper. “That was the worst debate I have ever seen. It wasn’t even a debate. It was a disgrace.”
“I’m just going to say it like it is. That was a s— show.” CNN’s Dana Bash.
CNN’s Dana Bash.
“As someone who has watched for 40 years,” said ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, a previous primary debate moderator, “that was the worst presidential debate I have ever seen.”
NBC “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd called it a “train wreck of the making of one person. We know who did it. President Trump did this. And in some way, it’s the only way he knows what to do. He bulldozed over Chris Wallace, bulldozed and, at times, flustered Joe Biden.”
Biden kept his cool as Trump hurled insults at him.
“Chris Wallace did not act like a moderator. Donald Trump did not act as a debater,” MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace said. “Donald Trump was the abuser, and Chris Wallace was among the abused.”
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said that ‘this sort of debate shouldn’t happen in a democracy’.
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow.
And Norah O’Donnell summed it up for us: “Can we really have two more of these debates with the type of behavior that was displayed tonight?”
We know who lost the debate last night. The American people. In fact, a poll showed that the majority of viewers – 83 percent – said the tone of the debate was negative, and the most common reaction to the proceedings was ‘annoyance.’
And a CNN audience poll showed that Trump’s rude insulting and bullying behavior didn’t win him any votes. A landslide 60 percent of pollsters ruled a Biden victory, with only 28 percent backing the incumbent.