The problems
Everything about the first debate was wrong, from the format to the moderator to the insults. Let’s have an in-depth view of why things happened the way they did last night.
The debate format or at least the implementation by Chris Wallace was completely flawed. First of all, there were too many questions in the time provided. One hour and 30 minutes are not enough to discuss such a wide range of topics.
Secondly, Each candidate was supposed to make an opening, 2 minutes, monologue on each question, then a period of rebuttal and discussion was supposed to happen. In many cases last night, President Trump was interrupted by the moderator as he was beginning to talk after Joe Biden’s monologue. According to the rules he should have had a chance to rebuttal before moving on.
Thirdly, there are serious questions raised about the moderator’s integrity in the debate. Chris Wallace interrupted Joe Biden 15 times, that’s bad enough until you learn that he interrupted the President 76 times throughout the debate, and usually a condescending manner to add to that.
The public response
To say the public was unhappy with the debate last night would be an understatement.
All sides of the debate, including the moderator, have received criticism after last night’s debate.
Chris Wallace has been widely criticized for showing bias toward Joe Biden, often helping him answer a question or ignoring blunders or major talking points.
Joe Biden has been criticized for using disrespectful language when addressing the president as well as other accusations that included a trending hashtag on twitter called # Is Joe Biden Using a Teleprompter. The accusation is not totally unrealistic, Biden would stare out towards the camera while delivering his monologues, his eyes wide and unblinking.
On the Democrat side, they are criticizing the President for interrupting Joe Biden continuously. It’s not an unfounded claim, Trump did interject often to point out Joe Biden’s inconsistencies, however, he has since been called a bully by the liberal press.
The key topics
When it came to the topics of interest, such as violence in the cites, Trump put pressure on Biden to condemn Antifa, something he failed to do. Joe Biden refused to condemn violence in the inner cities, calling Trump a lier every time the president called the riots, violent and destructive.
Another hot topic was the discussion over mail-in voting. Joe Biden claimed that President Trump was making up reports of voter fraud, calling the president a liar and a clown. Biden went on to say that there were no reports of fraud and ballot buying. As we know, that is a false claim. Over the past few days, there have been many reports as well as video evidence of voter fraud in Rep. Omar’s district to be precise.
On the topic of forest fires, Joe Biden fumbled around, talking about brazil and joining the Paris Agreement but refused to discuss the issue of balancing the economy with going green. President Trump announced a plan to plant one billion trees and encouraged states to improve their forest management as a measure to prevent forest fires.
Summary
In summary, many Americans feel that the moderator was unfair towards Trump, Interrupting him often and not allowing a rebuttal from the president. The moderator also appeared to help Biden answer questions on hot topics. The debate format as a whole was flawed, not allowing candidates the time necessary to get their points across, creating a situation where the only way both parties could talk was over each other.
