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The Democratic candidate broke fundraising records after Trump’s debacle in Cleveland. Plus, the exodus from Hong Kong
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US elections 2020
Chris Wallace says he didn’t realise president’s approach would be to hector throughout More
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New Zealand and the United States both had leaders’ debates this week, and some political junkies noticed a distinct difference in tone. In New Zealand, where the Labour leader and incumbent prime minister Jacinda Ardern faced off against National leader Judith Collins, the pair exchanged compliments in a debate described by Collins as ‘robust and a win for politics’. Meanwhile, in America, president Donald Trump’s attacks on his Democratic rival Joe Biden turned highly person
Jacinda Ardern admits cannabis use in heated New Zealand debate
Donald Trump ensures first presidential debate is national humiliation
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Facebook has removed a number of ads from the Trump campaign for making misleading and inaccurate claims about Covid-19 and immigration.On Wednesday the social media platform took down the Trump-sponsored advertisements which claimed, without evidence, that accepting refugees would increase Americans’ risk of Covid-19. The ad, which featured a video of Joe Biden talking about the border and asylum seekers, claimed, also without evidence, that the Democratic candidate’s policies would increase the number of refugees from Syria, Somalia, and Yemen by “700%”. More than 38 versions of the ad were run on Facebook and were seen by hundreds of thousands of people before the company removed them.Facebook did not immediately respond to request for comment, but said in a statement to NBC news the ads violated its policies. A version of the advertisement can still be seen in Facebook’s library but is now inactive, meaning it is not being run across any Facebook products.“We rejected these ads because we don’t allow claims that people’s physical safety, health, or survival is threatened by people on the basis of their national origin or immigration status,” Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone told NBC News in a statement.The removal is the latest action taken against the Trump administration as social media platforms attempt to rein in misinformation ahead of the 2020 elections. It follows other removals of Trump ads including one in June, which featured a Nazi symbol. The company removed another Trump ad in 2018 saying it violated its rules against “sensational content”.Facebook is also changing its policies to prevent ads that delegitimize election results, project manager Rob Leathern tweeted on Wednesday. Under the new policies, ads cannot prematurely declare victory, present any method of voting as fraudulent or corrupt, or make accusations of voter fraud. The changes to these policies apply to both Instagram and Facebook and apply immediately as of Wednesday, he said.Following the removal of the ad on Wednesday, Courtney Parella of the Trump campaign doubled down on the advertisement’s claims in a statement. She did not cite the source of the 700% figure featured in the ad. “While President Trump took decisive action to restrict travel from China to slow the spread of coronavirus and saved countless lives, Joe Biden was busy calling the president xenophobic and arm-chair quarterbacking his pandemic response,” she said.The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Although Facebook removed the ads regarding refugees and Covid-19, other misleading advertisements remain on the platform. One ad shows Joe Biden with a headphone photoshopped to his ear, perpetuating the false claim that the presidential candidate somehow cheated in the debates.The advertisement appears to have been launched on the day of the debate but remains active on the platform, with more than 800 versions still active. The ads have been viewed by more than 3.6m people, the majority of whom are in the key election states of Florida and Pennsylvania, according to Facebook data.The Trump campaign’s ads have led to the “earpiece” conspiracy theory spreading organically on other social media platforms, including TikTok, according to the watchdog group Media Matters. The group has found four examples of TikTok videos espousing the theory that have been viewed more than 560,000 times. A spokesperson for TikTok said the videos violate its policies on disinformation and it is working to remove them as they are posted.“You would not have seen the proliferation of conspiracy theories on TikTok today if there was not already an intense saturation of this idea from the Trump campaign yesterday,” said Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters. “They sort of seeded the ground with this idea until the users themselves were driving it.” More
Trump plunges debate into chaos as he repeatedly talks over Biden
President refuses to condemn white supremacists
Key takeaways from the debate
Analysis: first debate is national humiliation
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Richard Wolffe
In a bar-room brawl, who wins the fight? The guy swinging his fists or the guy clutching his drink?
From the very first minute of the first presidential debate, the 45th president behaved as he has for the last four years: as unpresidential as possible.
He heckled. He bullied. He blustered and he lied. He came out swinging and didn’t mind where his fists landed: his opponent, the moderator, the Biden family, the microphones. It didn’t much matter.
“Will you shut up, man? This is so unpresidential,” gasped Joe Biden at the end of a chaotic discussion about the supreme court. “That was a really productive session. Keep yappin’, man.” More
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Joe Biden was interrupted while paying tribute to his son Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015, during the first presidential debate against Donald Trump.
The former vice-president brought up Beau, the former attorney general of Delaware who served in the army, to highlight Trump’s reported criticism of military members as ‘losers’. The president cut in and turned the exchange into an attack on the business dealings of Biden’s other son, Hunter, in Ukraine. Despite a Senate investigation, there was no evidence of any wrongdoing by Biden, and indeed Trump was impeached for the way in which he was pushing government officials in Kiev to investigate the Biden family.
The president went on to remind viewers of Hunter Biden’s past drug use and falsely accused him of being dishonourably discharged from the military. Joe Biden, looking directly into the camera, explained that like many Americans, his son had struggled with addiction
Donald Trump plunges debate into chaos as he repeatedly talks over Joe Biden
A mess of Trump’s making: key takeaways from the first presidential debate
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US elections 2020
Fox News host blamed for failing to control debate stage as president spends evening talking over others
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US presidential debate moderator Chris Wallace struggles to contain Trump – video
The Fox News host Chris Wallace faced much criticism as he struggled to referee the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden on Tuesday night.
For most of the event, Trump talked over Biden and Wallace failed to keep the president patient for his chance to talk. At a few other moments, the Democratic challenger’s scowls and snickering at the president interrupted Trump’s comments.
Many viewers blamed Wallace, though it was Trump who most often broke the agreed rules of the debate, refused to stick to his own speaking time, and steamrollered over both other men.
“That was a hot mess, inside a dumpster fire, inside a train wreck,” said CNN’s chief Washington correspondent, Jake Tapper. “That was the worst debate I have ever seen. In fact, it wasn’t even a debate. It was a disgrace, and it’s primarily because of President Trump.”
“That was the worst presidential debate I have ever seen in my life,” said ABC political anchor George Stephanopoulos.
The former Democratic senator Claire McCaskill tweeted: “Chris Wallace is embarrassing, and trying to pretend that the problem isn’t 100% Trump.”
Claire McCaskill
(@clairecmc)
Chris Wallace is embarrassing, and trying to pretend that the problem isn’t 100% Trump.
September 30, 2020
Again and again as Trump interrupted Biden, Wallace could be heard in the background saying “Mr President, Mr President”, trying to get Trump to wait his turn.
Ben Rhodes, a political commentator and former deputy national security adviser under Barack Obama, tweeted: “Chris Wallace just disappearing.”
Ben Rhodes
(@brhodes)
Chris Wallace just disappearing
September 30, 2020
Ana Navarro-Cárdenas
(@ananavarro)
Oh my God.Chris Wallace has totally lost control of this thing. He’s allowing Trump to behave like schoolyard bully, completely disrespecting the millions of Americans who tuned-in hoping to see a debate of ideas, and a plan to move America forward.
September 30, 2020
The New York magazine business journalist Josh Barro tweeted: “People are hating on Chris Wallace but I think there was no way to moderate this debate effectively.”
Josh Barro
(@jbarro)
People are hating on Chris Wallace but I think there was no way to moderate this debate effectively.
September 30, 2020
Carl Bernstein
(@carlbernstein)
Chris Wallace needs to shut trump down and insist he follow rules…and , as moderator, enforce them…stop the debate for 60 secs and lay down the rules.
September 30, 2020
Debate moderators often get either high marks or low marks from viewers, conservative and liberal, during presidential debates. It’s rarer to see bipartisan agreement that a moderator lost control. That was the emerging opinion coming out of the first debate, as conservative commentators criticised Wallace for not challenging Biden on some of his attacks on Trump.
Biden seemed to get frustrated with Wallace’s failing attempts to rein in Trump when it was his turn to talk.
“It’s hard to get a word in with this clown,” Biden said.
Wallace himself seemed aware that he didn’t have total command over the debate. After an extended speech by Trump, Biden said: “I can’t remember everything he was ranting about.”
Wallace responded: “I’m having trouble myself.”
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Biden and Trump trade insults in frenzied presidential debate – video highlights
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US elections 2020
The reality of the coronavirus pandemic was never far off as Americans gathered to watch the first presidential debate of 2020
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Biden and Trump trade insults in frenzied presidential debate – video highlights
The first US presidential debate of the 2020 campaign cycle was an experience most American voters had never witnessed before: a bitter and divisive spectacle on a night in which the reality of the coronavirus pandemic was never far off.
At a debate watch party for Donald Trump supporters at Glory Days, a bar in Seal Beach near Los Angeles, servers, but few patrons, were wearing masks. The crowd cheered whenever the president landed a line they liked, but stayed mostly quiet during the section of the debate when Biden made his case for why Trump had failed the country during the coronavirus pandemic.
Several southern California Trump supporters said they felt the debate moderator, the Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, had slanted the debate against Trump, and that he had interrupted him more often and pressed him for responses on tough questions, while letting Biden get away with not answering.
A man who identified himself as a current police officer, and declined to give his name, said that Trump’s “law and order” message was crucial to him, and that he did not think Biden had spoken out in the same way as Trump in support of police during the past months of national protests over police violence towards black Americans.
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US presidential debate moderator Chris Wallace struggles to contain Trump – video
This was not a crowd that was still making up their minds about Trump: “I have never made more money than I have now. I’m busier than ever, even with the pandemic,” said Lily Green, 56, an immigrant from Peru who now works in real estate in southern California, and was wearing pro-Trump gear.
Asked about the New York Times report that Trump had only paid $750 in taxes, Green said that she was sure what the president had done was legal, and she respected a businessman trying to pay as little in taxes as possible.
One of the loudest jeers of the night at the Glory Days bar was when Biden said that anti-fascists, or “antifa”, were more of an idea than an actual organization, despite Trump’s attempts to label “antifa” as “terrorists”.
Lois Beckett
(@loisbeckett)
Huge jeers at a SoCal GOP watch party as Biden calls antifa “an idea, not an organization.” pic.twitter.com/Y6I4gbjRQh
September 30, 2020
Elizabeth, from Seal Beach, who declined to give her last name, was one of the people who had exclaimed in disgust at this line. She said that she believed there had been too much chaos in the country for protests to have happened spontaneously.
One Trump supporter did give Biden some credit for his demeanor during the debate: “I think that empathy is Joe Biden’s strong point,” said Sally Cohen, 78, who said the former vice-president came across as grandfatherly, even if she did not like his political record.
Viewers at online events organized by Mills College, a liberal arts college in Oakland, California, appeared staggered by how dysfunctional and overwhelming the debate was, using the chat function to untangle claims made by the candidates. “Was that a threat?” one viewer asked when Trump told the Proud Boys, a far-right group, to “stand back and stand by”.
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Trump namechecks Proud Boys as he refuses to condemn white supremacists in debate – video
In San Francisco, more than 100 people tuned into a live-stream watch party organized by Manny’s, a popular progressive event space, cafe and bar in the city’s Mission neighborhood.
Manny Yekutiel, the space’s founder, led a discussion ahead of the debate wearing a wig and gown. “I’m Lady Liberty!”, he exclaimed before starting the streaming event, Viewers could be seen in their respective homes, cooking food, eating, or just watching the show.
“I miss watching with friends, but seeing Manny in his wig, reacting to Trump’s comments, is honestly one of the few things keeping me going tonight,” said San Francisco resident Cambria Minott. “Manny’s creates platforms for shared experiences in our community that make all of this bearable,” she added.
“I would be in a dark hole if I didn’t have the sense of Manny’s community tonight,” said Laura Sander.
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