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Ever since the pioneering Kennedy-Nixon encounter in 1960, the questions that political journalists pose after US presidential debates have been the same. Who performed best? Who had the better of this or that part of the argument? Who exceeded expectations or fell short? Who had the best lines and delivered the best zinger? And has any of it changed the election odds?They are still being asked after the first televised match-up between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. With five weeks to go before the US votes, the questions still matter. But after Tuesday’s verbal roughhouse they also feel crowded out by other uncertainties that seem more epochal, more dystopian and more pressing, not least when seen from this side of the Atlantic.It can seem overblown, but it now makes sense to ask if America is on the edge of becoming ungovernable, or if the rule of impartial law enforcement still commands respect. It is also possible, in ways that were not true in the past, to consider whether the US can be relied on internationally, and whether it is realistic to continue to regard it as an ally. But if it is not an ally, what follows from that? The answers are increasingly uncomfortable.Perhaps most potently, it has to be asked whether America, with all its fabulous energy, wealth, liberty and ambition, still offers the inspirational model to the world that it did to so many, for so long. Or instead is today’s America, defined increasingly by its inequalities, violence, fundamentalism and racism, becoming a model to be rejected, to be guarded against and even, in some cases, to be resisted?Sober answers to these questions matter to the whole planet, above all because of climate change and amid the coronavirus pandemic. But they matter to Britain in very particular ways too. The UK’s claim to a special relationship with the United States has been the cornerstone of its view of itself in the world ever since 1945. A deference to, and infatuation with, America also runs deep in our culture. But if the US is changing in an increasingly dangerous fashion, where does that leave that foreign policy or that infatuation?Britain has a lot riding on getting the answer right. Coming at precisely the time when the UK is casting off its alliance with its own continent, the issue has special urgency. Back in 2016, when Britain voted to leave the European Union, the allure of the exit for many leavers rested partly on the apparent dependability of the transatlantic alliance. But that was pre-Trump. America is a different place and becoming more so. Even leavers should sometimes ask what exactly this wheel of fire is on to which they are binding themselves.Fundamentally, the credibility of any alliance, whether with Europe, the US or anyone else, rests on material self-interest over things such as trade and security. But these material issues are also oiled by common values and trust, without which the relationship remains brittle and pragmatic. The bigger ally will always call the shots. And Britain is not the bigger ally.Few of these values matter as much as respect for the rule of law. It is not difficult to list ways in which this has been undermined by Trump’s America. The list would include everything from the president’s tax returns to breaches of international treaties. The danger for Britain is that, in defence of its unequal alliance, it is beginning to follow the US down the same route of playing fast and loose with the law for political reasons.Take one hugely significant example. Trump and the Republican senate leadership are trying to install the conservative judge Amy Coney Barrett in place of the liberal Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the US supreme court before the presidential election on 3 November. This is a wholly political act. But it is not new. It is merely a particularly shameless step in a long history of politically shaped justice in the US.In the long term, the Barrett nomination is aimed at creating a conservative 6-3 majority in the court, which may then start to undo abortion and other civil rights. But the overriding and immediate purpose is to construct a court that may rule on the result of the November election itself. If that were to happen, and if the court awarded the disputed election to Trump, the politicisation of American justice would be complete.In Britain, judges are still selected on the basis of their legal qualifications, not their politics. Even if you know the identity of the current UK supreme court president, which most people will not, it is a fair bet that you don’t know whether Lord Reed can be classified as a liberal jurist or a conservative one. We are better off as a country for that. Judges should neither be cult figures, as Ginsburg became for some American liberals; or hate figures, as she was for conservatives.Seen against the backdrop of a divided America facing the Barrett nomination, Britain’s institutions may still seem gratifyingly independent and resilient. But for how long? The Johnson government’s purge of senior civil servants, and its plan to install conservative ideologues to govern the BBC and the independent regulators, are a declaration of war on pluralism and independence. If the United States continues its slide into culture wars and worse, the task of stopping this from dragging Britain down too will become increasingly urgent.•Martin Kettle is a Guardian columnist More
US elections 2020
Google reports peak number of searches for ‘How to apply for Canadian citizenship’ after chaotic Trump-Biden skirmish More
Trump plunges debate into chaos as he repeatedly talks over Biden
President refuses to condemn white supremacists
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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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Trump refuses to condemn white supremacists
Moderator Chris Wallace criticized as Trump derails debate
Biden: ‘It’s hard to get any word in with this clown’
Full story: Trump plunges debate into chaos
Analysis: Trump ensures debate is national humiliation
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‘Will you shut up, man?’: Biden and Trump clash in first US presidential debate – video
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Perhaps one of Joe Biden’s most effective moments in the debate last night was when he was asking the nation how many of you have an empty chair now at the breakfast table because you’ve lost someone through Covid. It demonstrated a personal empathy with the emotional impact of the pandemic across America that the president has often been criticised for not showing.
However, Time magazine’s Alice Park was unhappy with both candidates overnight in the way they approached the subject of the pandemic during the debate. She writes:
During the 15-minute segment dedicated to Covid-19 — which is still killing hundreds of Americans each day, and stands to worsen once again — neither Trump nor Biden provided any substantive plans for what health experts say will be a critical next few months, and possibly years, in the fight against the coronavirus. Instead of thoughtful plans for addressing the deadliest and most disruptive public health crisis the world has faced in a century, viewers got a mud-slinging brawl between two candidates who were mostly more interested in landing jabs than in providing any reassurance to an already edgy public reeling from lost loved ones, lost jobs and disrupted lives.
The personal attacks and repeated interruptions from the candidates overshadowed any opportunity for voters to form a firm picture of how either Trump or Biden plan to navigate the remainder of this pandemic—not to mention the upcoming flu season.
In particular she pointed out that instead of explaining how a vaccine could be distributed, “Trump and Biden tussled over the Trump Administration’s constant conflict with scientists and public health experts and their differing views on how to safely reopen society.”
Yesterday there were 43,355 new coronavirus cases and 918 new Covid deaths reported in the US.
Read it here: Time – The Trump-Biden debate was a missed opportunity to provide Americans with clarity on Covid-19
5.31am EDT05:31
Nevada is another closely watched state during presidential elections. Hillary Clinton won it last time out, as Barack Obama had done in the previous two elections. But Nevada voted Republican for Ronald Reagan, George H. Bush and George W. Bush.
The state’s attorney general, Aaron D. Ford, expressed concern on social media last night after the president appeared to be encouraging voter intimidation during the debate.
Aaron D. Ford
(@AaronDFordNV)
Trump also told “his supporters” to “go into the polls and watch very carefully.”But he wasn’t talking about poll watching. He was talking about voter intimidation.FYI — voter intimidation is illegal in Nevada. Believe me when I say it: You do it, and you will be prosecuted.
September 30, 2020
5.27am EDT05:27
The battle to win Florida in November is a keenly fought one, with 29 Electoral College votes at stake. Last time Trump carried the state by 49-47 against Hillary Clinton.
The Miami Herald this morning is leading with two direct quotes from the candidates. Trump telling Biden “There’s nothing smart about you. 47 years, you’ve done nothing”, and Biden telling Trump “You are the worse president America has ever had.”
Miami Herald
(@MiamiHerald)
Good morning, South Florida. Here is Wednesday’s front page. Keep up with the news at https://t.co/SUDth1TjN2 … And subscribe to support local coverage: https://t.co/QBR6bTYsRC pic.twitter.com/bfv21q8TTM
September 30, 2020
Biden will be visiting Miami for the first time during his 2020 campaign on Monday, when he will be doing a town hall style debate for NBC.
5.12am EDT05:12
Associated Press have rounded up a little international reaction to last night. They note that Hu Xijin, editor of China’s nationalistic Communist party tabloid Global Times, said that the “chaos, interruptions, personal attacks and insults” on display were a reflection of America’s “overarching division, anxiety and the accelerating erosion of the system’s original advantages.”
“I used to admire this kind of televised debate in American politics, but I have much more mixed feelings when watch it again now,” wrote Hu, who personally and through his paper routinely attacks American policies.
“Indeed, the overall image of the United States is growing more and more complicated in my eyes,” Hu wrote.
The editor-at-large of the newspaper The Australian, Paul Kelly, described the debate as a “spiteful, chaotic, abusive, often out-of-control brawling encounter with both candidates revealing their contempt for each other.”
Another Australian, conservative politician Tim Wilson, told ABC that “For most part, it was a slanging match between President Trump and Vice President Biden. I’ve got to say, I thought it was pretty unedifying in terms of a discussion, not just about the future of America, but ultimately because of the might of the United States, about the rest of the world as well.”
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at 5.13am EDT
5.01am EDT05:01
Here’s our highlights reel from last night – it is six minutes that will give the you the flavour of the extent to which the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden deteriorated into an ugly display of contempt. The president relentlessly interrupted and attacked his Democratic rival during clashes over the coronavirus pandemic, racism, the economy, mail-in voting and the future of the supreme court, with moderator Chris Wallace seemingly powerless to intervene.
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Biden and Trump trade insults in frenzied presidential debate – video highlights
4.46am EDT04:46
The world-weary tone of the Washington Post fact-checkers was in evidence again as they assessed the truthfulness of 21 claims made during the debate.
As they put it: “Trump repeatedly relied on troublesome and false facts that have been debunked throughout his presidency. Biden, by contrast, stretched the truth on occasion.”
Among the more trivial claims from Trump they debunk are that he was responsible for bring back Big Ten football, a falsehood about where Biden went to college, saying Biden supported the Green New Deal whose details Trump mis-stated into the bargain, and over-estimating the number of judges he’s appointed.
More seriously, the Post had this to say about Trump’s rigged election message:
As usual, Trump offered a baseless conspiracy theory that widespread use of mail ballots during an infectious disease pandemic would lead to massive voter fraud. There is simply no evidence for these claims. The Department of Homeland Security says Russia is spreading the same kind of disinformation to sow doubts about mail balloting and the integrity of the US election.
On his claim to be lowering drug prices, the Post notes “There is just no evidence for this pie-in-the-sky prediction”, and on his frequent boast about having presided over the best US economy of all time, they state “By just about any important measure, the economy under Trump has not done as well as it did under presidents Eisenhower, Johnson and Clinton.”
For his part, Joe Biden was incorrect to claim that the US has “a higher deficit with China now than we did before”, and the Post said that he used a “selective presentation” of crime figures to put his record in a better light than Trump’s.
Read it here: Washington Post – Fact-checking the first Trump-Biden presidential debate
4.22am EDT04:22
French news magazine L’Obs has this verdict on the debate, which has certainly not been lost in translation, even if you don’t speak French.
L’Obs
(@lobs)
Vous appelez cela un débat ? Le « shitshow » de Donald Trump https://t.co/Lcl1En5vME pic.twitter.com/oeiWwQTQFd
September 30, 2020
Updated
at 4.22am EDT
4.12am EDT04:12
David Smith
Cry, the beloved country. Donald Trump ensured Tuesday’s first US presidential debate was the worst in American history, a national humiliation. The rest of the world – and future historians – will presumably look at it and weep.
More likely than not, according to opinion polls, his opponent Joe Biden will win the November election and bring the republic back from the brink. If Trump is re-elected, however, this dark, horrifying, unwatchable fever dream will surely be the first line of America’s obituary.
Only one man looked remotely presidential on the debate stage in Cleveland, Ohio, and it was not the incumbent. He interrupted, ranted, raged, spewed lies and interrupted some more. Oh, and he passed on an opportunity to condemn white supremacists, instead telling them to “stand back and stand by”.
The debate moderator, Chris Wallace of Fox News, did not cover himself in glory either. He was a like a school supply teacher, hopelessly out of his depth as unruly children run riot. He did not enforce the rules or cut the president’s mic.
Facing this asymmetric bullying, Biden showed self-control and stood his ground. He spoke for tens of millions of Americans when he demanded: “Will you shut up, man?” – the Biden campaign rushed out this slogan on a T-shirt before the debate was even over.
Five weeks before the election, the debate pitted an ageing white male against an ageing orange male sweating like Richard Nixon in 1960. Anyone hoping for elegant verbal jousting or rapier-like wit was in for a disappointment.
Read more here: Donald Trump ensures first presidential debate is national humiliation
4.08am EDT04:08
A debate like last night’s – 90 minutes long and a torrent of false and misleading claims – is an absolute nightmare for the fact-checkers among us. However, it does become slightly easier if the subject of the false claims can provide their own fact-check in real-time.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports this morning that Multnomah county sheriff Mike Reese jumped straight onto Twitter after president Donald Trump appeared to claim that he had secured the endorsement of the “Portland sheriff”
Mike Reese
(@SheriffReese)
In tonight’s presidential debate the President said the “Portland Sheriff” supports him. As the Multnomah County Sheriff I have never supported Donald Trump and will never support him.
September 30, 2020
Portland in Oregon has seen near-continuous nightly Black Lives Matter protests following the killing of George Floyd in May, which have often been met with force by local and federal authorities.
3.53am EDT03:53
This was the verdict of Delaware’s Democratic Senator Chris Coons on last night, as the chaotic debate opens the possibility that the Biden campaign may request format changes going forward.
It was very hard to follow what was being said, and President Trump showed not just disrespect to the moderator, but to the American people who tuned in trying to figure out what his plans are. The point of the debate is for the American people to make a decision, informed by hearing from the two candidates on what’s your record, what are your values? Joe Biden came prepared to respect the American people. Donald Trump did not.
As well as next week’s hotly anticipated vice presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris, there are two further Trump-Biden debates currently in the calendar. You can pop Thursday 15 October at 9pm ET in Florida and Thursday 22 October at 8pm CDT in Tennessee into your diary now.
There were questions from the media immediately after last night as to whether Joe Biden and his team might pull out of the remaining two due to the president’s behaviour. They’ve ruled that out.
However, on a call with reporters, Biden deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said that the campaign was in ongoing talks with the commission who govern the rules for the debates, saying “I would imagine there would be some additional conversations” going forward.
The Trump campaign were also unhappy with the moderation by Chris Wallace last night. However, their view was that “Chris Wallace jumped in too often to save Biden from himself when he had backed himself into a corner or couldn’t come up with an answer”, according to campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh.
3.42am EDT03:42
National political reporter Sahil Kapur has weighed in for NBC News with his four key takeaways from last night. He identifies:
Trump’s interruptions, Biden’s clapbacks – the president came out swinging, with constant interruptions and attempts to throw Biden off-balance. Biden didn’t shrink from the moment, repeatedly knocking Trump as a “clown” and a “liar” who wouldn’t stop “yapping”.
Trump doesn’t condemn white supremacists – in a debate during which Biden called Trump a “racist” to his face, one of the most significant moments came when Wallace asked the president whether he was willing to condemn white supremacists and “militia” groups. Trump appeared irritated.
A clash over the economy – Trump sprinkled in attacks on Biden for having spent four decades in public office and having failed to fix many of the problems he now says he’s running for president to tackle.
Biden shivs the left – Biden did his best to distance himself from the left throughout the debate. He repeatedly denounced the Green New Deal. Early on, Biden said that he was “not opposed to” Trump’s supreme court pick. He also went out of his way to make it clear that he opposes calls to “defund the police”.
Read it in full here: NBC News – ‘Clown.’ ‘Liar.’ ‘Racist.’: 4 takeaways from the chaotic first Trump-Biden debate More
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The first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden deteriorated into an ugly display of contempt on Tuesday night, as the president relentlessly interrupted and attacked his Democratic rival during clashes over the coronavirus pandemic, racism, the economy, mail-in voting and the future of the supreme court
A mess of Trump’s making: key takeaways from the first presidential debate
Troubled Florida, divided America: will Donald Trump hold this vital swing state? – video
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