Thread by @lsanger

Live tweeting the debate.

Nice, turning off mics when not your time to answer!

Covid “spikes” here and there, all gone.

Trump’s confidence (swagger) is one of the main things that makes him popular.

Strong first answer.

Biden: 220K dead; blames Trump. 1000 deaths per day.

I don’t believe it.

Just wearing masks would save 100K lives? That’s BS of course.

“I will make sure we have a plan.”

Trump: new vaccine coming in “weeks.” 100M vials.

Says his timeline is more accurate than...others.

Biden: vaccine needs to be transparent. We’re going into a “dark winter.” Accuses Trump of having no plan.

Then more boring back-and-forth.

Disagreement: will it be over soon?

This is a better debate so far. I like the new rules.

Trump appeals to optimism. Wants life to go back to normal. Biden appeals to pessimism. Didn’t want life to go back to normal.

Stark difference.

Biden: were about to lose another 200K people. He’s not serious!

Trump: I closed the border earlier. Biden didn’t want me to.

Concern over the impact of closing the country.

Biden: Trump wasn’t strict enough.

Trump: “All he talks about is shutdowns.” And the states that do shut down are “dying.”

Boston shut schools. Good?

T: No. open them. We can’t shut down the country. Suicide, alcohol. “The cure can’t be worse than the problem.”

B: blah blah

T: NYC is a ghost town. “You can’t do that to people!”

B: Spikes are everywhere in red states that are more open.

T very strong on opening the country. Awesome.

So far he’s winning IMO.

T: Fauci is a good man but contradicted himself.

B: Accuses Trump of going to Wall Street...

T: You take money from WS.

Meh. But solid on T’s part.

How to deal with election interference.

B: Those who interfere with the election. T hasn’t said anything to Putin.l about Russia’s influence. Rudy is being fed info that isn’t true by Russia! Why isn’t T taking on Putin.

Ugh what a jerk.

T: Biden got 3.5M from Russia, from the mayor’s wife. Nobody’s tougher than me on Russia.

Shots fired!

B: Trump got money from those places!

T: No, Joe got money from China, Russia, and Ukraine. Also, I prepaid my taxes. That's why I seemed only to pay $750 in taxes.

B: "Just show us. You're not paying your taxes."

This is not the slightest bit persuasive.

T: I was put through a witch hunt for three years. Mueller spent $48M investigating me. Including taxes. Nothing found. I could get more on you just by spending $1M investigating. BOOM.

B: NOTHING was unethical about the relationships I had with other countries. ...

B: People will vouch for me. I did everything impeccably. My son never made money from China, neither did I; only Trump did.

T: Son never had a job. As soon as B became VP, they paid the son $3M up front and $380K/month.

Trump is on a roll here.

T: I have many bank accounts all over the place. It doesn't matter where it is. Closed before becoming President.

Biden's response regarding the accusations is weak. He simply denies. No substance. No nothing.

This is a much better and more substantive debate because of the debate rules.

B: We need to get together with our friends to make deals with China. No unilateral deals with China.

T: 1... 2: $10M for introductions... Cut off by the moderator.

T: I charged China because they were robbing farmers and steel industry.

B: He's talking malarkey about my family. He's actually hurting your family. Are we going to be able to pay the mortgage? Like the people I grew up with in Scranton.

T: Such a nonresponse.

I like this moderator. She's biased but at least she's useful.

T: We didn't get in a war with North Korea. We easily could have been.

Joe, why do you think you'd be able to rein in the problems with NK?
B: I went to China and made sure we can control NK...through the Chinese?

B: NK missiles can now reach U.S. territory. Would negotiate directly with NK.

T: We have a peaceful and good relationship with NK.

B: It's like having a "good relationship" with Hitler.

T: NK was a mess, and they left me with a mess.

Hmm. T could have made case better.

How to make sure people get to keep their insurance if Obamacare is removed?

T: Individual mandate is over. It's in court now. Premiums are down. We want to terminate Obamacare, if possible. Wants to have much better health care plan. Always cover preexisting conditions.

T: Some people love their insurance and health care. Joe would terminate their plans.

What's your plan?
B: Obamacare with a public option? "Bidencare." Reduce drug prices, allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. (Oh joy. That'll work.) And nobody will lose their insurance?

B: T can't protect pre-existing conditions. How would he do so? 10M people have lost their private insurance. What are the Covid patients going to do?

What do you say to the suggestion that your plan brings closer to a socialist system?
B: Ridiculous. It's just another option.

Me: THAT of course is ridiculous. You have two choices: pay for expensive private insurance, or get "free" subsidized government insurance. Which are you going to get?

T: You're going to have socialized medicine for sure.

B: People deserve to have affordable health care.

B: It's going to cost money to do this. T hasn't done anything on health care.

T: A public option *is* socialized medicine. It will destroy Medicare and Social Security.

B: Actuary behind Medicare said blah blah blah. Come on.

T: Stock market will crash if he's elected.

B: The people in Scranton don't care about the stock market. The stock market is his only measure.

T: 401Ks...he doesn't come from Scranton.

Washington is fighting over a relief bill, people are desperate.

T: Nancy Pelosi won't approve anything. She thinks it helps her politically.

B: He doesn't have Republican votes.

Why haven't you pushed the Dems to accept a deal?
B: I have. The deal is out there! The Heros Act.

T: The bill was a bad bailout of Democrat cities, to fat cats and illegal immigrants. Everyone will start pouring in to get that money.

B: I don't see red states and blue states. I see united states. (Yawn. He's such an idiot.)

Minimum wage. Is this the right time to ask business owners to raise it.
B: Yes, but we need to bail them out, too. We need to help them deal with Covid. "They need the help."

Sure sure, Joe, the government

T: Raising the minimum wage isn't going to help those businesses.

T: States are different. When you raise min wage, people get fired.

Moderator interrupts T a lot. 🙄

B: First responders allowed us to make it. They need $15 minimum wage. (What, THEY are paid less than that?)

The U.S. can't locate the parents of 4,000 kids. What happens?
T: They were brought in by "coyotes" and "bad people." They built cages; I didn't. A lot of these kids come through cartels and gangs. Hard to deal with.

B: 500+ kids came with parents; they were separated.

B: This makes us a laughingstock.

T: "They did it. We changed the policy."

B: Kids were separated from their parents. They have nowhere to go. It's criminal!

T: They are well taken care of. Who built the cages?

Fair question

Record deportations under Obama. How will you handle the "undocumented" people?
B: Took too long to work out problems. I'll be President. blah blah blah

T: He had 8 years as VP. They did nothing but build cages.

B: You need to make your case to come to the country...

T: Catch and release is a disaster. They don't come back for their court appearance. Only those with the lowest IQ come back.

B: What he's saying is simply not true.

T: Check it out, Joe.

Race in America. "The Talk." They might be targeted by the police because skin color.

How would you speak to Americans on this?
B: My dau is a social worker in a black area. Different advice is given to black kids. Institutional racism is a thing in America. This is the first president who is pushing us back toward inequality.

Ugh, he's so weak.

T: Biden called blacks superpredators; the 1994 crime bill was a disaster, Biden was behind it. With the possible exception of Abe Lincoln, no one has done for the black community what I've done. I had to twist many arms. Criminal justice reform. Prison reform. Oppty zones.

B: I never ever said...what he accused me of saying. (lol) Trump was talking about marauding gangs. The Central Park 5 pushed to get the death penalty; they weren't guilty. He commuted 20 sentences. We commuted 1000 sentences. $100B to states to get rid of minimum mandatories.

T: Why didn't he do that four years ago. You were there a short time ago. You did nothing. I *ran* because of you.

B: You know my character. You know his character. Look at us closely.

T: If this is true about Russia, China, Ukraine, Iraq...this makes you a corrupt politician.

B: There are 50 former national intelligence officers who say this is a Russian plan. A bunch of...

T: It's "Russia, Russia, Russia" again? You must be kidding.

T: "Pigs in a blanket, fry 'em like bacon." That was my first glimpse of BLM. I am the least racist person in this room. I don't know what to say. I took care of black colleges. People can say anything. It makes me sad.

B: "Abe Lincoln here is the most racist Prez in modern history." He has massive dog whistles.

T: I didn't say I was Abe Lincoln. I said...

LOL Biden is weak on this one, too. Really.

B: In the 80s we passed a bill on drugs. It was a mistake; especially the part about cocaine. We shouldn't send anyone to jail for pure drug offense. (Wow. This needs argument. This isn't obvious at all.)

T: It's all talk, no action with these politicians. Why didn't you do it?

I like this moderator. Polite but firm, and the gents listen to her.

T: We have the trillion trees program. I want the cleanest water and air. We have the lowest carbon emission numbers we've had in 35 years, under this administration. Look at China, Russia, India: filthy air and high emissions. B. put us in the climate accord; that was unfair.

B: Climate change, global warming, existential threat. We have little time. Point of no return in next 8-10 years! THE SKY IS FALLING!!!111!!1!!ONE!!11! Millions of new good-paying government jobs so we can have electric cars and retrofit them so they don't leak so much energy!

T: AOC+3 developed the Green New Deal. They know nothing. We had the best year in our country. We don't want to kill this engine of prosperity. This wasn't done by politicians. They want to spend a $100 trillion and make buildings with little windows.

B: I don't know where he comes up with these numbers. $100T? Give me a break. (Joe wins this one.) The solar and wind energy industry are doing well and we need to grow them.

T: We are energy independent for the first time. I know more about wind than you do. (LOL)

T: Solar isn't powerful enough yet.

B: False

T: You want to kill the economy & to ban fracking!

B: I do not want to ban fracking. We need other industries to get to zero emissions. We want to capture emissions. We need to transition. (Joe's pretty tongue-tied. Getting tired?)

Blacks and hispanics are more likely to live near refineries and chemicals. Aren't they hurt by your policies?

T: Those families are better off. They're making more money now. Gas is cheap.

B: People who live near plants need to be taken care of. Story about gas on windshield.

B's answer here was admittedly cogent and interesting, and will appeal to Dems here, but not intellectually persuasive. Need to move toward net zero emissions.

T: Will he get China to do it?

B: No, we'll rejoin the Paris Accord.

What do you say who didn't vote for you now that you've been elected?
T: Before CV, we had the best black, hispanicunemployment numbers in history. They wanted to get together. Success will bring us together. I want to cut taxes. He wants to raise them. We'll have a depression.

B: I'm president of all of you. We'll choose science over fiction. Hope over fear. Enormous opportunities to make things better. (You know what he means. Let's move on Agenda 2030!) What's on the ballot is the character of the country. Respect, dignity, etc.

Ugh.

And that's it.

Trump won hands down, easily.

But the moderator was the star of the show.

But I have to say: she interrupted Trump quite a bit. She was biased. But she was the least unfair of all the moderators so far, and she kept the debate interesting.