Can we honestly call what we all watched on Sept. 29 a Presidential Debate? I do not even want to call it a dumpster fire because that would be an insult to actual dumpster fires.

It was really, really bad. It was barely calm and respectful for maybe 10 minutes. After that, all hell broke loose. Tuesday night’s debate was like if  Statler and Waldorf, the two old men from The Muppets, had a falling out and Kermit the Frog was trying to get them back together. To me, there was no “winner” of that debate. After seeing the way the two people who are our options for running the country in this debate, we are in bad shape.

Poor Chris Wallace. The guy had no control over what was happening. Also, he did not treat that debate so fairly either. Wallace would press President Donald Trump way harder on certain questions then he did former Vice President Joe Biden. Regardless of how candidates treat the debate, the moderator should treat both candidates equally and press both of them on the same questions. 

Also, the moderator should have the ability to cut off the mics after their time is up. It is really not that bad of an idea, especially after Tuesday night. Trump and Biden were not listening to Wallace when their time limit was up and would constantly interrupt and talk over each other. It was a mess. The one thing I really liked was when Biden would talk, he would look into the camera as if he was talking to the people. To me, that was showing Biden had some sort of compassion or empathy. Did he even talk about or say anything of note? No, but it was still the one small positive from this debate.

There was one moment where Trump royally messed up. Wallace asked him if he would denounce white supremacy Trump did not denounce white supremacy. Even worse, he told them to “standby”. What does that mean? Wallace passed Trump a lay-up of a question, and Trump took the ball and punted into the stands. Seriously, how does someone mess that up? It is beyond frustrating when politicians get asked softball questions and they give the worst answer possible. For Trump to stand on that stage and not denounce white supremacy is absolute insanity. Unless that is the vote he wants, which is a whole other problem, he should have said “Yes, I denounce white supremacy.” Five words. Simple.

Trump going after Biden’s sons was despicable. Biden did not take that for a second and as he should not but that was totally uncalled for. Trump’s comments about Biden’s son gave Biden a second burst of energy. A guy who is running for presidential re-election should not, under any circumstances, go after another man’s family. Even Trump supporters had to have thought Trump went too far, right? In the Presidential Debate, talking about your opponents family members should not get brought into the conversation.

A lot needs to change in order for the next two debates to be effective. Will things change? Probably not. Will they be effective? Probably not. The best thing everyone can do is vote.

Photo from Flickr