By Todd Lassa

Most arguments were familiar to anyone paying attention to the presidential race between former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald J. Trump, but the first debate of the election season quickly devolved into something never seen on non-fiction television. At one point, moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News called out President Trump’s campaign for his constant violation of an agreement to let each candidate speak for two minutes uninterrupted.

Trump’s apparent plan was to steamroll both Biden and moderator Wallace. Biden called Trump a “clown” even before the debate really fell apart. 

When later in the debate, Wallace and Biden both pressed Trump to denounce White supremacists, Trump told the Proud Boys to “Stand back and stand by,” but put all the blame on antifa for sparking what he described as violent protests in cities across the nation.

The incumbent said he fixed the Veterans Administration and described the Obama/Biden administration’s attempt to do so a failure. Biden used this as an opportunity to bring up Trump’s criticism of U.S. troops who have died for our country as “losers” and “suckers” (as described in a story in The Atlantic). He noted his late son, Beau’s service in the Army, which in turn gave Trump the opportunity to raise the issue of Biden’s other son, Hunter, repeating accusations largely discredited, that Hunter landed a lucrative job with Ukrainian energy company Burisma thanks to the former vice president’s influence.

Trump said Biden’s program to reduce carbon emissions by producing sustainable energy jobs is actually the Green New Deal, and that Biden is beholden to the Democratic party’s far-left. 

Biden slammed Trump’s “It is what it is” comment about U.S. coronavirus fatalities, now more than 200,000. “It is what it is because of who you are. You panicked,” Biden said. “I laid out back in March what we should be doing,” Biden continued, “then I laid out back in July what we should be doing . . . . Get out of your bunker – your sand trap.”

Trump repeated his assertion that his Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Robert Redfield made a mistake when he estimated it will be Summer 2021, instead of late this October, before the U.S. has an effective, widely distributed vaccine.

Touting what he considers his greatest achievement, Trump said, “We built the biggest economy in history. We closed it because of the China plague. The fact is, we closed it down and now we’re reopening it. He will shut it down again.” He repeated his charge that Democrats want to re-close the economy to assure Biden’s victory Nov. 3, and he insisted that unsolicited mail-in ballots are fraudulently affecting the election and called on his supporters to monitor polls. 

“If he loses, he’s going to go,” Biden responded. “He can’t stay in power.”

The next debate is October 7 at the University of Utah, between running mates Mike Pence and Kamala Harris.

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