Accusations, interruptions
President Donald Trump (left) and former Vice-President Joe Biden squared off in an angry debate Tuesday night, where Biden called the sitting incumbent "the worst President America has ever had." The evening was fueled by interruptions and accusations, leaving locals and viewers nationwide stunned. (Image courtesy of Idaho Public Television)
For 90 minutes Tuesday evening, residents across North Idaho joined Americans across the country to watch President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden spar on a debate stage in Cleveland, Ohio.
The first of three scheduled debates between the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates featured topics ranging from the recent Supreme Court vacancy after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the future of an America in the grips of COVID. But policy discussions went out the window in favor of accusations and interruptions.
The antics did not go unnoticed among the Kootenai County residents interviewed for this story.
“I like football,” Sarah Andrews of Coeur d’Alene said after the debates. “But I can lose a game and walk away and go home, and nothing’s changed in my life. But when you watch this, you know something’s going to change. This is something that is going to affect my life, and — for people that I love — their lives, as well.”
Throughout the evening, Trump and Biden exchanged personal attacks, insults and accusations. When asked what issues at the heart of locals’ voting consciences were brought up, few could provide answers.
“Virtually nothing discussed in this evening’s debate was substantive,” said Clark Albritton, a self-described staunch Trump supporter from Coeur d’Alene, after the debate. “If I had to pick, I would say moving away from the hysterical overreactions to COVID – and opening up the country – allowing people to self-protect as a primary strategy.”
Going into the night, some described the burden to fall on Trump to win the debate. Jason Collins of Rathdrum — who called himself generally Republican-leaning, depending on the policy — compared the president’s role during the debates to a casino floor in Las Vegas, where the odds are perpetually stacked in the house’s favor.
“It's a little like playing blackjack,” Collins said. “Donald Trump doesn't have to win. He needs to let Joe Biden lose.”
Collins admonished Trump’s strategy of continually interrupting Biden with remark after remark without letting his verbal punches land.
“There’s a (maxim) in sales,” Collins pointed out, “where you can frame a conversation with a customer to a place where they have no other position but to agree, where the next person to say something loses. I feel like Trump kept pushing, but he didn’t give Biden that moment to lose. I was shouting at the TV, ‘He just needs to stop talking.’”
Collins wasn’t alone. At one point Tuesday night, amid a stream of steady interruptions on the part of the president, Biden told Trump to “shut up,” marking another first in American televised debates.
Moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News repeatedly warned Trump to cease and desist with the interruptions, to little success. The local majority consensus agreed Wallace could not consistently keep control of the candidates, and that Trump’s and Biden’s bickering led to a lesser American experience.
“This was disappointing,” Andrews said, “and the moderator in the very beginning needed to be able to go, ‘Ahem, stop.’ Eventually he did, but not in the beginning. Trump trumped. (Biden telling Trump to shut up) was well-deserved, but I think he shouldn’t have had to say that. The moderator should have said that.”
Others said Wallace’s questioning of Trump over the president’s recently-revealed tax liability — $750 over the course of two years, according to a Sunday story in the New York Times — crossed a line, as well.
“It is very surreal that the moderator is asking Trump about his illegally leaked tax returns, which in itself may be a violation of law,” posited Albritton, “while alleging nothing improper or illegal, all the while ignoring Joe Biden on video bragging about extorting the Ukraine government for U.S. aid. We are living in a bizarre time.”
Many locals and national media pundits alike agreed that Trump’s tactics of talking over both Biden and Wallace didn’t play in a debate that nobody won.
“Trump was a schoolyard bully that trended toward insults and attempting to exacerbate Biden,” said James Stovern, an independent in Hayden. “Biden had troubles making a clear point and, in my heart of hearts, I lacked trust in what he was saying … I'm wondering if Biden will be able to hang with Trump, and I'm wondering if Trump has fully given into bullying as a way to win.
"While the moderator had to fight both candidates, it was way disproportionate to having to scold Trump like he was the naughty kid in class. It made Trump seem childish.”
When asked about the high point of the evening or encouraging moments, few came up with tangible answers.
“Nothing comes to mind,” Albritton said.
When asked who won the debate, the answers were less encouraging.
“I was disappointed by both of them,” Jessica Cook Stephens of Coeur d’Alene admitted. “Neither of them represent the American people. It was disheartening, it was infuriating at some points and other times I just shook my head in sheer astonishment at the lack of compassion, common sense (and the) childish things said.”
Collins, after some thought and channel-surfing, came up with a winner.
“People watching Major League Baseball,” he said.