Biden’s disastrous evening: all the missteps in the latest debate and the desperate “damage control” of the leftist media
If you didn't manage to stay up late at night to follow the second and final presidential debate, or maybe you haven't really thought about it, to get an idea of how it went, we suggest you start from the titles of these hours of the liberal media. This time, they don't tell you right away that Biden won and this is already an indicator that something must not have gone right. CNN , for example, notes that "President Trump listened to the prayers of his advisors, offering a much more contained performance, even though he failed to get the game-changing he needed to drastically alter the trajectory of the race" . This is the spin that you will more or less find in all liberal media. And confirming all his talent, it is the same spin that just a few minutes after the conclusion of the debate spread Filippo Sensi, the former spin doctor of Mattero Renzi, on Twitter .
Trump's performance was more composed and disciplined, to remind you of how it went wrong in the first debate, but there is no reason – they explain – to think that he has hit the clear victory he needed. So, did Trump win? No, because for the avoidance of doubt, the CNN instant poll still gives Biden the winner, although, to their goodness, with a lower margin than the previous time: 53 against 39 percent. The exact same pattern of post-debate polls four years ago between Hillary and Trump.
It is called damage control , because leaving aside the game of those who have won or lost (it is impossible to say today if and how much the debate will affect those who have not yet voted), but Biden went really badly, worse than the last time, even when it didn't he had shone and the left-wing media had had to cling to the fact that Trump, attacked from two fronts, had often interrupted him. Very rude!
What could have been worse last night? Well, sure, Biden could pass out live and he didn't pass out. He just checked on his wristwatch how long he was missing at the end of the debate, as Bush Sr. did against Clinton in 1992.
The headlines in our liberal media are even more comical: "Biden attacks Trump on Covid, he responds with insinuations about Ukraine" ( Huffington Post ). The "innuendo" is the trafficking with companies of rival foreign powers that emerge from the emails of his son Biden. “A good debate despite Trump's usual lies” ( Linkiesta ). “A normal debate” ( Il Foglio ). “The chaos of the first televised confrontation was not repeated. But neither Trump nor Biden seemed prepared for a calm confrontation ”( Formiche.net ).
Another aspect that you will see a lot emphasized is the excellent performance of the "moderator", Kristen Welker of Nbc . They will say that she won the debate. In fact, she was much less biased than her colleagues, but also helped by the new rules, but she certainly didn't give up on helping Biden in the most difficult moments. He often tried to interrupt Trump when he saw that he was about to sink the blow on his opponent: "President we must move on to the next question", "we have many issues still to be addressed", and so on … In a rush to move on to the next topic to address, then, to Biden: "Do you want to answer, do you want to add something?". The paradox is that he sometimes asked Biden to respond to something that Trump didn't even have time to finish saying because he was interrupted.
And it is no coincidence that a small part of the time was reserved by the organizing committee for foreign policy, traditionally the main theme of the third presidential debate. We should have talked about the successes of the Trump administration: no new war, the historic Abrahamic Agreements between some Arab countries and Israel, the rebalancing of military spending by NATO allies, the killing of Soleimani. And, on the contrary, the advance of Russia and China in the Obama era and the over one hundred billion dollars in cash paid to the Iranian regime.
Nor was there clearly talk of Amy Coney Barrett's appointment to the Supreme Court, after polls showed that a majority of Americans are in favor of confirmation, while Biden branded it as an illegitimate act.
But let's see what the salient points were in our opinion.
Basically, Trump has managed to hit three goals. First, he managed to reappear, as he did four years ago, almost as a challenger of the "system", effectively recalling, numerous times, that Biden was in the buildings of Washington for 47 years, of which 8 in the vice presidency with Obama: "Why not did you do it in the eight years you were vice president? ”, he repeatedly retorted to his opponent when he tried to present his proposals, “ It's all talk, no action with these politicians ” . Indeed, it sounds strange that Biden could speak with any credibility of "institutional racism" in America, having been a non-stop senator since 1973 (!) And the deputy of a black president! Only with the complicit media can such an argument be supported with impunity.
The Democratic candidate was forced to acknowledge that he and former President Barack Obama "made a mistake" by failing to introduce comprehensive immigration reform during their administration. And to a specific question about the separation of illegal immigrant families at the border, Trump was able to press him: "Who built the cages, Joe?" .
Second, the president managed to get Biden to say at least three blatant falsehoods, easily verifiable even by voters. Although obviously not included among the questions of the "moderator", Trump has successfully managed to introduce in the debate the issue of the Biden family's business with companies of rival foreign powers, and in particular an agreement with one of the major Chinese energy companies, and stay on the subject for a reasonable time. Joe Biden, mentioned as “the Big Guy” in his son Hunter's email exchanges, would be offered a 10 percent stake in the partnership between the Chinese company CEFC and the Biden family. The former vice president defended himself by saying that according to 50 intelligence officials (former officials, anonymous, cited by the New York Times ) it is "Russian disinformation". Too bad that the suspicion has already been denied by the director of National Intelligence, Ratcliffe, but above all, that everything is black and white in the emails of his son Hunter, authentic, no one doubts it, extracted from his laptops . Dance first.
The New York Post investigation – censored by Twitter and Facebook , let's remember – is very solid and eventually even the mainstream media were forced to take it into consideration. What emerges from the emails is that Hunter Biden was negotiating multi-million dollar deals and payouts for himself and his family by spending his father's name, essentially "selling" direct access to the White House to his associates in exchange for millions of dollars. A practice similar to that of the Clinton Foundation .
Trump then managed to force Biden to contradict himself on fracking (a very sensitive issue in a key state like Pennsylvania). Although the presenter refused to ask the question, which was by no means off topic talking about energy and climate change , pressed by the president, Biden replied: “I. have. never. said. I. opposed. fracking " .
Trump: "You said it on tape!"
Biden: "Show the tape!"
Too bad that several videos have been circulating on the net in which he states the opposite for months.
Again, in a passage not taken up again, the former vice president said that "no one has lost their health coverage under Obamacare ". A colossal dance , millions of people have lost it as also recognized, among other fact-checkers , by Politifact .
Third, the real final slip, when to Trump's question "Would you close down the oil industry?", Biden admitted "Yes, I would transition from the oil industry" , stunned even the moderator: "But why never?".
“It's a big statement, Joe,” Trump quickly pointed out.
Biden: “It's a big statement because the oil industry pollutes significantly… It has to be replaced by renewable energy over time”.
Trump: “Will you remember that Texas? Will you remember that, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma? ".
Even against the attacks for the management of the Covid emergency, the issue on which he was most vulnerable, Trump defended himself well, explaining that we cannot remain closed forever: “We must open up our country. I have already said, the cure cannot be worse than the problem ”; “As a nation we can lock ourselves in the basement like Joe Biden does. He is good at it, evidently he will have made money somewhere… ".
In short, summarizing Biden's positions that emerged yesterday evening: it would close the entire country unless it can be reopened safely (without mentioning a different measure than those already in place, except for Plexiglass dividers in restaurants); right in the middle of the pandemic recession it would raise taxes on all or almost all income brackets and raise the base wage nationwide; the US fossil energy industry would end.
We do not know how many votes this debate has managed to shift, considering that 49 million Americans have already voted (breaking the record of the last elections 12 days early) and that it may be too short for Biden's disastrous performance to be "digested. ”By the few still undecided voters. As Andrew McCarthy rightly observed, “The problem with debates is that you have to build on them. Romney wiped out Obama in the first debate, but his team seemed to think they had won the election that night, when they just got him into the game. Biden has given Trump a lot to work on tonight, but Trump has to work on it. Don't strut. Build!"
And quickly, we add.
The post Biden's disastrous evening: all the missteps in the latest debate and the desperate “damage control” of the left-wing media appeared first on Atlantico Quotidiano .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL http://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/la-disastrosa-serata-di-biden-tutti-i-passi-falsi-nellultimo-dibattito-e-il-disperato-damage-control-dei-media-di-sinistra/ on Fri, 23 Oct 2020 09:45:13 +0000.