Last night, Americans gathered ’round the warm glow of their television screens to watch the first of three presidential debates between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. It was hosted by the Cleveland Clinic, which is appropriate given the age of the two candidates. If you felt your own health would have been endangered by sitting through it, rest easy: I’ve collected the best tweets of the night to sum it up for you.
Place your bets….#Debates2020 #PresidentialDebate2020 pic.twitter.com/y2AMAFzeoV
— Mickey White (@BiasedGirl) September 30, 2020
It begins. #Debates2020 pic.twitter.com/0FTg15jN3R
— Tim Stanley (@timothy_stanley) September 30, 2020
These candidates pic.twitter.com/USvHLFDj8H
— Wu-Tang Financial 🥑 (@Wu_Tang_Finance) September 30, 2020
Who’s ready for the debate? pic.twitter.com/MFHfU1pzme
— Kyle Sammin (@KyleSammin) September 30, 2020
(Yes, I put my own tweet in a best tweets article.)
The debate started past Biden’s bedtime (and many of ours)
hot debate take: 9pm is too late
— Grace Segers (@Grace_Segers) September 29, 2020
Biden just called a lid.
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) September 30, 2020
I hope Joe Biden has an earpiece tonight and some 15 year old kid hacks it and has him saying the lyrics to WAP.
— Adam Hunter (@AdamComedian) September 29, 2020
Disorder in the Court
It actually started kind of pleasantly.
Did…Biden just say “how’re you doing, man?”
— Karol Markowicz (@karol) September 30, 2020
Moderator Chris Wallace joined his fellow septuagenarians to ask the questions, beginning with the matter of the Supreme Court and Judge Amy Barrett’s nomination to it. Trump said he was correct in nominating Barrett and hoped she would be confirmed.
“Elections have consequences.” — Trump on right to fill SCOTUS seat
— Brad Polumbo 🇺🇸⚽️ 🏳️🌈 (@brad_polumbo) September 30, 2020
Biden disagreed, saying that the people should vote first.
“She seems like a very fine person,” Biden says of ACB.
One wonders where that sentiment was 33 years ago, during the nomination of Bob Bork.
— Josh Hammer (@josh_hammer) September 30, 2020
Biden doing the classic debate tactic of answering the question he wants rather than the one he got.
— ryan teague beckwith (@ryanbeckwith) September 30, 2020
Asked about court-packing, Biden again refused to answer, saying that whatever he said would become a talking point. Well, yes, candidates’ positions on proposed laws have a way of doing that!
Biden straight-up refuses to answer the packing the court question. That is absolutely hilarious. #Debates2020
— Joe Cunningham (@JoePCunningham) September 30, 2020
Biden’s Supreme Court answer is as weak as the signal in his secret earpiece
— Buck Sexton (@BuckSexton) September 30, 2020
Crossfire
Biden turned the Supreme Court question into one about Obamacare, but Trump interrupted him so often that the message became confused.
The Grumpy Old Men predictions were not wrong.
— Robert VerBruggen (@RAVerBruggen) September 30, 2020
This has already devolved into a garbled mess and we are less than 10 minutes in.
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) September 30, 2020
At first, Biden was cowed by it.
Biden’s response to Trump’s points will be to uncomfortably laugh- all night.
— Allie Beth Stuckey (@conservmillen) September 30, 2020
Trump is doing the Biden-against-Paul-Ryan thing of yelling down everything he says.
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) September 30, 2020
Eventually, he revised his 2012 VP debate and decided to interrupt constantly, too.
I like this new format of no moderating and two old men talking at once.
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) September 30, 2020
This is already off the rails. #Debates2020
— Carol Roth (@caroljsroth) September 30, 2020
In a shouting match, the President has no peer, but even some conservatives thought it was a bit much.
Trump needs to let Biden talk.
— Ed Whelan (@EdWhelanEPPC) September 30, 2020
Trump is filibustering his own debate
— Grant Addison (@jgrantaddison) September 30, 2020
man i can’t believe it has already devolved into closed captions “CROSS TALK” this soon into the debate.
— tsar becket adams (@BecketAdams) September 30, 2020
Seen every Presidential debate since 1976 and never seen the anger and interruptions of the first 15 minutes.
— David A. F. Sweet (@davidafsweet) September 30, 2020
Coronavirus and Vaccines
As the topic turned to the coronavirus, Biden tried to paint Trump as inept in leading the national response.
Smart of Biden to hit Trump for not being tough enough on China. Of course, Biden’s “plan” on COVID is no more real than Trump’s health care plan.
— Jeremy Senderowicz (@jsende) September 30, 2020
While Trump noted that Biden criticized everything he did do.
Biden is wrong, the Trump administration did press the Chinese government to allow U.S. CDC representatives into Wuhan. Beijing refused.
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) September 30, 2020
Is Biden really complaining about a shutdown? The guy who said he’d shut down again if the “science” says so? #Debates2020
— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) September 30, 2020
Wallace questioned Biden on the doubts his running mate, Kamala Harris, had cast on the vaccine. Biden said he trusted the scientists but also thought they wouldn’t be allowed to tell the truth. Just asking questions!
so, biden thinks trump personally is making the vaccine?
— tsar becket adams (@BecketAdams) September 30, 2020
Oh no, Joe. Don’t go full anti-vaxx. Never go full anti-vaxx.
— Justin Lee (@justindeanlee) September 30, 2020
The constant interrupting continued.
“Hectoring” is a great word we don’t use much anymore.
— Martin Kaste (@MartinKaste) September 30, 2020
Trump said he liked masks just fine, kinda.
Wallace: about masks.
Trump: I wear it when needed. Then makes fun of Biden’s mask.
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) September 30, 2020
Biden said his rallies were small because of the virus. Trump suggested otherwise.
WALLACE: ” Vice President Biden, you are holding much smaller events…”
TRUMP: “Because nobody would show up” pic.twitter.com/fDSrktRoKW
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) September 30, 2020
Biden tried to blame Trump for shutting down the economy, having just a few minutes ago blamed him for not acting quickly enough.
Biden saying Trump is the one who demanded shutdowns, which is some serious revisionist history.
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) September 30, 2020
Trump talked about the mental cost of the lockdowns—a serious point in what was becoming an unserious night.
Yes! Trump mentioning how the economic shut down is hurting people’s mental health. Let’s talk about it. #2020debates
— Julie Borowski (@JulieBorowski) September 30, 2020
But by now, the viewers at home were starting to feel their own mental health degrading.
Somewhere, a man just woke up from a coma, turned on the TV, saw this, and decided to go back into a coma.
— ryan teague beckwith (@ryanbeckwith) September 30, 2020
Just settle this with arm-wrestling and we can all go to bed.
— Kyle Smith (@rkylesmith) September 30, 2020
The Taxman
The subject of taxes came up, both Trump’s and everyone else’s.
TRUMP: “I don’t want to pay tax.”
— Kenneth P. Vogel (@kenvogel) September 30, 2020
we can see the tax returns at the end of infrastructure week please be patient
— Adam Steinbaugh (@adamsteinbaugh) September 30, 2020
Biden started speaking Arabic?
Biden just said “Inshallah” @SirajAHashmi’s moment has arrived
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) September 30, 2020
Joe Biden: “inshallah”
habibis, it’s happening…
— Siraj Hashmi (@SirajAHashmi) September 30, 2020
That’s going to get worked into a few conspiracy theories.
Meanwhile, Biden tried to say that Trump was not tough on China, which led Trump to bring up the Chinese investments of Biden’s ne’er-do’well son, Hunter.
Trump to Biden: “China ate your lunch Joe, and maybe its because your son took billions of dollars in loans from them”
— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) September 30, 2020
On Russia, the refrain was the same.
Trump brings up Hunter Biden getting 3.5M from a Moscow oligarch and also profiting off of China. Asks what Hunter did to earn this. This is based on official Treasury documents. Biden claims that it’s not true and says “My son did nothing wrong” at Burisma.
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) September 30, 2020
Intersectional Something Or Other
Wallace moved on to the race question.
oh good it’s the race question
— Seth Mandel (@SethAMandel) September 30, 2020
If you came across two men talking to each other like this in a park, how insane would you be to decide that you should introduce the topic of race?
— ryan teague beckwith (@ryanbeckwith) September 30, 2020
It devolved quickly into a law-and-order question.
Unsolicited opinion from a black man: everything that’s wrong with race in America is three white men starting a conversation “about race” and having it immediately degenerate into an argument about “law and order.”
— Elliot Williams (@elliotcwilliams) September 30, 2020
Biden hit some buzzwords.
Biden: my campaign is about equity and equality and equivalence and equanimity and equestrians and Equal sugar substitute
— Razor (@hale_razor) September 30, 2020
And dredged up an old slander.
That’s very fine people line by Biden is just a flat out lie. And he says it’s why he got in the race. Chris Wallace knows that. C’mon man…
— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) September 30, 2020
Biden just repeated the totally debunked lie that Trump said there were “fine people on both sides” in the Charlottesville protest.
— John Daniel Davidson (@johnddavidson) September 30, 2020
While Trump said he was tough on crime. But also let people out of jail?
Trump. “I’m letting people out of jail!”
Also: “Joe Biden will let everyone out of jail!”
And law and order.
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) September 30, 2020
Biden just went straight for the name-calling
Biden, on Trump, after a discussion of critical race theory: “He’s the racist.”
— Johnny Verhovek (@JTHVerhovek) September 30, 2020
Asked about ANTIFA, Biden slithered away from the question
“Antifa is an idea not an organization” by Biden is atrocious.
— Karol Markowicz (@karol) September 30, 2020
Trump was likewise less than forceful against the Proud Boys.
Wallace asks Trump to condemn white supremacist groups, Proud Boys. Trump volunteers to condemn, but refuses to concede premise that they’re a major source of the street violence. Biden insists that Antifa doesn’t exist, it’s just an idea.
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) September 30, 2020
In fact, the disorder in the streets seemed to have been replicated on the stage.
Shouldn’t the National Guard be called out to quell this?
— Jack Shafer (@jackshafer) September 30, 2020
Taking Away Our Cows
We moved on then to the candidates yelling about the environment, an issue that two percent of people find to be the most important in their lives.
WHY ARE WE STILL TALKING SBOUT CLIMATE CHANGE NOBODY CARES
— Hans Fiene (@HansFiene) September 30, 2020
The discussion was somewhat calmer now, either because the issue was less important to the candidates or because they were getting tired. Trump said the Green New Deal would bankrupt us. Biden said he wasn’t for it, but also spent a lot of time defending it.
“The Green New Deal will pay for itself as we move forward”
— Patrick Ruffini (@PatrickRuffini) September 30, 2020
Biden: The Green New Deal will pay for itself
Moderator: You support the Green New Deal?
Biden: No
😂😂 #Debates2020
— Latinos for Liberty (@Latinos4Lib) September 30, 2020
If this debate was meant to convince anyone, it wasn’t working.
This debate has actually convinced some undecided voters to not vote at all.
I’ve never seen a debate cause this reaction. #Debates2020
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) September 30, 2020
No one came out of it smelling like a rose.
nixon looked a little sweaty at one debate and our parents talked about that for decades
— Steadman™ (@AsteadWesley) September 30, 2020
The liquor industry. https://t.co/dse83sx9HP
— Cam Edwards (@CamEdwards) September 30, 2020
In the end, maybe call it a draw?
I literally have no idea who won this debate. I just know we all lost.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) September 30, 2020
