Donald Trump and Joe Biden met last night in Nashville the final debate of the 2020 campaign. It was a tough timeslot, up against a Thursday Night Football game between two teams with a combined record of 2-9-1. If you couldn’t turn away from that riveting NFC East action, don’t worry: your pals at The Federalist gathered the best tweets of the night.
Get Busy Living Or Get Busy Dying
After the raucous first debate and the canceled second one, there was speculation that this one would go off the rails early.
I hope Trump rages so hard he won’t need the mic
— Kassy Dillon (@KassyDillon) October 23, 2020
Instead, things were actually pretty calm.
Trump sounds like he practiced.
— Andrew Yang🧢🇺🇸 (@AndrewYang) October 23, 2020
30 seconds in, and it’s obvious Trump is READY.
— Kylee Zempel (@kyleezempel) October 23, 2020
Trump taking notes as Biden speaks instead of interrupting
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) October 23, 2020
trump’s debate notes pic.twitter.com/7Lc5lQjCMn
— nat 🎡 (@luxbyuns) October 23, 2020
We started out with the same thing we always do in 2020: talking about the coronavirus.
Trump said he had a plan and the vaccines were around the corner.
Trump on COVID “I can tell you from personal experience” re what some say is a cure. Lemonade out of lemons!
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) October 23, 2020
Biden said Trump is personally responsible for every death, but that he’ll fix it.
Joe Biden asserts that if he is elected, he’ll push to make all Americans “wears masks all the time.” Yikes.#Debates2020
— Jeff Jacoby (@Jeff_Jacoby) October 23, 2020
It got kind of dark.
Biden predicts a “dark winter” of Covid. Trump says it won’t be.
— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) October 23, 2020
Winter is coming. pic.twitter.com/qDqwcX1ecF
— Katya Sedgwick (@KatyaSedgwick) October 23, 2020
The contrast was noticeable.
Biden: “We’re about to go into a dark winter.”
Trump: “We’re opening up our country.”— Amie Parnes (@amieparnes) October 23, 2020
Biden: pic.twitter.com/Ud65khKkzJ
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) October 23, 2020
Joe Biden is now implying that President Trump barred visitors from China too late. Trump says, “Joe has a thing about living in a basement.” I bet there will still be lots of memorable moments even if there aren’t interruptions.
— Kelly Jane Torrance (@KJTorrance) October 23, 2020
Trump: “Learn to live.”
Biden: “Learn to die.”
That’s the choice, nicely distilled by Joe Biden.
I choose to learn to live. What about you?
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) October 23, 2020
But they actually let each other speak.
10 minutes without interruption!!! pic.twitter.com/PUPMyv058R
— Evan Siegfried (@evansiegfried) October 23, 2020
Trump is way more disciplined than I think I’ve ever seen him and I am not sure I am comfortable with it. #Debates2020
— Joe Cunningham (@JoePCunningham) October 23, 2020
Did Trump just say “thank you, I appreciate that” to the moderator?!
— Drew ‘Full, Fair and Contextual’ Holden (@DrewHolden360) October 23, 2020
Where has this guy been for the last 4 years? He’s even responding to attacks that would usually set him off calmly. it’s crazy he couldn’t do this before.
— (((AG))) (@AGHamilton29) October 23, 2020
The China Trade
There was a bit of bickering as the conversation moved to foreign policy, but moderator Kristen Welker kept it moving.
Welker: hey, grandpas, can we talk about foreign policy?
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) October 23, 2020
They both tried to sound tough on everyone.
Biden suggests Trump should be “more outspoken with the Iranians.” The man droned General Soleimani, which Biden was against.
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) October 23, 2020
Sounds empty when Biden threatens Iran after Biden sent Iran pallets of cash.🤷♀️
— Liz Wheeler (@Liz_Wheeler) October 23, 2020
Biden still running with the “bounties in Afghanistan” story which has fewer on-the-record sources than the Hunter Biden story.
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) October 23, 2020
Inexplicably, Biden brought up the story about his son’s missing laptop.
JOE BIDEN BROUGHT UP THE STORY FROM GIULIANI
— Heather Champion ™️ (@winningatmylife) October 23, 2020
Biden says Rudy Giuliani is “being used as a Russian pawn.”
— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) October 23, 2020
Trump brings up the Hunter Biden emails. Now the media will HAVE to cover the issue.
— Jeff Jacoby (@Jeff_Jacoby) October 23, 2020
Biden will not even concede that Hunter’s foreign business dealings do not even rise to the level of “unethical”
— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) October 23, 2020
Joe Biden did not deny the contents of the emails, did not deny that he was “the big guy,” did not address the fact that his family made money from our adversaries which at the minimum creates the appearance of corruption and opens Joe Biden up to compromise. #Debates2020
— Benjamin Weingarten (@bhweingarten) October 23, 2020
Biden: “My son has not made money… from China.” Um, Hunter admitted to taking a 2.8-carat diamond from a Chinese executive: https://t.co/ePIL3FW031
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) October 23, 2020
Biden responded to the accusations (which he raised) by noting Trump’s years-long refusal to release his tax returns. Trump gave the usual run-around.
Trump has spent *5 years* saying he will release his tax returns soon… that day is never coming.
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) October 23, 2020
They talked more about Red China.
Biden: “What I would do is make China play by the rules.” Sure, but HOW?
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) October 23, 2020
Biden can’t remember Kim Jung Un’s name.
— Courtney Shadegg (@CShadegg) October 23, 2020
He tried to pull the usual “I know regular people” lines that politicians love.
Trump openly mocks Biden for doing the “typical politician” thing of trying to change the subject from his family to the average kitchen-table family. This is Trump at, simultaneously, his best & worst, breaking the fourth wall on political conventions like the Kool-Aid man.
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) October 23, 2020
Trump’s kinda got Biden on the pre-packaged middle class family line. #Debates2020
— Krystal Ball (@krystalball) October 23, 2020
Trump said it’s good to have good relations with other world leaders. Biden’s counterpoint: Hitler.
Trump: “Having a good relationship with leaders of other countries is a good thing.”
Biden responded by saying something super dumb about Hitler.— Robby Soave (@robbysoave) October 23, 2020
Biden employs Godwin’s Law. It’s like Trump caught the golden snitch. Debate over.
— Larry O’Connor (@LarryOConnor) October 23, 2020
If You Like Your Insurance, You Can Keep Your Insurance
We moved on to healthcare, where Biden not only promised that no one would lose their insurance under his plam, but also claimed no one lost it under Obamacare.
Uh, Joe; I lost my healthcare under Obamacare
— Mark Noonan (@Mark_E_Noonan) October 23, 2020
Joe Biden is lying. My family is one of millions that lost our health insurance because of Obamacare.
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) October 23, 2020
He promised everything good about Obamacare, but none of the bad.
It’s Obamacare, but it’s not Obamacare.
Got it.
— Kai Ryssdal (@kairyssdal) October 23, 2020
It had a wildly original title.
“Bidencare”
Yep, run with that, Joe.
— Amy 🐘🦙 (@WaltzingMtilda) October 23, 2020
Do I have to let him sniff me if I get Biden Care?
— Bridget Phetasy (@BridgetPhetasy) October 23, 2020
Biden Care is an assisted living community
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) October 23, 2020
Biden’s plans for the rest of the economy were also announced.
Joe Biden is basically saying the federal government should bail out every entity in the United States. No matter how poorly run.
— Kyle Smith (@rkylesmith) October 23, 2020
Joe thinks a minimum wage hike *helps* small business?
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) October 23, 2020
Watching Biden in this debate reminds me of watching England in the World Cup. It’s absolute agony.
— Andrew Sullivan (@sullydish) October 23, 2020
Trump touted his own record and decried socialism.
— Neoliberal 🌐 (@ne0liberal) October 23, 2020
With a quick detour into whether Joe Biden is actually from Scranton.
— Josh Billinson (@jbillinson) October 23, 2020
“Who Built The Cages, Joe?”
Welker asked Trump about illegal immigrant children who were separated from their parents. He talked about how Obama built the cages. It seemed like a tangent, but he wrong-footed Biden when the former VP refused to answer Trump’s question.
“Who built the cages, Joe?”
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) October 23, 2020
“Who built the cages, Joe?” #Debates2020
— Helen Raleigh (@HRaleighspeaks) October 23, 2020
“Who built the cages, Joe?” might be the quote of the night.
— jon gabriel (@exjon) October 23, 2020
Biden would not answer, but he did make some other big promises about illegal immigration.
Biden says in his first 100 days he will put a pathway to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants before Congress
— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) October 23, 2020
He also spoke in favor of the infamous “catch-and-release policy,” in which people arrested for illegal entry into the United States were released, as long as they really promised to come to court. Trump painted the plan as a naive failure.
Does Biden really want to claim that illegal immigrants reliably show up for hearings? Oof
— Gregg Nunziata (@greggnunziata) October 23, 2020
The Next Abraham Lincoln
The usual race question arose in the final few minutes, with the usual results.
I don’t know why when a moderator brings up black American families 90 percent of the talk is about criminals.
— Kyle Smith (@rkylesmith) October 23, 2020
— Monica Drake (@monicadrake) October 23, 2020
Biden calls: The Proud Boys the “the poor boys.”
I am a poor boy too, pah rump pum pum pum!
— Spooky, Sapphic, Alison 🎃👻 🏳️🌈 (@RealAlisonPoole) October 23, 2020
No one:
Trump & Biden, discussing civil rights: pic.twitter.com/DnWgADWGrG— Madeline Fry Schultz (@madelineefry) October 23, 2020
Biden admits his 1994 Crime Bill, which had a disastrous impact on communities of color, was “a mistake.” Gee, thanks. And it is one you then didn’t correct for the next 26 years.
And you want us to vote for you?!
— pipermcq (@pipermcq) October 23, 2020
But probably Trump’s best moment of the night was when he reprised one of his greatest hits of 2016: as Biden promises to do this and that, Trump asks, “why in 47 years haven’t you done it already?”
Trump just hammering Biden on doing nothing for eight years. “You are all talk and no action.”
— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) October 23, 2020
Trump hit his stride with “why didn’t you get it done” but isn’t including his 35 years as a Senator and should have been hammering this all campaign. He hasn’t.
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) October 23, 2020
Nothing Green Can Stay
There was an environment question, because reporters are interested in that, but it was crammed in at the end, because no one else is.
Why do we never talk about nuclear energy when we talk about environmental policy and climate change
— Melissa Chen (@MsMelChen) October 23, 2020
If climate change is an existential threat, we should be willing to sacrifice to meet that threat. But Democrats will tell us that there is no cost and only economic growth in a green new deal.
— Gregg Nunziata (@greggnunziata) October 23, 2020
Trump said Biden and the Green New Deal would make us live in houses with teeny tiny windows and that windmills would kill the birds.
Trump is anti birds running into windmills, but in favor of birds flying into large Windows. We need more bird polling.
— Bob Timmermann (@bobtimmermann) October 23, 2020
They fought over whether Joe would ban fracking. (Biden has said he would ban fracking.)
Biden: I never said I would ban fracking.
Trump: You said it on tape!
Biden: Put it on your website…
Trump: I showed it last night. pic.twitter.com/BVIFOZ7Rjb
— Storm Paglia 🇺🇸 (@storm_paglia) October 23, 2020
Then Biden went even further: he’ll ban oil!
Biden almost got out of this exchange until Trump caught him & got him to say he was transitioning away from the oil industry. This is where Dem enviro policy slams into Biden’s old-timey blue collar guy ethos.
— Dan McLaughlin (@baseballcrank) October 23, 2020
Trump just got Biden to say he wants to end the oil industry. Wild.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) October 23, 2020
Biden is going to turn Hunter over the FBI tomorrow to get the news off saying he’s ending the oil industry.
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) October 23, 2020
The oil industry wasn’t ended, but the debate was. It…wasn’t terrible?
final question: who is the imposter?
Trump & Biden: pic.twitter.com/ziykmJtx3Y
— Siraj Hashmi (@SirajAHashmi) October 23, 2020
