The Final Presidential Debate: “I Take Full Responsibility. It’s Not My Fault…”

DR: They’re saying the debate commission consulted with Fauci, who said if they both test negative they don’t need the plexiglass. (Plus, it makes it easier for Trump to shout and distract Biden while he’s speaking.)

GFR: The plexiglass was more security theater than security anyway.

AGR: Oh, absolutely! It didn’t do much besides create the illusion of taking preventative measures. I’m glad we’re starting the debate talking about the pandemic.

MU: Trump just said 2.2 million people were expected to die. That’s misleading: As Kaiser Health News explained, the 2.2 million figure comes “from a modeling scenario that would almost certainly never happen — which is that neither the government nor individuals would change their behavior at all in light of COVID-19.” So sure, we’re doing better than we would if we’d done literally nothing.

GFR: Trump is asked what he’d do next on Covid and has nothing to say, instead repeatedly asserting “it will go away…it’s going away.”

AGR: He’s also said in many states the spikes in cases have been disappearing. That’s not true. Cases are higher and staying high in many parts of the country. The virus won’t disappear. It didn’t after he said it would in the spring, and it won’t now either.

DR: It’s hard to watch Trump trying to make an actual argument. Leaders congratulating him? Rounding the turn, rounding the corner…it’s going away. This is the “I can look presidential” debate for Trump. And it’s what makes him look like a grade school kid.

MU: Did I hear that right? Did Trump just say a vaccine was coming in weeks? And it would be distributed by the military?

AGR: I would like to see him asked straight up about the “therapeutics” used to treat him. As “the most pro-life president in history” he relied on treatment developed via “a common cell cultured decades ago from an aborted fetus, by a company that embraces stem cell research — both practices considered at odds with the anti-abortion agenda,” as Jezebel reported.

GFR: What Trump said in September: “We’re very close to that vaccine as you know…We think we can start some time in October. So as soon as it’s announced we’ll be able to start. That will be from mid-October on. It may be a little bit later than that.” That obviously didn’t happen.

DR: I love Biden being put in the position of convincing Americans to have faith in a Trump vaccine.

GFR: Is Trump redder than usual tonight? Is that just my projection screen? I am finding the changes in his tone since he got the coronavirus visually distracting.

DR: He’s been redder than usual for a couple of days, now. Make-up change, I think. It’s a different shade.

AGR: Goodbye, Bronx Colors’ orange concealer. Hello, new makeup brand?

MU: I’ve got to say, Biden loves claiming Trump called the virus a hoax. That’s a misleading statement — and one that’s a familiar talking point.

DR: The “basement-hideout-made-money” line is Trump’s comfort zone. He’s trying to get on one of his rant-riffs, but it’s tricky in this format.

MU: I was about to say! “He’s obviously made a lot of money someplace,” Trump says. First Ukraine jab of the night, I believe.

DR: I am still disturbed by Biden’s inability to use complete, clear sentences. There’s a pointillism to his speaking style that requires us to fill in the blanks. I know what he means, but I keep wondering if people who don’t already know what he’s trying to say can understand him. Then again, Moses had a speech impediment and managed to free his people.

AGR: He’s never been a great debater, and I’m sure his stutter does not help in these situations.

GFR: Trump is trying hard not to slip into his natural cadence of Alex Jones/Rush Limbaugh performative rage, modulating his voice in an unusual way.

AGR: Trump says Biden called him “xenophobic…and racist even.” But that’s an accurate descriptor — he is pretty racist! Here’s a list of rants to prove it.

DR: Biden finally makes a genuine, clear point: The country shut down because we didn’t take proper precautions. Masks, etc. help keep businesses open. Trump dislikes masks because they remind people of the virus — he worries they promote “negative thinking” when he’s a true believer in the Power of Positive Thinking.

MU: Biden: “I’m going to shut down the virus, not the country.” Biden’s reopening plan includes $4 billion for schools to upgrade their technology and broadband capabilities.

GFR: Trump calls New York a “ghost town” and yet somehow I have been to a restaurant opening here, gone to brunch on a packed street, gotten farm-fresh vegetables in my own neighborhood — all outdoors. There is so much life on the streets of New York — but maybe not so much among the international real estate investing class of Manhattan.

AGR: Absolutely, Garance! I’m also confused. Is New York a ghost town or an anarchist hellscape?

MU: It’s clear now, as always, that Trump sees New York as a failure because restaurants are failing. Biden views it as a success because they got the infection rate under control.

AGR: I think I heard my entire neighborhood groan when Trump called New York “my city.”

GFR: “I get on very well with Anthony,” Trump says of the man whom he used against his wishes in a campaign ad, sidelined from coronavirus leader, and who now has to jog with a security detail because of the hatred directed at him by the president.

MU: For the record, Fauci said we didn’t need masks in early March. He reversed course and by early April was encouraging people to wear a mask.

DR: Right. He actually said not to get masks because he was concerned about people hoarding so many that the medical professionals would not have enough.

AGR: Trump says Fauci is a Democrat, which is false. He’s not affiliated to a party and has worked under both Republican and Democratic administrations since the Reagan era.

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