Name: Analysts: Trump suffered most from 'most chaotic presidential debate in American history'
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Analysts: Trump suffered most from 'most chaotic presidential debate in American history'

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The Columbus DispatchView CommentsCLEVELAND — La Trice Washington didn’t equivocate: “This was the most chaotic presidential debate in American history.”The associate political science professor at Otterbein University probably spoke for many voters when she said Tuesday night’s smackdown&nbsp;between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden “was like watching a train wreck and not being able to look away because it felt as though the nation had entered the twilight zone.”And she admitted she had a headache afterward.Doubling down on the steamroll tactics that helped him win an upset victory in 2016, Trump repeatedly talked over Biden during the Democrat’s allotted time.And when moderator Chris Wallace repeatedly admonished him, Trump loudly talked right over the Fox News host as well.At one point, Biden retorted, "Will you shut up, man?"Wallace repeatedly reminded Trump of the debate rules that his campaign had agreed to, remarking at one point, "I think that the country would be better served if we allowed both people to speak with fewer interruptions."Trump fired back at&nbsp;Wallace: "I guess I'm debating you, not him, but that's OK. I'm not surprised."In an extraordinary Wednesday afternoon, the Commission on Presidential Debates said, "Last night’s debate made clear that additional structure should be added to the format of the remaining debates to ensure a more orderly discussion of the issues.&nbsp;The CPD will be carefully considering the changes that it will adopt and will announce those measures shortly."Aaron Kall, director of debate at the University of Michigan, said what viewers witnessed in the debate jointly hosted by Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic was “just an escalation” from the 2016 campaign. Ironically, that cycle began in August 2015 with a debate among GOP candidates in Cleveland moderated by Fox.“It’s kind of a full circle,” Kall said. “But I think we reached a crescendo. … We’ve just kind of had a devolution of debate norms.”Kall, Washington and numerous other analysts lamented the lost opportunity to inform voters about an election many call the most important in modern U.S. history. Independent observers almost universally put the bulk of the blame on Trump.“Trump did not win it; Biden did not win it. But did Trump lose it with his bad-boy antics and attitude,” said Pope “Mac” McCorkle, a political scientist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.“The big problem for Trump could be the after-the-fact disgust in the media with the whole debate and his responsibility for taking it down.”While Trump is far from unique as an incumbent president stumbling in his first re-election debate, Kall said he blew a critical opportunity."The first debate is always the most anticipated, the most watched, the farthest away from the election and before a lot of the early voting&nbsp;concludes, so if there’s one debate to change the narrative, a reset, it’s the first one," the Michigan professor said."This was a learning experience for President Trump."Trump's miscalculation is extra consequential in 2020 because of the unprecedented COVID-19 campaign.With voting already underway in some battleground states, the debate&nbsp;offered&nbsp;Trump one of his last major&nbsp;chances to move the needle&nbsp;in a race that's proved remarkably stable in a calamitous&nbsp;year. The Republican&nbsp;has been unable to overcome Biden's lead in&nbsp;surveys both of the entire country and of&nbsp;key battleground states.Although Election Day is still almost five weeks away, the match-up also represented Trump’s final high-profile opportunity&nbsp;to make his case to millions of voters across the country. That’s because several states already are casting early ballots; Ohio and most other states will join them next week, before the next presidential debate.Washington was especially bothered by Trump's answers on racial issues.After&nbsp;Wallace asked Trump if he would&nbsp;condemn white supremacists,&nbsp;Trump asked for the name of a specific group.Biden jumped in and named&nbsp;the Proud Boys, a group identified as a hate group.But&nbsp;Trump simply replied, "Proud Boys — stand back and stand by."Washington said, "The president of the United States called teaching diversity racist, but he&nbsp;could not denounce white supremacy as racist. He said he could, but didn’t. In fact, he said 'stand by.'”Despite occasional attempts to hype Biden’s ability as a debater, the main thrust of the president’s campaign and Trump himself was that Biden is incompetent.That theme emerged again&nbsp;a few hours before the debate&nbsp;when the Trump campaign claimed Biden reneged on a pledge&nbsp;to be checked for an earpiece, a promise&nbsp;Biden campaign leaders said was pure fiction, Trump earlier called for tests to detect performance-enhancing drugs.All that wound up working against Trump, Kall said."With such a low bar, even an average performance would be deemed successful," he said.The president&nbsp;repeated a falsehood he'd&nbsp;already uttered twice this year in the state: "Ohio had the best year it ever had last year." Actually, Ohio lost more than 9,000 jobs in 2019, its worst since the Great Recession in 2019.More: Viewers did see moments of substantive discussion of the issues during&nbsp;the duo’s first debate.“If we would’ve listened to you, millions of people would have died,” Trump told Biden about the coronavirus pandemic.“I’ll tell you, Joe, you could never have done the job that we did. You don’t have it in your blood. You could’ve never done that, Joe.”&nbsp;In response, Biden used&nbsp;Trump's own statements against him.“This is the same man who told you by Easter this would be gone away. By the warm weather, it’d be gone — like a miracle. And by the way, maybe you could inject some bleach into your arm," the former vice president said.More:Biden dodged Wallace's question about whether he supports some Democrats' proposals to pack the Supreme Court by increasing the number of justices beyond the current nine, or whether he backs the end to the congressional filibuster."Whatever position I take, that will become the issue," he said.Trump said the high court may play a role in the November election.“I think we’re going on them to look at the ballots,” he said.Trump again harshly criticized mail ballots, although Tuesday night he did distinguish between states where voters request an absentee ballot&nbsp;— the method Ohio and most other states employ&nbsp;— and the nine that&nbsp;send an unsolicited ballot to every registered voter.Biden said he's “concerned that any court would resolve the dispute.”The Democrat said Trump's own Homeland Security director has said there is&nbsp;no widespread fraud in mail ballots.“This is all about trying to dissuade people from voting," Biden said.&nbsp;“He’s just afraid of counting the votes.”More:More:drowland@dispatch.com@darreldrowlandView Comments

The Columbus DispatchView CommentsCLEVELAND — La Trice Washington didn’t equivocate: “This was the most chaotic presidential debate in American history.”The associate political science professor at Otterbein University probably spoke for many voters when she said Tuesday night’s smackdown&nbsp;between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden “was like watching a train wreck and not being able to look away because it felt as though the nation had entered the twilight zone.”And she admitted she had a headache afterward.Doubling down on the steamroll tactics that helped him...

Analysts: Trump suffered most from 'most chaotic presidential debate in American history'

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