“Like Seeing a Burning Dump”, “A National Shame”: The Reactions of the American Press to the TV Showdown Between Biden and Trump

“The worst debate I have ever seen, in fact, was not even a debate: it was a disgrace“As a result of the first televised confrontation between Joe biden me Donald trump, most American journalists and commentators agree that, out of the chaos of insults and mutual accusations, no one has truly emerged victorious from face-to-face television. The losers were mainly voters who watched from home an impossible to follow debate, continuously interrupted, where no topic was discussed in depth.

The headlines of the foreign press are a good example: “With interruptions, lies and insults, Trump stomps the decor in the debate with Biden ”, sinks the New York Times. the Washington Post instead, it focuses on the most obvious news aspect: “The first confrontation between Trump and Biden marked by constant interruptions Trump ”, as well as Wall street journal: “A debate marked by interruptions and insults.” Second Political, has reached the “lowest point of presidential politics, a new form of national shameHe then explains that the Cleveland debate “changed” the history of the presidential debates, which began in the 1960s, and that until now had remained “one of the few dimensions of national public life.” who had retained a certain aura of solemnity“.

The burning comments of the journalists who followed him live were even more explicit: “It was a hot mess, inside a burning garbage dump, inside a train crash,” said the journalist from Cnn Jake tapper immediately after the end of the confrontation. That is to say: “It was a huge disaster inside a burning dumpster, inside a trainHe then called the television event the “worst debate I have ever seen,” going so far as to call it “a disgraceAnd mainly blame Trump’s aggressive disruptions. Your colleague Dana bash in no uncertain terms he spoke of “shitshow “: “I apologize for being rude, but the people who looked at you with genuine interest are the ones who they have been offended more of this performance, reality show a brutto“Many others spoke of a” disaster “where you could not even hear a complete sentence.

But according to a survey conducted by the station, 60% of your viewers believes that Biden, who currently leads the polls, came out the winner. While 28% pointed to the US president as the winner: these results are almost identical to the same Cnn after the first debate between Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Always there Cnn, in the traditional analysis article that deliberately opens the site “the successes and failures”and left the paragraph for the highlighted parts blank and the dialectical ‘hits’ of the candidates: “It was horrible and the two candidates did not produce absolutely nothing educational for the public, who did not explain anything about what they will do in the four years that they could serve the country as presidents. then the main purpose of the debates, to clarify the program to convince the undecided or to strengthen the convictions of the electorate.

The debate, like four years ago, was followed by various groups of fact checker from the main newspapers: Cnn, ABC News, Bloomberg, Associated Press and New York Times. Everyone agrees that a lot of statements made by the president are totally false: particularly those about Obamacare – the health plan – and the shutdown. The fact-checkers also denied that Biden, as Trump claimed, ever called African-Americans “super predators” – the expression was used only once by Hillary Clinton when commenting on an anti-crime bill, and was not directed at that particular ethnic group.