Debates, Part Très: Trump Broke It
Despite some doubts a few weeks ago, the final Presidential Debate is indeed happening: live, socially-distanced, and in person, in Nashville, Tennessee.
In its infinite wisdom, <insert *eyeroll*> the so-called bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates decided to change the rules (what a surprise). Now the President and candidate Biden will have their microphones cut off as the other one delivers their opening two-minute responses to the debate topics.
From NBC San Diego:
The 90-minute debate is divided into six 15-minute segments, with each candidate granted two minutes to deliver uninterrupted remarks before proceeding to an open debate. The open discussion portion of the debate will not feature a mute button, but interruptions by either candidate will count toward their time in the second and final debate Thursday.
Much has been written about the left-wing activist-cum-journalist moderator, NBC's Kristen Welker, so I won't belabor it here. She deleted her entire Twitter account as a pre-emptive strike, so that should tell you something.
Welker's topics will be: fighting the coronavirus, race in America (didn't we already cover that in the first debate?), climate change, national security, leadership and American families. Following in the tradition of 2016 where Trump invited Juanita Broaddrick to his debate with Hillary Clinton, the President has invited Hunter Biden's former business partner Tony Bobulinski.
Who is he, you might ask? Bobulinski has done what the media said couldn't be done: confirmed that the email referenced in the New York Post's expose on Hunter Biden's laptop is indeed real, and that Joe Biden was indeed "the guy" who takes the 50 percent cut of the Chinese deal that Hunter Biden referenced in the email. Bobulinski can do this because he is the recipient of said email, and has all the receipts. Best not to fuck with a former Navy officer whose family is steeped in intelligence.
Joe Biden won't need to be interrupted, all President Trump will have to do is point to Bobulinski to confront Biden's denial and lies.
Can't wait.
Go read my posts on Part 1: It's Time to Change the Format of the Debates, and Part 2: Don't Kill Debates, Kill the Moderator! to get my take on what could have been done to improve the debate format, as well as stop the ridiculous food fight that happened with Chris Wallace at the first Presidential debate.
Of course, that same thing occurred with NBC's Savannah Guthrie at the Trump Town Hall on the 15th, and during Trump's unedited and unfiltered release of the 60-Minutes interview with CBS's Leslie Stahl. Does professionalism diminish as the paycheck increases? In their cases, apparently so.
Bottom line: No matter what may occur tonight, or who wins the election, suffice to say this geriatric and outdated Commission on Presidential Debates is done. They have shown themselves to be partisan, unprepared, out of touch, and obsolete. John Danforth, one of those geriatric members of the Commission, and a Republican, took to print and the airwaves to rebuke Trump for his criticism of their methods, to emphasize how important this Commission is to the national conversation, and to let you know what an august and truly bipartisan body they are. Yeah... right.
Put them on the list of things that Trump broke.
Harmeet Dhillon, stellar attorney and GOP Women co-chair tweeted a great thread that encapsulated it best:
https://twitter.com/pnjaban/status/1319135137976573952
https://twitter.com/pnjaban/status/1319136582830444544
Now it's off to the store to buy some popcorn and wine; it's going to be a chomp-worthy 90-minutes!