President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump pitched to undecided voters Thursday night during the first debate of the presidential campaign — trading insults over their policy differences, immigration and who represents a threat to democracy.
During the debate from CNN’s headquarters in Atlanta, the two men argued over who would be better for Americans during the next four years on a broad swath of issues, ranging from the economy to climate change to foreign policy. Each repeatedly accused the other of lying.
Always interesting to see what the lede is for the leftwing Oregon Capital Chronicle. By contrast, CNN’s headline was “Biden disappoints, Trump lies and deflects…” and it’s not like CNN is centrist.
Fox News, which is obviously rightwing, had three headline stories: “Can Biden be replaced as the Dem nominee?,” “First Lady congratulations Biden like a child after debate,” and “Biden’s line of attack backfired with independents, focus group finds.” Trumps repeated and dare I say incessant lies went whole unmentioned, hardly unexpected from Fox.
The Free Press’ Bari Weiss wrote an editorial about the lies we’ve been told relating to Biden’s fitness for the job. She is not wrong on that point, even though I hold to the same argument she makes toward the end of her piece:
For me, it always seemed easy enough to say: Biden’s 81. He’s fading. Most 81-year-olds do. But it seemed fair to still argue that a faded Biden is better than an all-there Trump.
As Bill Maher has put it: “I’d vote for Biden’s head in a jar of blue liquid versus Trump.” Or as Sam Harris has said: “Hunter Biden could literally have had the corpses of children in his basement, and I would not have cared.”
You may disagree with the conclusion, but it’s a coherent argument. It’s not an argument that relies on the denial of reality.