So last night, the nation was treated to something so weird it was almost inconceivable. A debate had been scheduled, obviously. One guy caught a virus that was both a threat to his life and the life of everyone around him. The fact that he doesn’t care about that fact doesn’t mean that others don’t care. The Debate Commission decided to do what everyone else has done – do it virtually, get those same questions to the same two candidates at the same time.
Well, Trump doesn’t do things like that. If he’s going to debate, he’s damned well going to do it by jumping in the middle of people’s answers (It is all too easy to shut off a microphone on a virtual debate). To Trump, it’s not a debate if it’s about actual words about things in actual answers, it’s about who looks like they’d do better if there was no one between them and who might bite and yell more.
So instead, somehow, the country was treated to dueling town halls. God knows we gave NBC total shit for it because they damned well deserved it. Biden followed the rules and NBC essentially rewarded Trump by giving him the same airtime without having Biden giving great answers.
But two things really messed up Trump’s best laid plans:
a. Trump ran into a buzz saw named Savannah Guthrie who had no intention of listening to any of Trump’s bullshit and had the audacity to hear him out and then ask the exact same question again, this time noting that he never answered it the first time.
b. MORE PEOPLE WATCHED BIDEN THAN TRUMP!!
“They are a real surprise,” Stelter said of the final numbers — which showed Biden drawing [2] 13.9 million on ABC, compared to Trump’s 13 million combined on the NBC networks. “Everybody in TV business assumed that Donald Trump would prevail in this ratings race. The Trump campaign predicted that he would out-rate Biden’s town hall.”
Of course, the president’s obsession with TV ratings is very well-known, and it’s certain that Thursday night’s numbers won’t be well received at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Obviously, which candidate would “outdraw” the other wouldn’t indicate a thing as to the vote, not really. It doesn’t matter who is on TV about what, if there’s a good chance that one person is going to set themselves on fire or that someone very attractive might take off all their clothing, more people are going to watch. Other than the attractive part, Trump could easily have done one or both.
We all know that Trump attaches HUGE importance to “ratings,” with all else that went wrong last night, this is just … beautiful.
WATCH:
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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @JasonMiciak