Latest / Pod Save America / “Will you shut up, man?” (Debate recap special)

Transcript

“Will you shut up, man?” (Debate recap special) · Pod Save America

• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: I'm Jon Lovett. I'm Tommy Vitor.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: I'm Dan Pfeiffer.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: On today's pod, we got the whole gang together to
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: talk about last night's high-minded, inspiring debate. where it leaves
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: the race, and where we go from here. Quick note
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: before we start. We have added two new funds to
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Vote Save America to help you maximize the impact of
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: your donations between now and the election. If you head
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: to votesaveamerica.com slash donate, you'll find our new housekeeping fund
• 0:44
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• 0:47
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• 0:51
  Speaker 1: legislatures and a few key states that could lead to
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: fair congressional maps and Medicaid expansions. Now is the time
• 0:57
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• 0:59
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• 1:03
  Speaker 1: You're going to get the most bang for your buck.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Just go to votesaveamerica.com slash donate for more information.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: John, did you forget to plug the Chris Wallace Appreciation Fund,
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: or is.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: That later in the show? That is later in the show.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: If you want Chris Wallace to have his own podcast
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: on Crooked Media, we have a fund for that.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're going to have a bust of him sculpted
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: for the lobby of the house.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: All right, here we go. Joe Biden and Donald Trump
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: met in Ohio last night. Meet me in Ohio. Met
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: in Ohio last night for the first of three debates
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: during which the president was able to unify most Americans
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: and not wanting to watch the other two. Fox News'
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Chris Wallace, whose job was supposedly to moderate the debate,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: lost control early as Trump spent more than 90 minutes
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: shouting down Wallace, interrupting Biden, and spewing all kinds of lies, insults, conspiracies,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: and complaints, including moments where he refused to condemn... white supremacists,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: and urged his supporters to go stalk voters at the
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: polls on Election Day. In other words, it was Trump
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: being Trump. Here's a clip of when the debate really
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: went off the rails and Joe Biden spoke for most
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: of America.
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: And so the election is all ready to be done.
• 2:13
  Speaker 5: You don't know it's on the ballot. Why is it
• 2:15
  Speaker 5: on the ballot?
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: Because you said.
• 2:17
  Speaker 5: Why is it on the ballot? It's not on the ballot.
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: It's on the ballot in the court.
• 2:20
  Speaker 5: I don't think so.
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: In the court.
• 2:21
  Speaker 5: There's nothing happening there.
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: Donald, would you just be quiet for me?
• 2:24
  Speaker 5: And you don't know her view on Roe v.
• 2:27
  Speaker 6: Wade.
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: You don't know her view.
• 2:29
  Speaker 7: You should go out and vote. You're in voting now.
• 2:33
  Speaker 7: Vote and let your senators know how strongly you feel.
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: Vote now.
• 2:37
  Speaker 7: Make sure you, in fact, let people know you're a senator.
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: I'm not going to answer the question.
• 2:43
  Speaker 5: Why wouldn't you answer that question?
• 2:44
  Speaker 8: Because the question is, the question is, the question is,
• 2:48
  Speaker 8: will you shut up, man?
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Dan, do you have any initial reactions to the overall
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: debate before we dig into some of the specific moments?
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: Look, it was chaotic. It was a lack of decorum.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: Made people hate politics. Who's to blame? I don't know, John.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: Was that my opinion or was I just reading you
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: the lead of some stories today? I mean, it was
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: Donald Trump is a lunatic and he acted like a lunatic.
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: And we can talk about what the political implications of
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: it are for, but he made it impossible to have
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: anything resembling a normal debate, a normal conversation about issues
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: because he didn't abide by the rules. The words he
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: said did not make sense. And he was just a
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: seemingly very confused, very angry, very mean person last night,
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: which I mean, I haven't seen a poll, but that
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: doesn't seem like something that people like.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: I mean, love it. My view was the debate was
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: a mess because Donald Trump participated in it. Like he's not,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: he wasn't that much different than any of the debates
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: he participated in in 2016. Remember like he stalked Hillary
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: like on the, in the second debate behind the stage,
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: like he's, he was Donald Trump. How did the debate
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: match up with like your expectations of how you thought
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: it would go? Was there, was there any difference there?
• 4:07
  Speaker 9: Um, Well, you know, there's expecting a house to burn
• 4:12
  Speaker 9: down and then it's feeling the flames lapping at your
• 4:15
  Speaker 9: face as it's happening. Like we knew that this was
• 4:17
  Speaker 9: going to be a disaster. I think it is still
• 4:20
  Speaker 9: stunning to see it in real time. I will say
• 4:22
  Speaker 9: it is very frustrating. So obviously what Dan pointed out
• 4:26
  Speaker 9: was very frustrating, you know, the kind of sparks fly,
• 4:29
  Speaker 9: you know, sparks fly between arsonist and wooded area. But yeah,
• 4:34
  Speaker 9: What was also frustrating is I saw a lot of pundits,
• 4:37
  Speaker 9: a lot of journalists who I think were actually sincerely
• 4:40
  Speaker 9: disgusted by the debate and actually didn't say both sides
• 4:42
  Speaker 9: are to blame. They did a pretty good job about it.
• 4:44
  Speaker 9: But what bothered me about it was there were so
• 4:47
  Speaker 9: many like lamenting what has become of the presidency. This
• 4:51
  Speaker 9: is the darkest moment in American history.
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: No, no, no.
• 4:56
  Speaker 9: The problem was putting this person in the job. The
• 4:59
  Speaker 9: tragedy is what he has been doing every single day
• 5:01
  Speaker 9: since he became president. When it is plain to see,
• 5:04
  Speaker 9: when it is too obvious for journalists to pretend to
• 5:06
  Speaker 9: be obtuse about it, when it is too obvious for
• 5:08
  Speaker 9: even people like Rick Santorum to defend it, that may
• 5:11
  Speaker 9: make us feel shitty in the moment, but ultimately it
• 5:13
  Speaker 9: is good for people to see this person exposed.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Tommy, what did you think?
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: So I rewatched the debate this morning because I'm the
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: kind of guy who does the work, John.
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: Oh my goodness.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Tommy, I rewatched it last night at midnight. I was
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: sitting in this office watching this debate again.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: And my views on the debate evolved. And so I
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: think last night I thought Joe Biden did a better
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: job than I thought having rewatched it this morning. And
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: that was colored by the fact that I think Donald
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Trump delivered the worst debate performance in presidential campaign history.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: And I don't know if there's a close second. And
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: our brains are so broken by 2016 that we act
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: like our instincts are off. But we saw the worst
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: human being we've ever seen on a stage last night.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: He was interrupted. He was rude. He was vicious. He
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: was cruel. And that bore out in some of the data.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: CBS did a snap poll. They asked, did tonight's debate
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: make you think better or worse of him? 24% said
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: better for Trump, 42% worse. His Twitter feed was the
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: human being that showed up last night. And even Trump
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: fans don't like his Twitter feed, but it wasn't just
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: the tone. His response to issues on substance were terrible.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: Trump's response to a conversation and a critique about the
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: coronavirus response was to mock Joe Biden for where he
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: went to college. I can't think of a dumber, more glib,
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: more divorced from the reality of what people are dealing
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: with response than that. And so- Trump was terrible. Now,
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: I don't mean to criticize Biden. I think he had
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: some very good moments, but it was almost impossible to
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: get across what you needed to get across about policy
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: and tell listeners more about who you are and what
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: you're going to do when, A, Chris Wallace framed half
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: the questions like he was co-hosting Hannity, and, B, when
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: he was interrupted every fucking time he tried to say
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: something and Chris Wallace didn't do anything about it until
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: like an hour and 15 into the debate where he
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: finally outlined for the viewers what what the rules were
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: supposed to be before this thing turned into a debacle.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: So it was a mess. It was hard to watch.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: It sucked.
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: But like ultimately Biden wins this debate overwhelmingly because he
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: a did better and Trump is losing and he needed
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: to pick up votes last night and he looked like
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: a lunatic. He looked like an actual lunatic.
• 7:25
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Tommy, I'm, I was going to ask you next about
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: how Chris Wallace did as a moderator, which I still
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: want to hear your thoughts on, but like it's, what
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: I was thinking is you replace Chris Wallace with a
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: better moderator. Um, maybe if we had like, if it
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: was Hillary instead of Biden or Barack Obama or Elizabeth Warren,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: or literally any other Democrat, you could argue like maybe
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: someone would have had sharper answers here or someone would
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: have been worse here or whatever. But like any two
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: combinations of people you put on that stage with Donald Trump,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: candidate and moderator, you're going to end up with pretty
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: much the same result because Donald Trump went in there
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: deciding that he was going to shout over everyone for
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: 90 minutes and act like a lunatic. And like, I
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: have plenty of complaints about Chris Wallace as a moderator.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: I think he did a poor job. And, like, there's
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: things that Biden could have done better. But, like, there
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: was a maniac up on stage last night. And you're right.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: We think that Trump is magic because he beat all
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: expectations and won in 2016. But, like, any other candidate
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: who was up there, who was seven or eight points
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: behind in the polls in the first presidential debate and
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: gave that performance, we'd be like, oh, it's over. It's
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: fucking over, you know, like and look, Donald Trump could
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: still win, but like not because of that debate.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: I'm going to get this off my chest and then
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: shut up about moderators forever. I get that Chris Wallace
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: had a tough job, but he failed. And I'm sick
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: of hearing excuses like we don't grade Super Bowl refs
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: on a curve and we shouldn't grade him on one either.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: The debate commission preemptively absolved him of any fact checking responsibility,
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: which is stupid and pathetic. So his job was to
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: enforce the rules and facilitate a discussion. And he failed
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: at that. You can argue that he needed more authority
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: or tools to cut Trump off or whatever, but he
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: should have more forcefully tried to prevent Trump from talking
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: over Biden. And even if you cannot prevent Trump from
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: breaking the rules, you need to explain them to the
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: American people, help them understand that Trump is doing something wrong.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: That is not allowed. Something he agreed to these rules
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: and he is now cheating. He also asked questions that
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: were like straight out of Fox News primetime. He asserted
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: that Biden supports big government. He asserted that climate change
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: plans will kill jobs. He acts like Joe Biden has
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: the authority to call up the fucking mayor of Portland
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: and ask him to send in the National Guard. What
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: are you talking about, man? And when Trump said, stand
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: back and stand by to the Proud Boys, a Nazi group,
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: Chris Wallace just moved on. You didn't have any interest
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: in figuring out what that meant? No follow up there,
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: Chris Wallace? This was a disaster. It's going to get
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: worse because the next couple of moderators are nice, but
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: they don't have even Chris Wallace's standing or reputation for
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: being tough. So I know the debate commission just announced
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: that they're going to make some changes, but that can't
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: happen again, even with the town hall setting.
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: What possible changes could they add that would make a difference?
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: Like a trap door over a pit of sharks?
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: I was thinking one of those dog things that zaps
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: you maybe.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like, you know, Donald Trump, you throw a
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: few more rules at the guy and he's going to behave.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: That's it. You can strain him just a little more
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: with some norms and rules and stuff like that. Like
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: they shut off Donald Trump's mic. He's going to take
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: the mic off and start screaming. He'll scream into Joe
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Biden's mic. Dan, was there any like discernible strategy from
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump last night that you saw?
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: Not a strategy to win the election, for sure. I
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: think there was like a semblance of a tactic for
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: the debate itself, which was basically to try to wear
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: Joe Biden into a mistake. Like the Republicans have convinced
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: themselves that Joe Biden is senile. He's too old. He
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: doesn't have the stamina. He can't do this. And therefore,
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: you know, Rick Santorum, who only says stupid things, I
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: think said this on CNN beforehand. And I think it
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: was said to him by a stupid person who works
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: for Trump, which is what Trump was going to try
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: to do was to go all out at Biden to
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: try to wear him out early on. And so I
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: don't want to reverse engineer a strategy from Trump's natural assholery.
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: But to the extent that you could possibly do that,
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: it would be that I'm going to try to force
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: Biden into a mistake, right? Either make him get overly defensive.
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: pull him into the muck with me, get him flustered.
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: But what Trump forgets is he's trying to make the
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: race about Biden. But when he does that, he keeps
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: the focus on himself, which has been true of this
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: entire period of the general election, where he's been unable
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: to walk out of the spotlight for more than a
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: second to allow there to be a conversation about something
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: other than why Trump is a terrible president.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought it was not just trying to goad
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: Biden into a mistake. It was also trying to get
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: him really angry, like he really wanted to get under
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: his skin. And Biden got annoyed a few times, for sure.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: That's what the shut up man and the clown thing
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: were all about. But he didn't go full. He didn't
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: lose it at any moment. I think the other big
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: strategy from Trump, if you like, and if you want
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: to call it a strategy, is he wanted to attach
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: Joe Biden to what he thinks is the radical left.
• 12:18
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: And that didn't work out so well. That was actually
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: a huge failure of a strategy, because every time Biden said,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: I am the Democratic Party. I have my own climate plan,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: whatever it may be. Trump was like, no, you don't.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: I don't believe you. Or then he said, oh, you
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: just lost the left. Trump decided to play pundit at
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: one point. You just lost the left, which like doesn't
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: really make Trump's case for him at all.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: I liked when he was like, you won't even say
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: law and order. And Biden's like law and order. And
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: he's like, see, he wouldn't say it. What do you
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: just watch this?
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Totally falls apart. Love it. What was Biden's strategy as
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: you saw it? And how well do you think he
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: executed overall?
• 12:49
  Speaker 9: I think he got stronger and stronger as the night
• 12:51
  Speaker 9: went on. I realized as I was watching the debate
• 12:55
  Speaker 9: that my pulse is an undecided voter and my pulse
• 12:58
  Speaker 9: was quite worried in the first few minutes, especially early on,
• 13:03
  Speaker 9: because I do think the kind of Trump feral genius,
• 13:07
  Speaker 9: as Axe would call him on Hacks on Tap, mode
• 13:10
  Speaker 9: was to basically, you know, look, Joe Biden has incredible
• 13:12
  Speaker 9: strengths up there. I think that he had moments where he,
• 13:15
  Speaker 9: the moment where he talked about both Bo and Hunter
• 13:17
  Speaker 9: was incredibly powerful. It was like a, It was a
• 13:19
  Speaker 9: victory for decency and compassion. The moment where he just
• 13:22
  Speaker 9: talked about sensitivity, sensitivity as a good thing. The moments
• 13:26
  Speaker 9: where he looked straight to camera and said, don't worry
• 13:28
  Speaker 9: about this. This is about you. I think that was
• 13:31
  Speaker 9: his strategy. It was a strategy around decency. It was
• 13:33
  Speaker 9: a strategy about not getting pulled in to the Trump shenanigans,
• 13:36
  Speaker 9: which he mostly did. It was about addressing the American
• 13:38
  Speaker 9: people directly. I think that worked. I think early on,
• 13:42
  Speaker 9: it was clear that, you know, I think that Trump,
• 13:46
  Speaker 9: and Trump's people don't view Joe Biden as a live debater.
• 13:49
  Speaker 9: And so their goal was to kind of interrupt him,
• 13:51
  Speaker 9: throw shit at him, get him to be interrupted halfway
• 13:54
  Speaker 9: through making a point, try to rattle him, try to
• 13:56
  Speaker 9: get him to make a mistake, become less articulate. I
• 13:58
  Speaker 9: think that there were moments early on, especially where that
• 14:00
  Speaker 9: worked for a moment.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: It did work.
• 14:02
  Speaker 9: But ultimately, I think because Trump became so heinous as
• 14:05
  Speaker 9: the night wore on and actually also lost some steam
• 14:07
  Speaker 9: later in the debate, Biden was able, I think, to
• 14:11
  Speaker 9: get stronger as the night wore on. And as they
• 14:13
  Speaker 9: both heated up Trump got worse and worse and more belligerent.
• 14:16
  Speaker 9: And I think Biden got stronger and stronger and stronger
• 14:18
  Speaker 9: and remembered as he went to the core strategy, kind
• 14:21
  Speaker 9: of go to the camera, go to the people, push
• 14:23
  Speaker 9: that aside. And I think that was really good. Tommy,
• 14:25
  Speaker 9: what did you think of Biden's strategy? You said you
• 14:27
  Speaker 9: thought on the second viewing, he didn't do quite as
• 14:29
  Speaker 9: well as your first viewing.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: Is that what you?
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: Look, I thought he had some really good moments. Like
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: I thought that close where he talked about how he
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: would accept the results of the election and then just
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: encouraged everyone to go vote because the power is in
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: their hands. It was an incredibly... sharp answer. It was
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: a strong contrast to Trump. I thought he was smart
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: to bring up the Affordable Care Act early on and
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: the fact that the Supreme Court would overturn it. But
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: I don't think that those answers were delivered cogently necessarily.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: And sometimes there were some words left out that led
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: you to be a little confused. Again, that was because
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: he was getting interrupted literally constantly. I also thought, you know,
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: he lost his cool at times. And I think saying
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: shut up or calling him a clown, like it wasn't
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: a big deal in the moment. But you can see
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: in coverage this morning that it allows the media to
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: both sides it and say they're both retreating insults. Like,
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: just so we're not all doing happy talk for Democrats,
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: like Dave Weigel pointed out that Google Trends had the
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: number one thing Googled last night was where Biden attended
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: college and whether he called African-Americans super predators. Now, that
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: doesn't mean swing voters are Googling those things. You also
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: will learn that Trump was lying in both these instances.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: But it's notable that that's what people took away. I
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: also think that Biden's goal was to make sure that
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: people understood not just who he was and his values,
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: but his plan for the country, especially when it came
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: to the economy. And Trump being a psychopath prevented him
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: from doing that in a lot of ways.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: I think that debating Trump puts you in a vice
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: that you have two options. He's trying to goad you
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: and interrupt you into freaking out, right? So you can
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: either get angry, shout him down, try to put him
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: in his place. Which may work, but then will almost
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: guarantee that the next day the media says that you
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: got down in the mud with Trump and it was
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: both sides and everyone was fighting. So you can either
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: do that or you can ignore him and just try
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: to get a word in. And then you risk appearing
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: weak like Trump trampled all over you. And I think
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: it's very hard to sort of get out of that.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: My only thing with Biden is when he finally got
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: time to say what he wanted to say, which as
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: you pointed out was like towards the middle and end
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: of the debate. I wouldn't have used so much of
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: that time attacking Trump. I would have used more of
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: that time sort of talking about what I was going
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: to do. And I do think in the next debate
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: in the town hall format, that'll come more naturally to
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: him because he'll be answering a person's question and he'll
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: be able to just talk about what he's going to do.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: But that's sort of the only criticism I had of Biden,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: that he should talk more about his plans.
• 16:56
  Speaker 9: I would just say, I think you're right, John. I
• 16:58
  Speaker 9: do think that there's a third path when dealing with
• 17:01
  Speaker 9: Trump in that way, which I felt like Biden did
• 17:03
  Speaker 9: at times, which is also just calling out the game, right?
• 17:06
  Speaker 9: You don't have to pretend the attacks aren't happening. You
• 17:08
  Speaker 9: also don't have to engage with him. I think, you know,
• 17:11
  Speaker 9: his moments where he turned to camera were, were effective. I, I,
• 17:15
  Speaker 9: I wish that they had been, I think he could
• 17:17
  Speaker 9: have made more of a moment when he turned to
• 17:19
  Speaker 9: the camera and talked to people directly and had been
• 17:21
  Speaker 9: bit clearer with some more prepared lines.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: Like this is, this is about distraction. This is about chaos.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: This is what we have to stop.
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: Here's what I'll do.
• 17:28
  Speaker 9: Like, I think there was a way to, I think,
• 17:30
  Speaker 9: to be a bit more defiant in those moments. That's
• 17:34
  Speaker 9: what I wanted to see. But again, it was like
• 17:36
  Speaker 9: 90 minutes of fucking chaos. So I think he did
• 17:38
  Speaker 9: a great job. It's just, I do think that there's
• 17:40
  Speaker 9: something in between going into the mud and completely disregarding it.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: That's all. Dan, what were you going to say?
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: As you know, every candidate goes into a debate with a... Well,
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: every candidate except Trump goes into a debate with a
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: set of strategic objectives that they want to accomplish, right?
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: And a set of moments that they're your best lines
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: you have in your back pocket you're trying to use.
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: And I think For Biden, you know, those sort of
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: strategic objectives were don't lose your cool, right? Don't try
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: to avoid getting pulled down into the absurd. And I
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: think he did that as well as any human possibly could.
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: The second is sort of main, which is related, sort
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: of maintain the stature gap, right? Biden is essentially running
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: as the president that Trump won't be. And I think
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: that has really benefited him through this process. And he
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: came out by not falling into Trump's trap. He sort of, he,
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: stayed above the fray in a way that what I
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: thought was good. And the third one is educate people
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: about your plans. And that one was, he did not
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: go as far on, but I don't really know how
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: you do it differently under that scenario. And you have
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: three debates to do that. Like, as you know, I
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: am not someone prone to happy talk generally. But I
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: think that we, I feel better today about Biden's position
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: after the first debate than I ever thought was, would
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: thought was possible.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: This is- I feel the same.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: I am worried about everything. I have zero concerns about
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: that debate.
• 18:59
  Speaker 9: Can I ask you a question about that, actually? I
• 19:02
  Speaker 9: feel the same way. Are we able to separate the
• 19:05
  Speaker 9: fact that we went into this debate knowing that Biden
• 19:08
  Speaker 9: is ahead by basically all polling and that Trump needs
• 19:12
  Speaker 9: to shift the dynamic with the actual debate itself? How
• 19:15
  Speaker 9: do we think we would feel if this debate was
• 19:17
  Speaker 9: unfolding and it was a bit closer right now?
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: Well, I think that you can't– I don't think you
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: can separate– well, at least I can't separate those because
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: the goal is to win the election.
• 19:28
  Speaker 6: Of course.
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: And you go into the debate with a strategy dependent
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: on your position right now to do that. And so
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: like you were just saying like we're going to score
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: this debate on points for the– as some sort of
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: like high school debating competition. You might look at it differently.
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: When you look at it in the context of where
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: Biden is and what Trump needs to do, we believe
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: based on polling to shift. the dynamic, you feel very
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: good about it. I obviously feel worse about America and
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: democracy and myself for having watched it, but I feel
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: better about Biden's position in the race because the presidential
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: campaign is a decathlon and the debates were going to
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: be Biden's weakest events, right? And he came out of
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: them where I believe at least as we sit here
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: today on Wednesday morning, either where he was going in
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: or a little bit ahead of that place. Now, as
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: Tommy points out, based on the Google trends, another thing
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: is there's a huge battle to come over the net
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: between now and the second debate about shaping that narrative,
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: what information breaks through, how it breaks through to people.
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: And this is where Trump has a huge advantage because
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: of the right wing media machine and Facebook. But right
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: now on Wednesday morning, I feel better than I thought
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: I could possibly feel after that first debate because I've
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: been very nervous about it for a long, long time.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: I mean, one of Biden's favorite Bidenisms, which Chris Wallace
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: quoted last night during one of the questions, is don't
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: And for Biden in that debate, that's what a debate is, right?
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: And we were all pretty hard on Biden during all
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: the primary debates. We know that sometimes he can give
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: answers that aren't the most cogent. But I think compared
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: to Donald Trump, On last night's debate, there is no contest. Like,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: at worst case for Biden, you had some undecided voters saying,
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: I'm still undecided, or I didn't like both of them.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: At the best case, you had a bunch of undecided
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: voters saying, now I'm for Biden. You didn't have many
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: people saying, oh, Trump was great, now I'm off the
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: sidelines and I'm for Trump.
• 21:15
  Speaker 10: Yeah.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: You just didn't have that.
• 21:15
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: So the most horrifically memorable moment of the night came
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: when Trump was asked by Chris Wallace if he'd condemn
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: white supremacists and right wing militia groups. Here's his answer,
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: along with Joe Biden's answer on the issue of systemic racism.
• 21:35
  Speaker 10: But are you willing tonight to condemn white supremacists and
• 21:39
  Speaker 10: militia groups and to say that they need to stand
• 21:43
  Speaker 10: down and not add to the violence in a number
• 21:46
  Speaker 10: of these cities, as we saw in Kenosha and as
• 21:49
  Speaker 10: we've seen in Portland? Are you prepared to specifically do it?
• 21:53
  Speaker 8: I would say almost everything I see is from the
• 21:56
  Speaker 8: left wing, not.
• 21:57
  Speaker 5: From the right wing.
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: So what are you saying?
• 21:59
  Speaker 8: I'm willing to do anything. I want to see peace.
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: Then do it, sir.
• 22:03
  Speaker 7: Do it.
• 22:03
  Speaker 5: Say it. Do you want to call him? What do
• 22:06
  Speaker 5: you want to call him?
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: Give me a name.
• 22:07
  Speaker 5: Give me a name. White supremacist and right supremacist.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: White supremacist and right supremacist.
• 22:12
  Speaker 5: Stand back and stand by. But I'll tell you what.
• 22:15
  Speaker 5: I'll tell you what.
• 22:16
  Speaker 8: Somebody's got to do something about Antifa and the left.
• 22:20
  Speaker 7: It's a little bit like how this guy and his
• 22:23
  Speaker 7: friends look down on so many people. They look down
• 22:25
  Speaker 7: their nose on people like Irish Catholics like me who
• 22:28
  Speaker 7: grew up in Scranton. They look down on people who
• 22:30
  Speaker 7: don't have money. They look down on people who are
• 22:33
  Speaker 7: of a different faith. They look down on people who
• 22:35
  Speaker 7: are a different color. In fact, we're all Americans. The
• 22:39
  Speaker 7: only way we're going to bring this country together is
• 22:41
  Speaker 7: bring everybody together. There's nothing we cannot do if we
• 22:45
  Speaker 7: do it together.
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: We can take this on, and we can defeat racism
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: in America. I mean, President Trump, sir.
• 22:51
  Speaker 8: During the Obama-Biden administration, there was tremendous division.
• 22:56
  Speaker 5: There was hatred.
• 22:57
  Speaker 8: You look at Ferguson, you look at You go to
• 23:01
  Speaker 8: very many places.
• 23:02
  Speaker 5: Look at Oakland. Look what happened in Oakland. Look what
• 23:04
  Speaker 5: happened in Baltimore. Look what happened. Frankly, it was more
• 23:07
  Speaker 5: violent than what I'm even seeing now.
• 23:09
  Speaker 8: But the reason is that the Democrats that run these
• 23:13
  Speaker 8: cities don't want to.
• 23:14
  Speaker 5: Talk like you about law and order. And you still
• 23:17
  Speaker 5: haven't mentioned it. Are you in favor of law and order?
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: I'm in favor of law.
• 23:21
  Speaker 5: Are you in favor of law and order?
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: Go ahead and say it. You ask a question, let
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: him finish. Law and order.
• 23:26
  Speaker 5: Let him finish.
• 23:28
  Speaker 7: Law and order with justice where people get treated fairly.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: Tommy, you mentioned this earlier, but was this the most
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: important moment of the debate when Trump refused to condemn
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: white supremacists and Proud Boys?
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think it was the most important moment
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: for people who understood the moment. There's probably a lot
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: of people who have no idea who the Proud Boys are. And,
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: you know, I wish that were the case for everybody
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: in the country. And they're a neo-Nazi white supremacist group.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: And it's horrible that this debate gave them the most
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: attention in PR that they've ever had in history. So
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: that's awful. But no one should have been surprised by this.
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: I mean, remember when Jake Tapper back in 2016 asked
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: Trump to condemn David Duke, who came out in support
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: of him, and Trump pretended he didn't know who he was.
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: He always plays footsie with these groups. This is a pattern.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: It's something he did in Charlottesville. It's something he did
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: last night with the Proud Boys. And we should just
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: Believe him that he wants the support of the Proud Boys.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: And his people this morning are all over the place
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: on this. Some are claiming he did condemn them. I
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: think Don Jr. was saying he misspoke. It's just a
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: total mess. It's a total mess. But you know who's
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: excited about this? The Proud Boys, a neo-Nazi group. Great.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: Great job, Trump.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: I thought, I mean, turning to Biden there, I thought
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: Biden's answers, the two answers that we heard were like
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: some of his strongest answers. about how Trump looks down
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: on people. And then also it's about law and order
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: and being treated fairly. We're actually like fairly succinct answers.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: I mean, this segment that Chris Wallace titled Race and
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: Violence in Our Cities, clearly the most Fox News way
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: to say it, was supposed to be sort of a
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: segment that helped Trump, I think, or at least that
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: some pundits would imagine would help Trump. I think it
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: ended up being maybe his worst segment. Dan, what did
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: you think?
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think if you somehow kind of sort of
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: endorse a neo-Nazi organization in a segment, that's bad. That
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: was not a good thing for him.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to look at the polls. I'm just
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: going to– off the cuff here. I think it's bad.
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: I think one of the most telling comments about this
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: was from a number of Republicans who cite this question
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: as an example of bias from Chris Wallace because they say, look,
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: Chris Wallace knows Trump doesn't like to disavow people who
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: support him.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right. That's what Rick Santorum said on CNN. That's
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: literally what he said.
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: It's like, wait, do you realize what you just said
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: and why that's not a good thing for Trump? Yeah,
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: it was a backside, man. I thought Biden's moment was
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: very good there. That was actually one of the few
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: times where Biden got a chance to actually say several
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: sentences in a row without Trump trying to shout over him.
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: And I thought, you know, it's very clear that that
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: was a moment that they wanted to have in this debate.
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: And I think it played well and it's helpful. that
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: it is appended to Trump's huge flub here because it
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: means it is a moment that people will see, you know,
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: even if all social media for the next 10 days here.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: So the night started on pretty good territory for Biden
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: with a discussion of two top issues for voters, health
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: care and the pandemic. Trump was unable to articulate what
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: kind of health care would replace the Affordable Care Act
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: if the Supreme Court strikes down the law. And he
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: was unable to defend his handling of COVID-19. Here's a
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: few clips.
• 26:39
  Speaker 7: He is not for any help for people needing health
• 26:43
  Speaker 7: care because his because he, in fact, already has cost
• 26:48
  Speaker 7: 10 million people their health care that they had from
• 26:51
  Speaker 7: their employers because of his recession.
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: Number one.
• 26:54
  Speaker 7: Number two, there are 20 million people getting health care
• 26:58
  Speaker 7: through Obamacare now that he wants to take it away.
• 27:01
  Speaker 7: He won't ever look you in the eye and say
• 27:03
  Speaker 7: that's what he wants to do.
• 27:04
  Speaker 4: Take it away. No, I want to give him.
• 27:06
  Speaker 5: Better health care at a much lower price because Obamacare
• 27:09
  Speaker 5: is no good.
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: He doesn't know how to do that. 200,000 dead.
• 27:14
  Speaker 7: As you said, over 7 million infected in the United States. We,
• 27:17
  Speaker 7: in fact, have 5 percent, 4 percent of the world's population,
• 27:22
  Speaker 7: 20 percent of the deaths. 40,000 people a day are
• 27:27
  Speaker 7: contracting COVID. In addition to that, about between 750 and 1,000
• 27:32
  Speaker 7: people a day are dying.
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: When he was presented with that number, he said, it
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: is what it is. Well, it is what it is
• 27:38
  Speaker 4: because you are who you are.
• 27:41
  Speaker 7: He panicked or he just looked at the stock market,
• 27:43
  Speaker 7: one of the two, because guess what? A lot of
• 27:46
  Speaker 7: people died and a lot more are going to die
• 27:48
  Speaker 7: unless he gets a lot smarter, a lot quicker.
• 27:50
  Speaker 6: Mr.
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: President, did you use the word smart?
• 27:54
  Speaker 8: Uh, so you said you went to Delaware state, but
• 27:57
  Speaker 8: you forgot the name of your college.
• 27:59
  Speaker 5: You didn't go to Delaware state.
• 28:00
  Speaker 8: You graduated either the lowest or almost the lowest in
• 28:04
  Speaker 8: your class.
• 28:04
  Speaker 5: Don't ever use the word smart with me.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: Love it. I was going to ask how did Trump
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: and Biden do on those exchanges?
• 28:10
  Speaker 9: But yeah, you know, well, what's, what's there to say here? Uh,
• 28:17
  Speaker 9: Biden told the truth. Um, Trump tried to interrupt him.
• 28:22
  Speaker 9: The truth is quite damning. There is no amount of
• 28:24
  Speaker 9: interrupting to overwhelm the actual record, which is abysmal and ongoing.
• 28:29
  Speaker 9: So yeah, it was a good moment for Biden. I
• 28:32
  Speaker 9: think the line, you know, it is what it is
• 28:33
  Speaker 9: because you are who you are, was clearly a prepared line.
• 28:35
  Speaker 9: I think he delivered that well. What's left to say
• 28:40
  Speaker 9: really about Trump and COVID? I mean, you know, people
• 28:43
  Speaker 9: have pointed out there was no period of time where
• 28:45
  Speaker 9: he was more kind of frenetic and more inclined to
• 28:51
  Speaker 9: interrupt than whenever COVID came up. COVID is clearly what
• 28:54
  Speaker 9: they recognize as his great weakness. It is the reason
• 28:59
  Speaker 9: his campaign has shifted from I'm an asshole, but things
• 29:01
  Speaker 9: are good to I'm an asshole. It's the reason he's
• 29:06
  Speaker 9: down so much. It is the core of his failures
• 29:08
  Speaker 9: as president, captures everything wrong with him. So yeah, it
• 29:10
  Speaker 9: was a bad moment for Donald Trump. It was a
• 29:12
  Speaker 9: good moment for Joe Biden, and I'm glad.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: He did it a couple of times with COVID where like,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: I just can't imagine it helps him that when the
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: discussion is about how hundreds of thousands of Americans have
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: died of a deadly virus, he switches the topic to
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: talk about Joe Biden's fucking college. And like, yeah, maybe
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: a lot of people were then their interest was peaked
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: and they Googled it. But like, I can't imagine that
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: anyone saw that and was like, yeah, that that makes
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: sense to transition to fucking hitting him about where he
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: went to college after we're talking about covid. later, Chris,
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Chris Wallace is talking about Donald Trump's rallies and how
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: like the health and safety precautions and, and, and Trump
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: starts making fun of Joe Biden's crowd sizes.
• 29:51
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: And the mask. And he picks a fight on mass,
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: which is insane. It is an absolutely politically insane thing
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: to do. Even Trump supporters almost overwhelmingly think masks are
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: a good idea. But he can't, he is so, like
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: there is a, like Trump lives in an alternative world
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: where he is handsome and smart and successful. And that
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: world is Fox News. But every once in a while,
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: he gets a glimpse at the real Trump and he
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: sort of sees what everyone else sees about him. And
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: COVID is that, is sort of his Achilles heel there
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: because he knows he fucked this up. And in fact,
• 30:21
  Speaker 3: it was reported, and I think it was the Biden
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: campaign who said this yesterday, that During the debate negotiations,
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: Trump's campaign tried to get the moderators to not say
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: the number of COVID deaths in America.
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: Oh, right. Yeah.
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: Which is a real sign that they know it's a
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: trigger for him. And so he acted like this. That
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: was a terrible segment for him, both what he said
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: about COVID, his inability to even just have one ounce
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: of empathy for one person who died from COVID in
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: this country. Also, he just erased Herman Cain.
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, right.
• 30:51
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 30:52
  Speaker 9: Herman Cain's looking up and being like, hey, come on.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: There's no spinning his COVID response, right? So like he
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: just has nowhere to go here. So he just sort
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: of like defaults to some childish political hit. I thought
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: Biden was generally quite strong on his COVID answers. There
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: were a few times like he referred to Xi without
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: really explaining. He was talking about Xi Jinping, the president
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: of China. And I was probably just confusing. There was
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: kind of a clunky line that like, get out of
• 31:17
  Speaker 2: your bunker, get out of your sand trap.
• 31:19
  Speaker 8: I did.
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: I was like, I was a little too cute for me. But,
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: you know, Trump just punctuated all his answers with whining
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: and grievance about how the press treated him. And there
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: was this one moment that really drove me crazy. They
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: were talking about the vaccine timeline. And Trump is so
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: untrustworthy on this. It's so clear he's trying to force
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: a vaccine to come out before the election. And Trump goes,
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: you don't trust Johnson and Johnson. You don't trust Pfizer.
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: Hey guys, I looked it up. The pharmaceutical industry is
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: now the most poorly regarded industry in American eyes ranking
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: last on a list of 25 industries that Gallup tests annually.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: He is not a political genius. He's an asshole who
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: won one election because of a lot of factors that
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: came together in a very different time. Like it was
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: a terrible performance.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: So that's a, that's a moment Tommy where, um, I
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: thought like if you're going to critique Biden, he didn't
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: do anything wrong, but it's just like missed opportunity to
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: then jump on Trump saying that about the pharmaceutical companies
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: and then immediately say, here's what I would do on drugs. Now, again,
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: the problem is like Chris Wallace tried to move on.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Everyone's shouting, everyone's screaming. So it's just really hard to
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: do this. But if I were, if I were Biden
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: preparing for next time, I'd have like two or three issues,
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: whether it's healthcare, COVID, whatever it may be, where like
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: you have a quick line about what you're going to
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: do as president that you're ready to just give the
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: second you get a breath and the second they give
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: you a chance to do it. I think that would
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: be like, great. That would sort of improve a tenfold.
• 32:43
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: This is hard for Biden because no one, no one
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: adheres to debate rules as much as Joe Biden. Like
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: remember the primary, he would just cut himself off in
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: his mental head and be like, well, they said 60
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: seconds and I'm like, it's at second 70. So I
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: better just stop talking. And so it's like, it is just,
• 32:59
  Speaker 3: he is, he is in an impossible situation and you're right.
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: Having a, like a narrower debate, shorter menu of things
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: you want to hit is probably better when debating Trump
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: because you're just going to get so few opportunities. So
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: it's like, instead of trying to do seven things, I'm
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: gonna try to do three things and I'm going to,
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: and I will, I'm going to shoehorn them in, even
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: if it's awkward, right? Like, oh, you, you brought up
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: my college thing or some other absurd thing. I'm just
• 33:22
  Speaker 3: going to do my COVID answer right here because there
• 33:24
  Speaker 3: are 70 million people watching and I want them to
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: hear it regardless of what the moderator thinks.
• 33:29
  Speaker 9: I'll also say too, that like, that Trump interrupting and like, oh,
• 33:33
  Speaker 9: where'd you go to college, Hunter, all the little kind
• 33:36
  Speaker 9: of whatever, like kind of snake bites, just sort of jumping,
• 33:39
  Speaker 9: jumping in, jumping in.
• 33:41
  Speaker 5: They were really clipped.
• 33:42
  Speaker 9: They were issued by somebody inside of a news bubble
• 33:45
  Speaker 9: that a lot of other people are not in. I
• 33:47
  Speaker 9: don't know what you're talking about when you talk about
• 33:49
  Speaker 9: where Joe Biden went to college. I don't understand what
• 33:51
  Speaker 9: you're talking about when Mike Flynn comes up. I don't
• 33:53
  Speaker 9: follow these issues. Like, His son was dishonorably discharged. Nobody
• 33:59
  Speaker 9: knows what the fuck you're talking about.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: I would say when you say I don't follow these issues,
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: like we pay more attention to politics than most people
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: in the universe. And I didn't get what some of
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: what fucking Donald Trump was saying. I didn't get the
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: Flynn thing. I didn't get the call. Like, I don't
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: even know what some of these conspiracies are. I spend
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: time looking at Fox News.
• 34:15
  Speaker 9: So it's like the hope that like you need a Ph.D.
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: In Fox.
• 34:17
  Speaker 10: Yeah.
• 34:17
  Speaker 9: Like is the hope that, OK, people Google some of
• 34:21
  Speaker 9: these words and then fall down the Facebook rabbit hole
• 34:23
  Speaker 9: and get sucked into the conspiracy.
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: That's like a lot of work.
• 34:26
  Speaker 9: That's quite a bank shot when you have 100 million
• 34:28
  Speaker 9: people watching and you don't deliver a clean hit over
• 34:30
  Speaker 9: the course of the entire night.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: So the Trump campaign told everyone who'd listened that the
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: president would be going after Joe Biden's son, Hunter, during
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: the debate. And he certainly delivered. Here's an exchange that
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: started with Biden talking about Trump disparaging the military service
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: of his other son, Beau, who passed away of cancer
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: a few years ago.
• 34:45
  Speaker 7: And speaking of my son, the way you talk about
• 34:48
  Speaker 7: the military, the way you talk about them being losers
• 34:51
  Speaker 7: and just being suckers, my son... was in Iraq. He
• 34:57
  Speaker 7: spent a year there. He got the Bronze Star. He
• 35:02
  Speaker 7: got the Conspicuous Service Medal. He was not a loser.
• 35:05
  Speaker 7: He was a patriot. And the people left behind there
• 35:09
  Speaker 7: were heroes. And I resent like hell.
• 35:11
  Speaker 5: Are you talking about Hunter?
• 35:13
  Speaker 4: I'm talking about my son, Beau Biden.
• 35:14
  Speaker 5: You're talking about... I don't know. I don't know, Beau.
• 35:17
  Speaker 5: I know Hunter. Hunter got thrown out of the military.
• 35:20
  Speaker 5: He was thrown out, dishonorably discharged.
• 35:22
  Speaker 4: That's not true.
• 35:23
  Speaker 5: He wasn't dishonorably discharged. And he didn't have a job
• 35:26
  Speaker 5: until you became vice president.
• 35:27
  Speaker 8: Once you became vice president, he made a fortune in Ukraine,
• 35:31
  Speaker 8: in China, in Moscow.
• 35:32
  Speaker 4: That is simply not true.
• 35:35
  Speaker 5: He made a fortune. My son. And he didn't have
• 35:38
  Speaker 5: a job.
• 35:38
  Speaker 7: My son, like a lot of people, like a lot
• 35:40
  Speaker 7: of people we know at home, had a drug problem.
• 35:43
  Speaker 4: He's overtaken it. He's fixed it. He's worked on it.
• 35:47
  Speaker 4: And I'm proud of him.
• 35:48
  Speaker 5: I'm proud of my son.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: Dan, how do you think Biden handled the Hunter stuff?
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: I don't want to adopt the new cable news habit
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: of reading texts from random people to judge and debate.
• 36:02
  Speaker 3: This is so funny.
• 36:03
  Speaker 6: Yeah, go ahead.
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: But I will say I heard from a lot of
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: people about that exchange, about Hunter and dealing with his addiction,
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: because so many of us know people in our lives
• 36:11
  Speaker 3: who have struggled with addiction. And for Joe Biden to
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: stand on that stage under a withering assault from a
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: lunatic and talk about how proud he is of his son,
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: I think meant a lot to a lot of people.
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: And that's one of those moments that may not get
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: a ton of national attention. It may not be the
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: thing that Twitter talks about or the thing that's on
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: cable news, but we'll get a lot of circulation among
• 36:30
  Speaker 3: people within their networks. And I think it was a
• 36:33
  Speaker 3: very powerful moment. And Joe Biden is a very proud man.
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: He cares deeply and passionately and is very protective of
• 36:42
  Speaker 3: his children. And so the fact that he was able
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: to handle that with that much grace and dignity and
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: not just completely lose it on Trump is a real
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: statement to that man.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: Tommy, what did you think?
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, I just thought, one, Joe Biden looks so
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: human in being honest about challenges that Hunter has had, too.
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: But Trump looked so vicious and so cruel in these moments.
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: And I think there are probably very few voters for
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: whom drug use by a candidate's kid matters. And when
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: it's delivered in a way that is just so nakedly
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: cruel and harsh and caustic, like like Trump did. It
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: just makes you think less of Trump. That's what happened here.
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: Voters don't like negative politics. This was about as nasty
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: as it gets. I don't think this helps Trump in
• 37:32
  Speaker 2: any way, shape, or form. I don't care if people
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: are Googling it, searching Hunter Biden. I don't think any
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: of it matters. They're electing Joe Biden or Donald Trump,
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: and Donald Trump is showing himself to be a horrible
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: human being. Love it.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: Were you going to say something?
• 37:44
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 37:44
  Speaker 9: It was really striking to me. I was thinking about
• 37:47
  Speaker 9: this actually before the debate. You know, Brad Parscale, Trump's
• 37:51
  Speaker 9: former campaign manager, senior advisor, was having a mental health
• 37:56
  Speaker 9: emergency and had to be taken.
• 37:58
  Speaker 2: To a hospital.
• 37:59
  Speaker 9: The HHS spokesperson for Donald Trump, again, started issuing paranoid
• 38:03
  Speaker 9: conspiracy theories, had to take a leave for health. So
• 38:09
  Speaker 9: much of Trump and his movement is about denying pain.
• 38:11
  Speaker 9: It's about denying their own pain, right? Like, oh, you
• 38:14
  Speaker 9: feel bad. You feel a loss of purpose. You feel
• 38:16
  Speaker 9: like America's leaving you behind.
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: It's not on you.
• 38:18
  Speaker 9: You hate some other people. Point your anger elsewhere. And
• 38:22
  Speaker 9: a lot of it is also about trying to convince
• 38:24
  Speaker 9: people that they don't matter. That's why you don't need
• 38:25
  Speaker 9: masks at the rallies. That's why you don't have to
• 38:27
  Speaker 9: take COVID seriously. Convince yourself that you're so strong, you're
• 38:31
  Speaker 9: so tough, that you don't feel pain. You don't need
• 38:33
  Speaker 9: to worry about pain. You'll be okay to deny services,
• 38:36
  Speaker 9: to deny help, to deny compassion to other people. That
• 38:38
  Speaker 9: is so core to what Trump does. And I really did.
• 38:42
  Speaker 9: That was like an incredibly moving moment to see because
• 38:44
  Speaker 9: At a few moments, there's an old kind of politics
• 38:47
  Speaker 9: that would give credence to the way Trump talked about
• 38:49
  Speaker 9: drug abuse, that views it as a personal failing, that
• 38:52
  Speaker 9: views it as a failing as a parent.
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: And both on.
• 38:54
  Speaker 9: That issue, on just talking about racial sensitivity and saying
• 38:57
  Speaker 9: it's a good thing to learn from other people. It
• 38:59
  Speaker 9: was an acceptance of a kind of new way of thinking,
• 39:02
  Speaker 9: a better way of thinking about these problems. And it
• 39:05
  Speaker 9: resonated for me. I hope it resonated for other people
• 39:07
  Speaker 9: because it was a defense of the idea that it's
• 39:09
  Speaker 9: okay to talk about the pain people have had in
• 39:10
  Speaker 9: their lives.
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: I think, Lovett, that you said this earlier, but we're
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: so numb to what Trump has done that if you
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: just pull yourself out of this and just have like
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: a common sense reaction to that. Joe Biden is talking
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: about his son who served in Iraq and died. And
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: then Donald Trump, President of the United States, on a
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: debate stage turns to him and says, I don't know, Bo,
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: I know Hunter, the one who did cocaine. Like that
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: is such an ugly, disgusting thing to say to any
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: human being at any time. And like, Dan, the same
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: thing happened to me, not to be all about the
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: text from friends and family, but that is what I
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: heard most from people since the debate last night about
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: that moment and then Biden talking about how Hunter overcame it.
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: And I heard it from people who are in red states,
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: who are not real liberal. I actually think it's one
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: of the more undercovered moments of the debate that when
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: you see that and you see Donald Trump do that
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: to Joe Biden and you see how Joe Biden responded,
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: you're like, fuck that guy. He is just bad. He's
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: a bad person.
• 40:08
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: When we have this conversation about why Trump is a
• 40:12
  Speaker 3: bad person, he showed he's an asshole, and then everyone
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: will then point out, well, in 2016, that's the message
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: you guys ran. There was that ad that the Clinton
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: campaign ran with all those kids watching Trump, and it
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: didn't work because Hillary lost. And there are two problems
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: with that. One, when candidates lose, we then assume everything
• 40:28
  Speaker 3: they did was wrong and did not possibly work. But
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: it's also, this is a very different race. And Joe
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: Biden is a different candidate than Hillary Clinton. And Joe
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: Biden is running in part, on his decency as a
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: human being, particularly in a moment where America desperately needs it.
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: And so therefore, when Trump acts like that, it is
• 40:46
  Speaker 3: reinforcing Biden's message. That's not the campaign that Hillary was running.
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: It's not a campaign that was available to her because
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: of 30 years of Republican attacks. But it is consistent.
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: This is not just like, oh, Democrats want nice people
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: or progressive softies or anything like that. It is a
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: core part of the campaign. And when Trump acts like that,
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: he reinforces what majority of voters like about Biden right now.
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: Oh, and just a last thought, just because we're not
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: trying to be viewed as nice people. Don Jr. looks
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: like he just left Studio 54 every time he does
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: a Fox interview. Maybe Donald Trump should sit his kids
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: down and talk a minute about the dangers of amphetamine use,
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: because holy shit, man, that jaw is going and you
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: got to simmer down. Just take a beat.
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: I mean, it actually says so much more about Biden.
• 41:31
  Speaker 3: Not that he did not freak out, but Trump's sons
• 41:34
  Speaker 3: are Eric and Don Jr., who are some of the
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: dumbest criminals in America. And Biden did not even avail
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: himself of that very obvious response.
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: I will just say that, Dan, to your point, like
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: the other big difference between now and 2016 is in 2016,
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: Trump was an asshole. He was proud of how much
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: of an asshole he was, but he was trying to be,
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: his message was that he was an asshole on behalf
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: of other people, right? Like he had a message in
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: those debates with Hillary Clinton. It was, I'm the outsider
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: who can take on Washington, take on this corruption. You're
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: part of this corruption. I'm not going to say things
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: that are that are nice and polite, but I'm going
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: to get the fucking job done. Now he's just an
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: asshole for himself. Talking about Hunter Biden that way, dismissing
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: Beau Biden that way, that doesn't do anything for any
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: of his supporters. That doesn't do anything for anyone in
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: the country. That's just him being a petulant asshole for himself.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: That's the big difference.
• 42:25
  Speaker 9: It's also I also one other thing I would say, too,
• 42:27
  Speaker 9: is like there's a frame that I think the media
• 42:28
  Speaker 9: falls for.
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: It's easy to fall for it. for a lot of people.
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: We all can fall for it.
• 42:33
  Speaker 9: It's the idea that toughness is the opposite of kindness,
• 42:36
  Speaker 9: that decency is the opposite of being strong. And what
• 42:38
  Speaker 9: I appreciated about that moment is Biden was compassionate and
• 42:42
  Speaker 9: decent and strong, and Trump was mean-spirited and weak. And
• 42:47
  Speaker 9: I think so often, even in how they're talking about
• 42:49
  Speaker 9: the next debate matter, they go, the next debate matter
• 42:51
  Speaker 9: is nice, and you can't be nice and tough.
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: And that's how Trump sees.
• 42:54
  Speaker 9: The world, but we don't have to see the world
• 42:55
  Speaker 9: that way.
• 42:56
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: And Biden saying this is not about my family or
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: your family. This is about the American people's family. And
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: looking directly at a camera was a great way to
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: end that and made him look decent and focused on
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: the right stuff.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: All right. The final section of the debate, the candidates
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: were asked about the integrity of the election and our democracy. Trump,
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: who has declined multiple opportunities to commit to a peaceful
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: transfer of power after the election. took the exchange as
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: an opportunity to encourage his supporters to stock voters at
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: polling places on his behalf. Here's what he had to say.
• 43:28
  Speaker 8: I'm urging my supporters to go into the polls and
• 43:32
  Speaker 8: watch very carefully because that's what has to happen. I
• 43:35
  Speaker 8: am urging them to do it. As you know, today
• 43:38
  Speaker 8: there was a big problem. In Philadelphia, they went in
• 43:41
  Speaker 8: to watch. They were called poll watchers, a very safe,
• 43:43
  Speaker 8: very nice thing.
• 43:45
  Speaker 5: They were thrown out. They weren't allowed to watch. You
• 43:47
  Speaker 5: know why?
• 43:48
  Speaker 8: Because bad things happen in Philadelphia, bad things. And I
• 43:52
  Speaker 8: am urging I am urging my people. I hope it's
• 43:54
  Speaker 8: going to be a fair election. If it's a fair election,
• 43:57
  Speaker 8: I am 100 percent on board. But if I see
• 44:00
  Speaker 8: tens of thousands of ballots being manipulated, I can't go
• 44:04
  Speaker 8: along with that.
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: So Biden, Tommy, you referenced this earlier, gave a pretty
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: on message response about the power of voting. Let's hear that.
• 44:11
  Speaker 7: Show up and vote. You will determine the outcome of
• 44:15
  Speaker 7: this election.
• 44:15
  Speaker 4: Vote, vote, vote.
• 44:17
  Speaker 7: If you're able to vote early in your state, vote early.
• 44:20
  Speaker 7: If you're able to vote in person, vote in person.
• 44:23
  Speaker 7: Vote whatever way is the best way for you because
• 44:26
  Speaker 7: you will, he cannot stop you from being able to
• 44:29
  Speaker 7: determine the outcome of this election. And in terms of
• 44:32
  Speaker 7: whether or not when the votes are counted and they're
• 44:34
  Speaker 7: all counted, that will be accepted.
• 44:36
  Speaker 4: If I win, that will be accepted. If I lose,
• 44:39
  Speaker 4: that will be accepted.
• 44:40
  Speaker 7: But by the way, If, in fact, he says he's
• 44:42
  Speaker 7: not sure what he's going to accept, well, let me
• 44:44
  Speaker 7: tell you something. It doesn't matter because if we get
• 44:47
  Speaker 7: the votes, it's going to be all over.
• 44:49
  Speaker 4: He's going to go. He can't stay in power. It
• 44:51
  Speaker 4: won't happen. It won't happen. So vote.
• 44:54
  Speaker 7: Just make sure you understand you have it in your
• 44:58
  Speaker 7: control to determine what this country is going to look
• 45:01
  Speaker 7: like the next four years.
• 45:02
  Speaker 4: Is it going to change? You're going to get four
• 45:04
  Speaker 4: more years of these lies.
• 45:06
  Speaker 3: Somebody reads message box, right, Dan?
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: I was going to say, look at that.
• 45:11
  Speaker 3: Copping Joe Biden's description was the best thing I did.
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: Listen to your conversation with a knot right there. For sure.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: So bad things happen in Philadelphia. Obviously, an incredibly dangerous
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: answer from Donald Trump about the election. But from a
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: political standpoint, great idea to say that bad things happen
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: in Philadelphia in a swing state that may decide the election.
• 45:33
  Speaker 3: I just assumed that was a Philadelphia 76ers reference, and
• 45:35
  Speaker 3: I fully agree with it.
• 45:37
  Speaker 2: Trust the process, John.
• 45:38
  Speaker 3: That's right. He's referring to the Al Horford contract.
• 45:41
  Speaker 9: He's saying that Tom Hanks was unfairly denied employment until
• 45:45
  Speaker 9: Denzel Washington finally stood up to him and his own
• 45:48
  Speaker 9: ingrained homophobia.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, look, he's obviously setting things up to challenge
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: mail-in ballots in a close election. But doesn't that kind
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: of answer sort of make it less likely the election
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: is that close in the first place? Like, I just
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: don't know how much this is a dangerous message. I
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: don't know how much it helps him.
• 46:04
  Speaker 2: I don't know, John. I think ending your voting message
• 46:08
  Speaker 2: by complaining about a coup, name dropping the Logan Act,
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: lying about unsolicited ballots, and then urging vigilante poll watcher
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: justice is exactly how I would have closed. I mean,
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: he's a fucking lunatic. Biden looked like a president. He
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: looked like a decent man. He did a good job
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: undercutting the straw man, like Trump is a strong man
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: argument that everyone sort of gets sucked into. hey, thanks again,
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: Chris Wallace, for letting Trump just take a shot at
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: democracy itself. No Russian propaganda in the history of time
• 46:37
  Speaker 2: has more thoroughly undercut the American system than what Trump
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: did in that closing anti-democratic rant. So that wasn't great.
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: But yeah, he looked like a goddamn lunatic. What's scarier, too,
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: is Trump is a coward, right? Trump hides behind his
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: Twitter feed. He hides behind his fucking rallies. He is
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: a weak authoritarian, as we've said a million times. But
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: All it takes is a few tweets out there to
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: tell people, like, don't accept the results of this election.
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: Storm the streets. And, like, Trump is too cowardly to
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: do shit like that.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: But his supporters might. Like, it was pretty. I am
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: not one to get, like, overly torqued about sort of the, like,
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: how Trump is going to steal the election, the Barton
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: Gellman Atlantic piece, all that kind of stuff. But what
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: he said last night I thought was chilling.
• 47:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, look, there is... It was.
• 47:27
  Speaker 5: It's chilling.
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: Of course it is.
• 47:29
  Speaker 9: And there is no difference between Donald Trump saying things
• 47:34
  Speaker 9: to stoke violence, stoke uncertainty, stoke fear, stoke chaos so
• 47:39
  Speaker 9: that he can steal the election and doing all of
• 47:42
  Speaker 9: those things just so that he can save face when
• 47:44
  Speaker 9: he ultimately leaves, so that he can claim the election
• 47:46
  Speaker 9: was stolen, so that he can claim that somehow he
• 47:49
  Speaker 9: didn't really lose. And when he says these things, you know,
• 47:51
  Speaker 9: we can't tell the difference. And right-wing nationalists, a bunch
• 47:55
  Speaker 9: of broken people and racists, they can't tell the difference either, right?
• 47:58
  Speaker 9: They don't know if he means it or not because
• 48:00
  Speaker 9: they're going to take it to its logical conclusion.
• 48:01
  Speaker 2: Can I just make like one little policy point on this,
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: which is that for, I think like 40 years, Republicans
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: were governed by something called a consent decree that basically
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: disallowed the RNC and other Republican entities from doing like
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: election integrity work, where you send a bunch of poll
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: watchers to intimidate voters, usually voters of color on the
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: way in. This is the first election cycle in a
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: long time where they are no longer bound by that
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: consent decree. You're seeing all kinds of crazy reporting about
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: like ex-Navy SEALs being sent to the polls as poll watchers.
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: So there's gonna be a lot of intimidation. And that
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: to me was him, you know, sounding the alarm and
• 48:35
  Speaker 2: gathering everybody up to start that crap right away. And that's, yes,
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: it's very scary.
• 48:39
  Speaker 9: And by the way, Tommy, to that point, it's worth
• 48:41
  Speaker 9: saying the reason he says Philadelphia is because the problem
• 48:43
  Speaker 9: is black people voting in this country, Tim.
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: That's the problem.
• 48:47
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: In numbers. Let's talk about post-debate reactions. Joe Biden dominated
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: the snap polls. CNN showed 60% of debate watchers thought
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: he won compared to just 28% for Trump. CBS was
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: a little closer, but Biden still won 48 to 41.
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: Our friends at Data for Progress did a poll that
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: actually weighted the demographics by education in order to make
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: sure you get enough non-college voters who tend to support Trump.
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: Still found that Biden won the debate by 52 to 39%.
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: Frank Luntz's focus group of undecided voters called Trump arrogant, un-American,
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: and a crackhead, while they said Biden was better than expected,
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: more professional, compassionate, coherent, and a leader. And here's what
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: one participant in a CNN focus group had to say
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: when asked how he felt about Biden calling Trump a clown.
• 49:25
  Speaker 3: Did it bother you at all.
• 49:26
  Speaker 7: To hear Joe Biden calling the sitting president of the
• 49:29
  Speaker 7: United States names, calling him a clown and that type
• 49:32
  Speaker 7: of thing?
• 49:32
  Speaker 6: You know, I think we pretty much have gotten past
• 49:34
  Speaker 6: that now, haven't we? I mean, he's spent the last
• 49:37
  Speaker 6: five years calling Elizabeth Warren Pocahontas and talking about AOC
• 49:44
  Speaker 6: and all the other people. So is it great that
• 49:48
  Speaker 6: Joe called him a clown? No, but when the shoe fits.
• 49:52
  Speaker 6: When the clown shoe fits.
• 49:54
  Speaker 3: So proud of that guy.
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: Get that fucking joke.
• 49:57
  Speaker 4: Great job.
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: He got it under the wire.
• 49:58
  Speaker 10: Great job.
• 49:59
  Speaker 9: Saved that whole fucking focus group. Those people were wide-eyed
• 50:04
  Speaker 9: and not forming enough opinions. And then that guy came
• 50:07
  Speaker 9: in and made everybody laugh at Donald Trump, and I
• 50:09
  Speaker 9: really appreciated it.
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: Dan, was anything surprising or interesting to you from the
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: polling or focus groups post-debate?
• 50:16
  Speaker 3: No, I think it kind of fit with where we
• 50:20
  Speaker 3: thought it would be. I thought that it was very
• 50:21
  Speaker 3: smart of Data for Progress to wait for education because-
• 50:25
  Speaker 3: These previous snap polls tend to focus on people who
• 50:27
  Speaker 3: watch the debate, which over-indexes on demographically likely Democratic voters,
• 50:32
  Speaker 3: and so they can be somewhat misleading. I thought it
• 50:35
  Speaker 3: was interesting and encouraging that Biden got a slight edge
• 50:39
  Speaker 3: on the economy in the Data for Progress poll, even
• 50:42
  Speaker 3: though there was very limited opportunity to talk about the economy,
• 50:44
  Speaker 3: which is at least in a coherent way without a
• 50:46
  Speaker 3: crazy man shouting at you. And so that was positive
• 50:48
  Speaker 3: because that's the one place where Biden still lags a
• 50:50
  Speaker 3: little bit with Trump on the issues. And so if
• 50:53
  Speaker 3: he scored some points there, then that's a real positive sign.
• 50:57
  Speaker 3: But I think it sort of fit with what we thought.
• 51:00
  Speaker 3: I think the one thing that I want to see
• 51:01
  Speaker 3: in more polling and focus groups going forward is, did
• 51:05
  Speaker 3: the debate make you more or less enthusiastic to vote?
• 51:08
  Speaker 3: Because if you're going to harbor one concern about this
• 51:11
  Speaker 3: is that the debate was such a mess, it'll be
• 51:14
  Speaker 3: covered as such a mess by the press that for
• 51:17
  Speaker 3: the more than 50% of the electorate that did not
• 51:19
  Speaker 3: watch this debate, it could be deflating for some who
• 51:22
  Speaker 3: were not previously fully committed to voting. And so I
• 51:25
  Speaker 3: want to see some polling, some of which I know
• 51:27
  Speaker 3: is going in the field soon, that will ask people
• 51:30
  Speaker 3: whether the debate, whether they, do they watch it in person?
• 51:32
  Speaker 3: Do they consume stuff afterwards? Does that make you more
• 51:34
  Speaker 3: or less enthusiastic to vote? Because Trump, you know, that
• 51:36
  Speaker 3: is one thing Trump can do is make everything in
• 51:38
  Speaker 3: politics seem terrible. And that can turn off voters we
• 51:41
  Speaker 3: need to win this election.
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: I mean, look, I think there's just no doubt that
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: Biden won the debate. All the data suggests that. I
• 51:47
  Speaker 2: also think If you're Donald Trump and the majority of
• 51:50
  Speaker 2: your day two stories about the debate are focused on
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: the Proud Boys and, you know, your sort of insane behavior,
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: that's not good either. You know, at the risk of,
• 51:59
  Speaker 2: you know, again, like not wanting happy talk. There was
• 52:01
  Speaker 2: someone in that Frank Luntz focus group and take everything
• 52:04
  Speaker 2: Frank Luntz says with a healthy grain of salt. But
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: they describe Biden as a nice guy lacking vision. And
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: I think that was kind of the downside coming out
• 52:12
  Speaker 2: of this debate last night, which is a lot of
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: people wanted to hear from Biden. What are you going
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: to do for me? They're not familiar with them. They
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: don't know his policies or plans. And because he was
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: debating an unhinged madman, he didn't have the chance to
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: do that. And that sucks for Biden. But I still think, Matt,
• 52:28
  Speaker 2: he absolutely came out better for the last night.
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, looking at some of the focus groups, the Luntz
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: focus group and the CNN one, and just some of
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: the polling, there's... I felt this way before the debate,
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: but there's two cohorts of voter groups that sort of
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: still concern me, right? One is a group of voters
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: who voted for Trump in 2016, think he's a complete asshole,
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: but sort of like his policies. And you actually heard
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: a woman on CNN last night say, I really find myself,
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: I agree with a lot of what Trump says, but
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: I hate the way he says it, right? And so
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: you worry that those voters could go back home to Trump.
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: And then, you know, there was an African-American woman in
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: the Luntz focus group who said like, I didn't hear
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: anything from either candidate on what they would do for
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: the black community. Like what would they would do for me?
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: And so that's a group of voters who like, they
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: all think Donald Trump's an asshole too, but their question
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: is like, yeah, I have an asshole president, but like,
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: what's the new president going to do to actually improve
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: my life?
• 53:26
  Speaker 8: Right.
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: And so I do think that both of those issues
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: can be solved by sort of Joe Biden, just being
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: able to talk more about his vision. Um, so I
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: still think it was that, but like, look, That's sort
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: of around the margins, too. And if this was, Lovett,
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: as you were saying earlier, a tied race, you might
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: be even more nervous about those groups of voters. But,
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: you know, with a lead like this, some of those
• 53:46
  Speaker 1: undecided voters going back home to Trump is going to
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: tighten the race a little bit, but not significantly. I mean,
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: even in the Luntz focus group, there's 15 undecided voters,
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: four broke to Biden, two went to Trump, and then
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: nine are still undecided. Nine people being still undecided after
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: that is wild to me, but there you go. Love it.
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: If you were the Biden campaign, how would you be
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: prepping for the next debate?
• 54:07
  Speaker 5: What a question.
• 54:09
  Speaker 9: Again, by the way, I feel quite vindicated on suggesting
• 54:12
  Speaker 9: that for debate prep, you just use a noisemaker for
• 54:14
  Speaker 9: Trump and just have somebody spin it around like a
• 54:18
  Speaker 9: grogger during Purim.
• 54:19
  Speaker 5: But it's interesting.
• 54:22
  Speaker 9: I saw a lot of people talking about like, oh,
• 54:24
  Speaker 9: should they even be another debate? The town hall is
• 54:26
  Speaker 9: a very different thing than a debate where Donald Trump
• 54:30
  Speaker 9: can kind of like yell at Joe Biden, yell at
• 54:32
  Speaker 9: the moderator, kind of mix it up. Donald Trump really
• 54:35
  Speaker 9: struggled in that George Stephanopoulos town hall. Uh, and it's
• 54:40
  Speaker 9: hard because you can't, you know, attack a registered nurse
• 54:43
  Speaker 9: for being a tool of the radical left. You just can't,
• 54:45
  Speaker 9: it doesn't, it doesn't work. And Trump is not, he
• 54:48
  Speaker 9: might try, you know, he's, he's, he's not as, he's
• 54:52
  Speaker 9: not as, he's no one's as smart as he thinks
• 54:54
  Speaker 9: he is. He's not as dumb as we want him
• 54:56
  Speaker 9: to be.
• 54:56
  Speaker 5: Uh, I don't know.
• 54:59
  Speaker 9: I think it goes back to what we've been talking
• 55:00
  Speaker 9: about this whole time. Trump is a known quantity for
• 55:04
  Speaker 9: the American people. He's a known quantity as a debater.
• 55:07
  Speaker 9: I think he has to go in there with a
• 55:08
  Speaker 9: couple of key points he wants to make to talk
• 55:11
  Speaker 9: directly to the American people. I think talking about Trump's
• 55:14
  Speaker 9: COVID failures is an opportunity to talk about what he'd
• 55:17
  Speaker 9: do differently. I think compassion and decency and kindness and
• 55:21
  Speaker 9: why it's essential and why it will animate what he
• 55:23
  Speaker 9: does as president, I think it's an opportunity to just
• 55:25
  Speaker 9: talk to people who are going through something. They'll probably
• 55:27
  Speaker 9: throw some hard questions at him too. And I just
• 55:29
  Speaker 9: think relating to people is his strength. It's, it's why
• 55:32
  Speaker 9: I think he ultimately became in part with the nominee. So, um,
• 55:36
  Speaker 9: I am like, I go into the town hall kind
• 55:38
  Speaker 9: of not nearly as nervous as I did going into
• 55:40
  Speaker 9: this debate, uh, just because of the format itself.
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: Tommy, what about you?
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: How would you be prepping, uh, prepping your candidate? I mean,
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: my notes would be no insults, no shut up, no clown.
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: Don't ever just don't take the bait. Two, don't let
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: Trump's interruptions change your answer, right? You're going to get
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: a question from a real voter. You cannot let him
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: knock you off course. That happened a lot last night. Three,
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: I would say separate yourself from the left where, you know,
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: you have policies that are different, but you don't have
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: to be critical of Bernie or those policies themselves. And
• 56:12
  Speaker 2: then lastly, wear an N95 mask because getting COVID is
• 56:15
  Speaker 2: the fucking thing that scares me the most. So just
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: stay healthy, Joe Biden.
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: That's a good tip. Dan, what about you?
• 56:22
  Speaker 3: I think in a normal world, in a normal progression
• 56:25
  Speaker 3: of presidential debates, you would see this town hall debate
• 56:27
  Speaker 3: as your chance to show your empathy and your decency
• 56:31
  Speaker 3: and your ability to feel people's pain, right? Like this
• 56:33
  Speaker 3: is where Bill Clinton excelled in the 92 and 96
• 56:36
  Speaker 3: debates with these town hall debates against noted, uh, cuddly types,
• 56:41
  Speaker 3: George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole. And I think Biden
• 56:46
  Speaker 3: will do that naturally. He doesn't have to focus so
• 56:48
  Speaker 3: much on that. But so I think his goal should
• 56:50
  Speaker 3: be to do more policy specifics in this debate than
• 56:53
  Speaker 3: you normally would. The first question is, Joe Biden, how
• 56:57
  Speaker 3: are you doing? The answer should be $ 15 minimum wage,
• 56:59
  Speaker 3: 12 weeks family paid leave, free college people making under $ 125, 000,
• 57:02
  Speaker 3: buy American, requirement for products bought by the federal government.
• 57:06
  Speaker 3: Just get your goals to get your economic plans in
• 57:08
  Speaker 3: there somehow, some way. as much as you possibly can,
• 57:11
  Speaker 3: because this could be your, it's harder for Trump to
• 57:13
  Speaker 3: shout over you, as you guys pointed out, in this format.
• 57:16
  Speaker 3: So you got to take advantage of it to speak
• 57:18
  Speaker 3: directly to those voters. It will sadly, I imagine, be
• 57:20
  Speaker 3: a smaller audience because I have to believe that people will,
• 57:24
  Speaker 3: some people will not want to subject themselves to that again,
• 57:27
  Speaker 3: but it's still, you know, will be the biggest audience
• 57:29
  Speaker 3: that Biden talked to, not counting last night through this
• 57:32
  Speaker 3: whole campaign, his whole career, frankly.
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: I think he needs a couple lines to stop Trump
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: from interrupting so much. But not sort of get into
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: a back and forth. And I think he needs to
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: make it about people like I think as Trump keeps
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: going and interrupting him and insulting him, he should say, like,
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: have some respect for the American people for once in
• 57:51
  Speaker 1: your presidency. They are looking for a debate between the
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: two of us about what we're going to do for
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: the country. And I would also break that fourth wall
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: more like he did in last night's debate. Be like,
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: you know. Donald Trump, he's got plenty of insults. He's
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: got plenty of complaints. He's trying to monopolize all this time,
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: but he doesn't have any plans. He doesn't have any
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: plans for the future. He won't tell you what he's
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: going to do in a second term. I'll tell you
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: what I'm going to do. Here's what I'm going to
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: do for you. And he can't forget the last part, right?
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: He can't just attack Donald Trump, but it's got to
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: be like, this guy is doing this because he's losing
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: and he has no plans and he has no agenda.
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: We all know it. And there's like a moment or
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: two where he could, and Biden sort of did this
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: last night, but there's a moment where he could look
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: at the camera and just be like, aren't we sick
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: of it? Aren't we tired of this?
• 58:33
  Speaker 2: Like a gym from the office space.
• 58:35
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 58:36
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: Like Donald Trump in this debate performance basically reiterated all
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: of the reasons people already don't like him as president, right?
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: Like they're sick of the chaos and he spent 90
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: minutes giving them more chaos, right? This is, this is
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump's problem. He keeps falling into his own traps.
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: And so if he does it again in the town hall,
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: he does in the third debate, you just look at
• 58:56
  Speaker 1: you like, aren't we, do you want four more years
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: of this? Do you want four more years? I'm not perfect.
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: Words aren't going to come out great all the time.
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: You're not going to agree with me all the time,
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: but I'm not going to be this. I'm not going
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: to be this.
• 59:09
  Speaker 9: I like that we're... come full circle. We want him
• 59:12
  Speaker 9: to say, there he goes again.
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: There you go again.
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: Can I read you something unbelievable that I just saw
• 59:18
  Speaker 2: on Twitter? Trump campaign advisor Jason Miller says that when
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: Trump told the Proud Boys to stand by last night,
• 59:26
  Speaker 2: he meant Stand by the wayside and get out of
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: the way of law enforcement. How's that for spent?
• 59:32
  Speaker 3: While we were sitting here, Trump went– I don't know
• 59:34
  Speaker 3: if he's getting on Marine One or something, but he
• 59:37
  Speaker 3: made a statement to the press disavowing the Proud Boys
• 59:40
  Speaker 3: and saying law enforcement should look at it or something
• 59:42
  Speaker 3: like that.
• 59:42
  Speaker 2: Great job, sir.
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: Well, there you go.
• 59:44
  Speaker 10: Yeah.
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: Well, then they know it was bad. I thought one
• 59:46
  Speaker 1: of the best– this wasn't a poll or a focus group,
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: but BuzzFeed apparently went to– a Trump viewing party with
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: Trump supporters, and they couldn't find anyone to defend his performance.
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: It's not that people still said they were going to
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: vote for him. They still liked him. But even the
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: Trump supporters did not absolutely love that performance, which I
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: thought was telling.
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 2: Just Jacobin columnists. That's the only people that liked him.
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 9: Well, just sort of what you don't see in a
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 9: snap poll is like the people that didn't enjoy the
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 9: Trump performance are not just like.
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 2: Wow, I didn't find that very favorable.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 5: People were horrified.
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 9: People that didn't like what, there's a horrifying thing. My
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 9: mother called me like upset. Like people like, that isn't
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 9: in the snap, Paul. The fact that people were horrified
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 9: and afraid for the future is just a disapprove. So,
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 9: and the approval people are good teammates for Donald Trump.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: Good for you.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: Well, Not to fear because the Commissioner on Presidential Debates promises, quote,
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 1: additional structure to ensure a more orderly discussion of the
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: issues for the next two debates.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 9: It's an electrified cattle prod in Steve Scully's hands that
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 9: he can fucking jam Trump in the haunches every time
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 9: he tries to interrupt.
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the 81-year-old Republican lobbyist who helps run this thing
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 2: is really going to fix it. This will be great.
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the only way you're going to fix it is
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: replacing the candidate. All right, that's all the time we
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: have for today. Dan and I will see you guys
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 1: on Friday, and then we'll be back on Monday. And
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: then next week, VP debate.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's going to be something.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: That'll be something. That will be something. All right, everyone.
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 6: Bye.
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 8: Bye.
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: Bye. Pod Save America is a Crooked Media production. The
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: executive producer is Michael Martinez. Our associate producer is Jordan Waller.
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: It's mixed and edited by Andrew Chadwick. Kyle Seglin is
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: our sound engineer. Thanks to Tanya Sominator, Katie Long, Roman Papadimitriou,
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: Quinn Lewis, Brian Semmel, Caroline Reston, and Elisa Gutierrez for
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: production support. And to our digital team, Elijah Cohn, Nar Melkonian,
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: Yale Freed, and Milo Kim, who film and upload these
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 1: episodes as videos every week.