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The Worst Debate Takes
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The Worst Debate Takes

We waded through the muck to bring you the very finest of the bad takes.

Jim Swift's avatar
Jim Swift
Sep 30, 2020

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The Worst Debate Takes
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Last night’s debate was intensely unpleasant, and if you were lucky enough to have avoided it, you should count your blessings.  But not everyone could avoid it—some of us have to watch these things for work, and here at The Bulwark, it’s what we have to do.

That’s why our thousands of Bulwark+ members pay to help us keep the lights on. And last night a couple thousand of them joined us for a post-debate recap. 

Meanwhile, during the debate and ever since it ended, the internet has been aflame with takes—some smart, some not so much. Beyond a left-right consensus that the whole thing was pretty awful—the word ā€œshitshowā€ has been thrown around a lot—many of the takes about last night’s debate are pretty grim for Republicans, because, well, it was not a good night for Donald Trump.

In an homage to our friends over at Twitchy, here are some of the dumbest, goofiest, question-begging debate takes from the right.

Mark "The Great One!" Levin apparently watched an entirely different debate from the rest of us—one where Donald Trump apparently couldn't get a word in.

Twitter avatar for @marklevinshow
Mark R. Levin @marklevinshow
1. Biden got away with endless lies and cheap shots.  The questions were mostly asked from a left perspective  ("the science of climate change," what's wrong with "critical race theory" training," etc.) and Biden went unchallenged by the moderator far too often.
2:53 AM āˆ™ Sep 30, 2020
49,743Likes12,730Retweets

Charlie Kirk also suggested Trump didn't get enough time to talk. Fortunately, our Bulwark contributor Robert Tracinski was around to pour a bucket of cold water on Charlie.

https://twitter.com/Tracinski/status/1311318946210099200

Former Senator Rick Santorum seemed to be tuckered out by the barrage of the debate. This clip is kind of amazing: Santorum agrees with his CNN copanelists that Trump doesn't want to criticize his supporters. . . . Or in the case of the Proud Boys, white nationalists.

Twitter avatar for @atrupar
Aaron Rupar @atrupar
Just an incredible, oblivious own of Trump here from Rick Santorum
4:27 AM āˆ™ Sep 30, 2020
21,276Likes5,185Retweets

That moment from the debate was a big focus for Trump defenders, as it basically sounded like—and reads like, if you look at the transcript—Charlottesville 2.0.

And that's because it was. Unless you're National Review's Alexandra DeSanctis.

Twitter avatar for @JonahDispatch
Jonah Goldberg @JonahDispatch
@xan_desanctis He did tell the Proud Boys to "stand back and standby" -- which was not exactly a condemnation.
2:19 AM āˆ™ Sep 30, 2020
486Likes31Retweets

And others on the right have taken different tacks in defending Trump for those remarks about the Proud Boys. The Daily Wire's Matt Walsh, for example, claims that Trump has done so well in the past on this topic (?!?) that he does not owe the bad-faith media an answer.

Twitter avatar for @MattWalshBlog
The Honorable Matt Walsh @MattWalshBlog
Trump has explicitly condemned white supremacist groups several times. He doesn't need to do it anymore. It's a bad faith question anyway, like asking him to deny that he's a pedophile. The media is playing a game here and Trump is under no obligation to play along.
12:37 PM āˆ™ Sep 30, 2020
7,274Likes1,346Retweets

One America News conspiracy gadfly Jack Posobiec came back with some weapons-grade whataboutism, suggesting that President Trump executed a white supremacist.

Two points here: Daniel Lewis Lee was apprehended when Posobiec was about 12 years old. He was convicted during the Clinton administration. Eric Holder had more to do with the execution of Lee than Trump did. Unless Posobiec is seriously arguing—and there is a non-zero chance of this, given his history—that Trump isn't a racist because he let a death penalty sentence from the late 1990s be carried out.

Twitter avatar for @JackPosobiec
Jack Poso šŸ‡ŗšŸ‡ø @JackPosobiec
Trump literally executed a white supremacist murderer 2 months ago but that still wasn’t good enough for Chris Wallace
Twitter avatar for @CBSNews
CBS News @CBSNews
BREAKING: White supremacist Daniel Lewis Lee put to death as U.S. carries out the first federal execution in 17 years
12:29 PM āˆ™ Sep 30, 2020
2,292Likes836Retweets

Former Bush 43 press secretary Ari Fleischer tried his best Tim Russert impression with a whiteboard. It wasn't as memorable as Russert's classic "FLORIDA, FLORIDA, FLORIDA," and it wasn't all that great advice, either: If Fleischer thinks Trump can just cease being himself, well, Fox News is probably overpaying him.

Twitter avatar for @colbyhall
Colby Hall @colbyhall
Fox & Friends is trying out a new and remedial approach to preparing Trump for the next election:
Image
12:46 PM āˆ™ Sep 30, 2020
2,478Likes460Retweets

National Review's David Harsanyi took the Fleischer line and ran with it, too, but testosterone and adrenaline expert and constitutional eligibility birther expert Steve Deace from The Blaze took it a step further:

https://twitter.com/SteveDeaceShow/status/1311291622445981696?s=20

Was Chris Wallace trying to "punish" President Trump? That's Hugh Hewitt's take. (Hewitt, recall, has served in a moderating capacity before.)

Twitter avatar for @hughhewitt
Hugh Hewitt @hughhewitt
No. Chris Wallace is mad at @realDonaldTrump and punishing him as a result.
Twitter avatar for @BiasedGirl
BiasedGirl @BiasedGirl
Climate Change wasn’t on the list was it? #Debates2020
2:23 AM āˆ™ Sep 30, 2020
538Likes181Retweets

Hewitt also did a podcast with Megyn Kelly (another former debate moderator) and she took it a step further:

Twitter avatar for @hughhewitt
Hugh Hewitt @hughhewitt
Now @megynkelly was more diplomatic about this than I was, but she played the last ā€œJ’accuseā€ Wallace exchange with @realDonaldTrump. ā€œWill you condemn white supremacy.ā€ ā€œSureā€ said @POTUS. Wallace wanted more than an answer. He wanted a sound byte to distort. Not a neutral.
Twitter avatar for @hughhewitt
Hugh Hewitt @hughhewitt
Just taped a segment for ⁦@megynkelly⁩ podcast today. Both of us have moderated debates w/ ⁦@realDonaldTrump⁩. Both of us have ā€œTrump tattoosā€ as a result, she more than me. We agreed Chris W failed last night, went full opposition to @POTUS.
2:25 PM āˆ™ Sep 30, 2020
267Likes91Retweets

I miss the old Hugh Hewitt, the one who was willing to ask blunt questions of Donald Trump that would reveal his scanty knowledge. Sadly, Hewitt is far from neutral these days.

The Federalist's Mark Hemingway, a former colleague of ours back in the Weekly Standard days, got busted on some bad math about COVID-19 deaths. To his credit, he deleted his erroneous tweet.

Twitter avatar for @BrendanNyhan
Brendan Nyhan (@BrendanNyhan on šŸŸ¦ā˜ļø) @BrendanNyhan
Time to work on your math, @heminator
Image
2:04 AM āˆ™ Sep 30, 2020
42Likes11Retweets

Tim Pool has this bizarre framing:

Twitter avatar for @Timcast
Tim Pool @Timcast
Trump won the debate for one reason The conversation is almost entirely about what Trump did or did not say Browsing social media and you might be wondering if Biden was even there Its either Orange Man Bad or MAGA
11:16 AM āˆ™ Sep 30, 2020
10,888Likes1,695Retweets

Watch out, Scott Adams, Tim might take over Dilbert if you're not careful!

To close us out, Brigitte Gabriel has this theory that Biden was wearing a wire.

https://twitter.com/tierneybook/status/1311329434377564165

The Vox Pop have thoughts. 

Don't worry, there are only three more debates to go.


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