Tuesday 9/10 Presidential Debate Megathread!

jordanlund@lemmy.worldmod to politics @lemmy.world – 242 points –

Was tempted to call this "Debate 2: Electric Boogaloo" but a) A lot of Lemmy won't get the OG reference. and 2) "Boogaloo" has been co-opted and carries an unfortunate connotation these days.

Also, while it's Trump's 2nd debate of the season, it's Harris's first...

It's being run by ABC News at 9 PM Eastern time, 6 PM Pacific, I see MSNBC starts their coverage TWO HOURS EARLY. That's a lot of air time to fill, guys. Good luck!

Live updates, how and when to watch, debate rules, etc. here:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/09/10/debate-trump-harris-2024-live-updates/75145043007/

Link to the first debate thread here:

https://lemmy.world/post/16973660

That't it! Thanks for hanging with it everbody!

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OMG Trump is off the rails and i absolutely love it!

Moderator: "Just to be clear, you have a plan? "

Trump: "I have concepts of a plan?"

Tried to kill Obamacare 8 years ago but just now starting to come up with some... concepts ... of a replacement plan

In the post debate interview, Tim Walz just referenced Trump as an old man yelling at clouds. I love it.

“Now she wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison.”

— Former President Donald J. Trump

Thank you for transcribing that! My wife and I burst out laughing when he said that.

Are any of the illegal transgender aliens in the room with us now, Mr. Trump? And did one of them touch your pee pee and turn it into a mushroom?

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"i'm a gun owner, we're not taking guns away." strongest opinion from a democrat i've heard on this topic.

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So here are my thoughts:

  • First, the obvious: Harris won handily. She was in her element, and just thoroughly excoriated Trump at every turn, while maintaining an optimistic tone.
  • But at the same time, Trump is probably not losing any of his base over his abysmal performance. Most of them probably didn't watch, and the few that did probably tuned out in favor of reading conservative bloggers' desperate spinning about halfway through.
  • The real question is how off-putting he's been for undecideds. He was pretty bad, but I'm aware enough of my own biases to wonder exactly how bad his behavior looks to undecideds.
  • On the issues, Harris didn't really have a stumble. I was pleasantly surprised by how well she handled the issue of Israel/Palestine, for example.
  • The moderators get a B for following up questions, a C- for mic handling, and an A- for calling it out when Trump's bizarre, rambling bullshit failed to even vaguely resemble an answer.

All in all, I didn't hate this (other than the sound of Trump's face hole).

Trump kept making his Muppet faces. Lol.

This one? Random screen grab, but it happened so frequently...

I'm in no way undecided but I think I can see this pretty clearly from both sides.

He presented better than he has previously, and they absolutely claimed he won then. I think the only thing they're going to ding them on is not being aggressive enough they really loved it when he was slapping his meat at Hillary. By those standards this was a rather dull showing by him. And you bet they watched it. This is the only debate that's going to happen they're not going to miss that.

And from the Democrat side her anti-Israeli war statements were kind of weak. We're not taking away your guns, we're fracking, But she's not here to convert more Democrats she's here to convert moderates and he's just slinging to his base.

He showed up a little nutty instead of roughly senile like he's been showing on tour. I was expecting him to turn into a rabid squirrel.

She presented very well she speaks very well she's well thought out I hope to God she has this.

As an undecided, never trumper, Trump looked like an asshat. The oldest trick in the rhetoric books is to attack the person instead of the subject. A sure sign of weakness.

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From where I was sitting, it seemed like Harris beat the ever-loving-shit out him. He took every piece of bait she laid out. I'm not the target though, so I hope undecideds saw what I saw.

Harris exceeded high expectations and Trump failed to meet incredibly low expectations.

Let the spin begin, but I saw what I saw.

She's been fucking relentless. She spoke to him directly about how terrible he's been, I could hardly stay heated. That shit had to cut deep. She let each point sink in slowly....

Trump's going to need a burn unit after this...

This… former President…

That pause. 👏

Holy shit I burst out laughing. The silence was deafening.

Never before has a single letter F contained so much pure restrained energy. Bra-vo, Harris. Bravo.

This...^piece ^of ^shit... former president

Apparently, Harris is fond of “motherfucker.”

This…. ^motherfucker… former president.

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"I AM RESPOND!"

"No sir we need to get to the next quest..."

"I AM RESPOND NOW!"

"No, Mr. President we need to..."

"I AM RESPOND!"

"Oh OK."

"THEY WEAK ME STRONG! HONK HONK!"

HE’S GOT CONCEPTS OF A PLAN, KIDS, SHIT I’M ALL IN

9 fucking years....he just needs a little more time... he'll totes come up with it once he's president

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How much of a concept of a plan does he have?

"Twelve percent"

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The take aways, there are illegals getting sent to jail for trans surgery that are then sent out to eat cats and abort born children near the Keystone Pipeline so that billions and millions and trillions of illegals can enter everyday.

Honestly, this comment is a bit crazy and stupid, but then I remember what I just watched and heard.

Honestly, you underplayed just how demented he was.

It was only 21 million a month, I think. Remember how the US population almost tripled the last 4 years?

  1. “Boogaloo” has been co-opted and carries an unfortunate connotation these days.

I'm nowhere near ready to give up the fight on this one. Those bastards can pry "[Anything] 2: Electric Boogaloo" from my cold, dead hands.

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Outsider view from across the pond:

It appears from the outset that the Trump camp is tripping over it's own feet and stepping on landmine after landmine. Literally all Harris seems to have to do is stay on message, bat off anything too controversial, and let the opposition's trousers fall down by themselves.

It'll be interesting either way. The only real surprise to me will be whether I'll learn about key moments from news outlets or from mad memez first.

The bar is so low for him, he could literally shit himself on stage and his supporters would crow that it was a power move to own the libs.

Reasonable doesn't win elections here, vibes do. Its madness.

He did shit himself during the debate with Biden.

I wish that was all she needed to do, but Trump is still a slight favorite in a lot polls that account for how the electoral college votes will be divided.

She can’t just stay on message, she needs to drive a lot of turn out in very specific parts of the nation because, sadly, the American president isn’t picked by the majority of voters.

Republicans often win the electoral college and lose the popular vote.

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I can see where it looks that way, but you have to understand that Trump's fanbase literally does not care.

Trump could start the debate by dropping trou and laying a turd live on stage and MAGA would go on about how he's "owning ABC and the libs!"

The media would cut away and claim "Trump opened the debate by declaring his disdain for the process..."

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Trump claims he only used to be racist 40 years ago

"They had to go back 40 years to find me being racist" is not the flex he thinks it is.

Really good energy this time around, but Jesus, Trump is exhausting to listen to. No wonder crowds leave his rallies early. :)

Edit: Muted him, but I can hear my wife in the other room yelling "OH FUCK YOU!!!"

His voice makes me want to stab my ears but he's unravelling and it's kind of glorious.

He really wants to fight against Biden.
"You aren't running against Joe Biden, you're running against me"

"I have concepts of a plan. I'm not president right now" -Trump

“But I’ll solve the Middle East as President-elect”

I live near Detroit. They are building an auto factory down the street from me where the Pistons used to play. That's not in Mexico

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In case anyone has forgotten re Afghanistan:

Trump admitted that it was his own doing:

speaking at a rally on 26 June [2021, he] even stated that he “started the process” and claimed Biden “couldn’t stop it” if he “wanted to”.

"I got involved with the Taliban," was my personal quote of the night for Trump.

I feel like she's using words like 'weak' to unsettle Trump and it's getting to him

The articles leading up to this were great. The punditry about how Harris couldn't afford one little gaffe or she's sunk.

No one seemed to remember her from senate hearings. No one remembered that she was a fucking prosecutor. She made a career out of manipulating people into self-incrimination. Her livelihood was arguing people into corners they couldn't escape. Exposing lies was her bread and butter. And she had to do so in a way that made it crystal clear to a dozen randos who were too dumb to get out of jury duty.

And Trump is a stupid, vain, easily manipulated hothead who lies about everything.

And the audience was American voters.

This is familiar territory for Harris. She knows this place like the inside of her eyelids.

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Just wish moderators would have the spine to hold Trump to the rules and just keep his mic muted and move on.

Maybe it is in the benefit of Harris given his rambling but I don't know.

Maybe it is in the benefit of Harris given his rambling but I don’t know.

Its absolutely to the benefit of Harris.

All these comments were likely what was pushing Biden down and distracting Biden when Trump's mic was off. Now that the mic remains on, Trump is clearly the one trying to fuck up Kamala. But she's much quicker on the uptake and can judo-throw him off of her. The mic makes it obvious when Trump is attempting to distract.

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Six years later, he still doesn't have the healthcare plan he promised in two weeks.

"President Trump, thank you" sounds more and more like "Shut the fuck up now, bitch" every time a moderator says it.

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Here's what I expect:

For Harris to "win": She needs to be able to go toe to toe with Trump. Any stuttering, nervousness, or uneasiness will be preyed upon, both immediately by Trump and afterwards in soundbytes and attack ads. She cannot have a "......we finally beat medicaid!" moment. She needs to show that she can stand up to him and give it as good as she can get it in real time. She is definitely at a bigger risk here. Trump will gaffe every 30 seconds and nobody will bat an eye. One gaffe by Harris could cost her the election. Trump will be spouting his firehose of lies while Harris won't be able to fact-check 1% in real time. Harris needs to be pretty much perfect from start to finish. Any mistakes can and will be exploited.

For Trump to "win": Expectations are really low here. He's not trying to reach new voters. He opely says he doesn't care about policy. He is doubling down on the racism and misogyny of his base. All he needs to do is control the narrative. Ignore the rules, talk louder, interrupt mid-sentence. It doesn't matter what gibberish he vomits out of his mouth. None of it will cause him to lose a vote. All he needs to do is dictate the narrative and pace of the debate. He solidifies his position among his base as the mysoginist who will put women back where they belong, and gives undecided voters doubt about whether she will be able to handle the pressure. I think as long as Trump forces everybody to play his games by his rules as he usually does, it'll be a "victory" for him. Or at the very least a tie. As long as he can portray himself as the strongman going forward, he's really got nothing to lose.

I hate your analysis, and not because you're wrong.

I understand now why rich people want Trump in office, he’s soft headed and will say or believe anything they want. They basically stroke his ego to get what they want

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"THEY'RE LETTING CRIMINALS INTO THE COUNTRY!"

"You get to be sentenced for your crimes in November..."

Yep. Those two quotes are going to be in an ad next to each other.

Ho ho ho. Going after his fragile ego by saying foreign leaders laughing at him.

He's going to go of the rails.

In other words, I’ll just give Ukraine to Putin.

Notice he says he wants the war to end. Not that he wants Russia out of Ukraine. He wants the war to end with Russia getting what Putin wants.

Yeah it was so obnoxiously obvious he danced that question to not piss off his Russian handlers. What a goddamn clown show

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The Harris campaign is asking about setting up the next debate. No response from the Trump camp so far.

Trump himself previously pushed for 3 debates. Let’s see what his handlers allow him to agree to after this disaster.

rump himself previously pushed for 3 debates. Let’s see what his handlers allow him to agree to after this

They don't get to make the decision. They might beg him to never do another debate again, only for him to walk right out into the hallway and make a public announcement that he's agreed to like 4 other debates because he can't be perceived as having backed down.

"Stand back and stand by." I'd forgotten that one. God, Trump is so unremittingly awful it's hard to actually keep track of all the horrible shit he says and does.

Remember when that was the most horrifying and insurrectionist thing about trump?

Good times

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I wish they just had 45min clocks, and whenever their microphone are hot, their timer goes down. It would be hilarious to see Trump yelling inaudibly for the last 25min of all debates.

Kamala is his worst nightmare.

A woman like Hilary. A brown person like Obama. And making a mockery of his entitled ass like Obama.

Just need to trigger some rage so she can scare him like Biden did.

Boom! Calling out the fact that flattery and favors work on Trump!

Trump's getting the pants beat off him. Based on what happened in the most recent debate, I think his next move is to drop out and let Vance run instead.

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"We are going to have the best economy, she is Joe Biden and we had the highest inflation we've ever seen" - Trump

"Let's compare your economic plan with mine, we're giving tax breaks to small business."

Also, going back to the previous point that Trump lied about several times, Harris nailing the rebuff of Trump's lies that usually just go unchecked on painting Harris as a person that wants to steal guns. Very good.

Also also, Trump's entire closing statement stated one positive thing he did (we rebuilt our military) and the rest of the time was saying why Harris was bad. Harris positioned herself well here.

She just actually debated him.

Amazing, given the format, that it's allowed.

Trump is foaming at the mouth. He's a cornered rat. He's not winning any moderates over with this weak display.

Also, the moderators keep letting him talk and cutting off Harris. I say let him cook himself.

A lot is riding on this, given the unprecedented impact of the last debate i expect a lot of people will be watching.

I skipped the one earlier this year and only watched clips from the last couple of elections because they were always boring slogs where neither candidate said anything of substance and their side said they won. It seemed pretty pointless to watch.

This one might break the apathy streak since Harris has gone all in on calling Trump out for being a jackass and it would be fun to watch that live and it is likely the media will just sugar coat Trump's incoherent ramblings like they have on all previous debates.

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You can tell he's so hurt by her saying 81 million people fired him and world leaders are laughing at him

Harris’s campaign needs to meme the shit out of these moments and sound bites. So much good material.

Harris has managed to remain optimistic this whole time. I'm genuinely impressed.

This is that public prosecutor energy that we were hoping for. Take the random flailing hits and keep walking.

"Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people." Boom.

PREACH IT SISTAH!!

This fucker sold out the Afghan government and got soldiers killed because he's incompetent.

Listening to Maddow list off just some of the most recent shit Trump said reminded me of one important thing: I can't wait for the very last time I hear his name in the news.

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Moments after the presidential debate ended tonight, the Harris campaign called for a second debate, CNN reports.

I don't know how anyone can watch this and not feel Trump is exposed as being nonsensical and vindictive. I feel hopeful that Kamala is changing plenty of undecided minds, though I wish she'd been able to expand more on policy and less on Trump's lies.

Unfortunately i used to be like these mindless Trump supporters and i can tell you that the kind of person i was before my conversion was not one who would listen to facts that were contradictory to my stance

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He doesn't even know. He doesn't even know that she is absolutely controlling this. He doesn't even know she's triggering every damn thing he says. This is almost sad.

I can't stop smiling.

He keeps talking about "he needs to get in here and sign a bill, he signs a bill the border will be closed". (After going completely non-sequitir about January 6th).

Holy shit. He dead ass thinks he's still debating Biden. Haaaaaaaaaaa

She is walking all over his balls in her high heels giggling her motherfucking ass off.

Does he enjoy it? Some people are saying it, many people in fact agree with me.

"They're eating the dogs! The people... They're eating the cats!"

There's our sound byte for the evening.

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only reason this debate is happening because republicans fixed the electoral college in relatively low population states. Trump is a clown and republicans are embarrassing for letting him represent them

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I ventured over to Twitter to see what Trumpers are mad about...

They're mad the moderators keep fact checking Trump but not fact checking Harris. 🤣

These moderators are only calling out lies! Those biased bastards!

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I don't think it really hit me how badly our country was doing until I heard Linsey Davis say, "There is no state in our country where it's legal to kill a baby."

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Kapow! Harris landed a good one. She knew where to hit him: his fragile ego about crowd sizes.

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When I heard Kamala Harris had been speaking to Hillary Clinton, I cringed, because Clinton lost. However, it sounds like what she was looking for from Clinton was what to expect from Trump, which is reasonable to ask Clinton about.

Please please explain tariffs to this man!

Oh, he's pissed now... and she's leading him around by the nose.

He said no one died on January 6th except for Babbit. Guess he's anti police.

Holy shit. Kamala is killing it. She’s inspiring at this point.

How long before someone uploads a game called Spheres of Terra to Steam?

"this is why we need a president who is not consistently weak and wrong" 😆

lol “He’s having a hard time processing that”

Still has no idea what NATO dues are for and how they work, and still wants to be running against Biden.

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Morning after thoughts:

  • The memes from this one are already amazing. "Concepts of a plan" is going to haunt Trump until his dying day.
  • Trump usually dominates any conversation he's in, simply by being the loudest one there. It often works for him. Last night, it worked against him, because he was loud about what Harris wanted him to be loud about.
  • In retrospect, the level of optimism Harris was able to maintain throughout was very impressive. She looked happy to be there, even when confronted by Trump's obvious mental illness, and I don't think she was faking it.

I'm starting to have genuine hope for November.

Okay. Fuck abc for unmuting him whenever he talks but holy shit the female moderator is doing her job. Fact checking and follow up questions.

“They can manipulate you with flattery and favors.” That’s an intelligence assessment IIRC.

My god Trump is utterly deranged. There are millions of people that are still going to vote for him. If he actually wins, we deserve what's coming for allowing ourselves to be so bloody stupefied. It's unreal. Kamala carried herself like a leader.

And Taylor Swift just endorsed Kamala Harris.

They're letting Trump get away with murder here. I expected nothing but am still disappointed. He's basically running with a hot mic while Kamala has to wait for her turn. Unbelievable.

Unsurprisingly he's also bulldozing the hosts in typical fashion. They at least seem to occasionally try some pushback against him, but they seem woefully incapable of actually controlling him.

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Sweet lord The Daily Show writing room must be absolutely overjoyed they have so much Trump material.

"I fired them all! They haven't fired anyone!"

He's still living on a TV show

I did the thumbs down at the screen and then she called it back.

Love Kamala so much. I miss McCain too.

Anyone have a clock on the candidates' speaking times? It feels like Trump is doubling Harris at this point, but maybe it's just because he's so infuriating.

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Oh my god can they pleeeeeaase leave trump's mic off and just let him stew? He's interrupted at least 5 times in a row now.
I knew this was how they're gonna do it, they're gonna let Trump butt in whenever he wants because it drives ratings.

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He is suggesting she go sign a bill to close the border.

She's not president, you cucumber. Not yet.

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Yes! Appealing to Polish Americans! Make Trump’s decisions or lack of decisions personal to voters.

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Oof. He just ranted about whether or not Harris is black again.

That "commander in chief" statement from Harris gave me a patriotism boner.

Night everyone. :)

Thanks for hosting, @jordanlund!

"GIGGLE TALK ABOUT EXTREME!" Ohhhh there's a soundbyte. That laugh gonna live rent free in Trumps head till the day he dies

Trump faceplanted on abortion. Now we're on to immigration!

Kamala cracking up at Trump ranting about eating the dogs. LMFAO

He keeps repeating she has done nothing at the border but failed to answer the direct question about why he killed the border bill?

there is no state where it is legal to kill a baby after it is born

It's crazy that they need to say that.

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They are letting trump ramble again. Glad the moderator is calling out his lies about pet eating though.

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He’s been a leader on the fertilization everyone 😂😂😂

Every time Trump wants to change what he said, he just pretends he said it sarcastically.

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Loved the two solid minutes of dick stomping about 3/4 of the way through, where kamala pointed out trump’s faults as a human being under the guise of criticism of modern political structures

Trump’s Wharton professor repeatedly called him ‘the dumbest goddamn student I ever had’.

Trump just accidentally admitted he thinks there is "some good" in Project 2025.

Woo. He CAN hear Kamala laughing her ass off

Not happy that the cop laughed that hard at being accused of supporting defunding the police but the bar is low.

He keeps saying shit like "Our country has gone to hell."

Oh. Wow. Worst vice president in us history.

trump hates Kamala more than pence

Trump's Ukraine solution: "...make others pay for it."

Right now at the one-hour mark I would say Harris is winning the debate 65/35. But, I think for his supporters and undecideds already leaning his way, this hasn't moved the needle. That's more the result of the fact that his supporters are in the CoOM: Cult of Orange Man.

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I wish someone would ask Trump what a tariff is and how China pays it. They just let him get away with it.

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Trump is clearly starting to get rattled. He's going off the rails.

Trump and his handlers just before the debate:

Handler: Mr President... (he insists on being called that by his people) - before you go out there I want you to promise again that you won't bring up the thing about people eating cats and dogs...
Trump: yeah, fine
Handler: Remember how we talked about this? And how you promised that you won't bring it up no matter what happens?
Trump: Yeah, fine, whatever.

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She's definitely going to get the chance to question if Trump knows what a tariff is.

She needs to stay on target.

He brings up the border?

She brings up the fact that he killed the strongest border bill the US has ever had because "it would make Biden look good."

He brings up the cost of things?

His tariffs will raise prices by at least 10% across the board.

He brings up she's soft on crime.

She can bring up that he literally is crime incarnate.

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Anyone else having a sinking feeling about this? Feels like a lot is riding on it.

Well, the last debate went so poorly the sitting President dropped out of the race, so... yeah!

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It seems we know the answer to ‘will it be happy trump or angry trump?’ Angry. Very angry.

Infanticide. He just can’t get off that lie.

Weak and wrong. Big oof. Kamala sure knows what words to use here.

Harris is winning this. She's legitimately stomping all over him. I think Trump is starting to get rattled.

Ohhh, just called her a Marxist! LOL!

I’ve already lost count of trump’s lies, and we’re not even 10 minutes in.

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"Weaving" from abortion to... student loans? Boss at the beach? What the fuck is he talking about?

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Trump going on and on with racist immigration views. Racism is all the republicans have at this point. Be scared of the immigrants! They took our jerbs!

Here comes the post-birth abortion lies.

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Back to the non-sequitur of pipelines. Dude has a unhealthy fascination about hard pipes flowing sticky liquid.

One thing I'm trying to be mentally prepared for: Trump doing reasonably well. He's not a good debater, and he's not even going to debate, he's going to try to put on a show. But while the man has very few actual skills, brainless spectacle is one of them. So I'm trying to be prepared for that.

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That debate was terrible. Harris pivoted anytime pushed with past positions and glazed war criminals. Trump has no plans or ideas for anything, and is terrible.

"i have concepts of a plan." is one of the funniest things Trump has ever said. I have to use that one next time I don't turn in work.

I think it was quite clear what Harris' objective was here, and that was to make Trump dig his own grave. Trump absolutely fucked up by getting all up in his feels.

Here come the insults. He's cooked. He knows he's cooked.

His rebuttals are pretty much DARVO. You can also tell he's getting fired up and tripping up.

Oh shit. Kamala going for a straight up low blow by talking about trump's low attendance .

Countdown to the n-word

45 minutes. I do like the fact that the MSNBC hosts are acknowledging just how stupid the modern "debate" is.

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