First 2020 Presidential Debate： Special Coverage
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Summary
The 2020 Democratic Debates are in full swing, and Joe Biden and Donald Trump are the only two presidential candidates left in the race. On this episode of the podcast, Pat McAfee, Stu and Steve Dacey, and Dave Rubin give their thoughts on the univilized debate.
Transcript
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Well, that was fun, wasn't it? I have a roundtable with Stu and Pat and Steve Dace, and we also are
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going to have Dave Rubin checking in. Ali Stuckey is going to be checking in, a couple of other
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people will get the opinions. Let me just start here. I thought this was evidence of a civil war
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with a very uncivil debate. I don't think it served either buddy for a knockout. I thought
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there were chances missed on Donald Trump's side. We'll get into. It was round after round
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after round of mischaracterizations and out and out lies, I thought, from the left. Donald
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Trump strangely seemed to have a grasp of the facts much more than he did four years ago.
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I thought he had some really good moments, but I don't know if anybody is going to see
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them or remember. The big thing that I took away from it is that Donald Trump spoke to
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the American people, even though he wasn't looking into the camera, which Joe Biden was
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doing. He was giving the message that I think is resonating with the people who are actually
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watching my job. What's going to happen with my job? What's going to happen with the economy?
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When am I going to stop wearing this stupid mask? When are we going to go back to normal?
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That's what people are talking about. And I think Donald Trump reiterated that. And Joe Biden was
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speaking about some sort of alternative America, some sort of alternative reality where Donald Trump
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screwed up the economy and never really had a good economy. I don't think that that was connecting
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with the American people. Donald Trump, it's really easy. I'm not for white supremacists. KKK,
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terrorist group, I'm willing to do it. You just said that. I also said that with Antifa.
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Now ask him if he'll do the same. He blew that. There was nothing solved. I don't think that the
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American people were well served by this. I don't think that they were talking about anything that
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people are actually going to vote on. Very few times that I go, yeah, okay, that's where people
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are living. That's what people actually care about. The rest of it was, I thought it was just,
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it was garbage and unlistenable. And Chris Wallace asked the questions that I would expect a mainstream
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media personality to ask. He seemed to be playing referee for Joe Biden, who Joe Biden to me seemed
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like my grandfather. He started out, you can hear he has no wind power. He's talking from here.
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And he's historically, and he sounded bad. And as the night went on, he got weaker and weaker and weaker.
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He didn't have any Metamucil moments, but I do think that he, he is certainly not the man that he was
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even in the primary season. How is he going to last four more years? One last thing. It is absolutely
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reprehensible that in this season, the moderator of this debate, when the major news came out about
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Hillary Clinton and the entire Russia hoax, it is now verifiably a hoax. The news that came out last
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late this afternoon, for that not to be even a question for Joe Biden is remarkable and reprehensible.
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But nobody's going to know that because we're all watching our own sides and not listening to the
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other side. So let me go to Stu. Just to add on to what you said, because I agree with that.
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Um, I would say one of the biggest accomplishments of this administration was, I mean, if you go back
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to 2016, we had, there was debate after debate. A big portion of it was about ISIS and how they had
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a caliphate going. The fact that that's not even a topic of conversation and not just ISIS, the Middle
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East peace. That's what I was going to say. Yeah. I mean, this is, this is the biggest story in the
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Middle East in the past, you know, 30 years. And you know, how Trump doesn't bring it up on his own
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is one thing. The fact that there's not even one question about what happened there is really,
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I think, a shame. I think people will remember this a lot because there's just a lot of chaos.
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You know, there's a lot of them talking over each other. I think Joe Biden goes into this thing
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and can't have a Metamucil moment, you know, a brain malfunction in the middle of it. I don't
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think he had that moment. I think it seemed like the Trump approach there was to say,
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let's get under his skin. We'll go after him early. We'll get him angry and he won't be able to
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control himself. It seemed like Biden was prepared for that tactic at some level where he kind of
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tried to force himself into this weird mellow state. I don't know. It was, it was a very strange
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tone from Biden. I thought the whole time he never really emoted except for when he was talking about
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his son, which seemed like a totally forced monologue. He said, shut up. Yeah. Yeah. He called
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the president a clown. He did. Yep. And he called him a liar, a racist. Right. But I think that it was
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all in that same, I don't know, that same speed, that same tone. I mean, he never emoted. It was
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like, it was a very odd, like the sleepy Joe thing felt accurate watching him do that tonight. I don't
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think there's a huge knockout blow for either side though. And I think, uh, you know, but from
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Biden's perspective, considering all the help we'll get from the media, he's probably going to look at
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that as not a, not a disaster. Steve Dace, his head is going to explode, but I'm going to ask you to
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hold on for a few more minutes. Cause I want to get Pat's point of view on what you thought.
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Uh, worst debate, maybe of all time. Uh, you got to blame the moderator, right? You got to blame
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Chris Wallace because he's supposed to maintain control. He didn't. He didn't. How do you do
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that when you have, it's very difficult between the two. It's really difficult. I had a real problem
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with, with Chris Wallace when he said, keep it down. You promised you said you wouldn't do it.
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Stop it. And Trump said, you mean that to both of us, right? Well, no, I mainly mean it to you.
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Well, wait a minute. Hang on. They were both doing it. Biden did plenty of that. Yeah. If you
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asked me who won the debate early on, I would have said Donald Trump. Me too. But later as the
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debate wore on and chaos ensued, I'm not sure anybody won the debate, but I think Biden will
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be declared the winner by the mainstream media. Of course they will. Um, I mean, we knew that before
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the debate even happened. So there's no surprise. But I mean, they've got a legitimate case. He,
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you know, I guess he interrupted less. Maybe. I don't know.
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But what did he say? Very little. Very little that made sense. He did have a couple of almost
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really serious Metamucil moments. Um, especially toward the end, he almost melted down, but he
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somehow, I'm thinking drugs is the way he held onto it. Uh, but he did hold onto it. And I,
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I think one of the reasons that they wanted the three breaks, was it three breaks in a half an
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hour? No, in an hour and a half. Three breaks, but every half hour, every half hour. Yeah. So
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six total, nine total. I thought it was one per half hour, but I could have one per half hour. So
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it's three for the whole thing. Yeah. Yeah. Still. And I think that's because of the medication he's
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taken. He probably was wearing the pens while he was standing there at the podium. I don't think
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this is really, I think that, I think they needed him to rest because he, he lost energy. He started
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out with very little and it just was almost gone halfway through. All right, Mr. Dace.
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I feel like that Jonah Hill gif. Okay. Um, first thing we all need to do is pray to Allah that this
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is our final boomer election. I think we can all agree on that. Yeah. Um, as far as,
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as the rest of what transpired here, um, I think if the goal was to see if you could use the debate
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process to lower voter turnout, I think this was a rousing success. I think if you are 150,000%
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committed to voting for each of these men a few times, you love this. Okay. I think that if you
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went into the clickiest clickbaity faction of each candidate and said, Hey, make sure you call him a
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racist and a clown box, check, check, check, check. Okay. Uh, bring up Hunter Biden more often than you
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bring up anything else that people care about. Check, check, check, check, check. Uh, and, and so a lot
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of people that tuned in looking for a reason to vote for either one of these individuals that maybe
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were undecided, I think are now would prefer to not have to decide. I think that this was there's
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playing to the converted. And then there is whatever this was, um, the airing of grievances
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sponsored by Festivus. I'm not exactly sure what it was, but I don't think that it advanced anybody's
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cause. I think it simultaneously helped and hurt everybody all at the exact same time. And one of
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the issues you had in Pat mentioned the problem with a moderator. Well, the problem of the moderator
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is Chris Wallace asked every damn question from Joe Biden's premise. Sure did. And so when you do
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that to Donald Trump, he is not George Bush or Mitt Romney. He is going to not accept your premise.
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Now, the problem is the way that he communicates is thus, he won't accept your premise. He then
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needs to take 15 to 20 seconds to tell you how great he is and how he's done whatever the issue is
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better than anybody else. He then takes another minute to minute and a half, give you the correct
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statistics often though in sort of an indecipherable context before he then hovers back around to what
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the right answer is. But now we're into three and four minutes of a two minute answer, which gives
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Chris Wallace the excuse to go in there and interrupt him because he's past his time. And we just did this
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dance like the damn time work for an hour and a half. Meanwhile, it provided Joe Biden an opportunity
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not to have to do very often what he was the most scared to do, talk. It provided him an opportunity to
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sit there and be a spectator and just call Trump names whenever he wanted to, to not have to provide
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any policy specifics at all. I thought the two most damning parts of the debate for Joe Biden
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were when he couldn't name any law enforcement agency that was supporting him, when he refused
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to answer the question on stacking of the court. See, that's what Trump should have done far more of
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than defending and debating Chris Wallace. He should have forced Joe Biden to go on the record more
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and he missed numerous opportunities to do that. I think that's what, that's why I think I felt
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comfortable sort of with Trump at the very beginning because he was saying, no answer that.
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Just tell me, just tell me if he would have just been doing that. Yes or no. Deny it or not. Deny it or
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not. Deny it or not. It would have been much more powerful because you needed to put him on record.
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I think he, he, he did have a plan because he was just doing body blows. I think he thought that
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antagonizing Biden would get him off his game and make the senior moments happen. Yeah. The problem
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is this is still an adult male. All right. If you followed Biden on the campaign trail,
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the pugilism isn't his issue. He's a long time political combatant. You saw what he did to Paul
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Ryan. You mentioned that earlier today when we were talking about this too, that actually woke Biden up.
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All right. What Biden doesn't want to have to do is offer specifics on policy. One, he can't,
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he just can't, he can't articulate it cogently. And then two, when he does, he's out, he's instantly
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outside the mainstream of at least 51% of American voters. Or if he is in the mainstream, he's alienated
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his real base. That's exactly right. Yeah. It's an unwinnable proposition for him. And he was let off
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the hook because Trump made it more of a personality contest and less about issues. I think it would have
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been helpful to have, to give Biden more rope to be able to hang himself with. Yeah. You said that
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halfway through during the debate, you said, I'd let him give rope. And you're right. Yeah. You got
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to get out of his way for him to have those moments, right? A lot of times I think, you know,
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Trump a couple of times, I think he's used this tactic effectively. Biden would be trying to have
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this moment to the camera, this big moment where he would have a soundbite that you could tell was
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planned. And Trump would jump in over it, kind of ruining the soundbite. He did that a couple of times
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effectively. But more often he interrupted moments that could have led to the Biden downfall. He kept
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jumping in and then Biden could just stop. And of course, Biden comes, you know, gets into his
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trouble when he keeps talking and tries to finish these sentences where he doesn't know where he's
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going. So, so let me ask you this, because for me, the biggest thing was Biden seemed like the
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Crypt Keeper to me. He seemed like somebody who hasn't really even lived in the last four years
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and is all of a sudden showing up. And he's like, that's not the way it is. And you're like,
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where have you been? What are you talking about? That's not the way. When he was talking about
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Donald Trump and his, the COVID, the early COVID, everybody remembers, everybody remembers about
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that. When he talks about, you know, I'm going to make, I'm going to make the economy greatest. He,
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he shut it down. Everybody knows the truth of that. When, you know, we didn't have a good economy
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under, under Donald Trump. Everybody remembers. Is, did that, is that going to play a role? It was
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he, you know, there's one thing to say, yeah, you're lying about this. You know, the, the Hunter
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Biden thing. That's not true. Yes, it is. And you can do fact checks all you want. But the fact
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checks that I think matter are the ones that people watch and go, that's not right.
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Of how we've lived our lives, what they witnessed. Do you think that's going to matter? Did that
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bother anybody tonight with Joe Biden? I think, you know, one of the, when he was trying,
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and he has this idea with the COVID situation where he wants to push, it's funny because you
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know where Biden stood on every position. If you know where Trump stands, because he disagreed with
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them every single time. So when Trump was saying, we're going to close down flights from China, of
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course, it was xenophobic at that moment for Biden to do that. And, you know, it's just a matter of
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like, this is the constant opposition. And I think people do remember those things. You know, look,
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Biden was out there saying that, that, that we were just hating the Chinese for a very long time
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at that, at that point. I don't know if, if, if any of that's going to, those moments where it's
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obvious to the average person are the most effective ones. People are not going to, they're
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going to go back and check your farm bill stats. That's not what happens. You know, the media likes
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to, to, to toss those things around afterward. It's more about what, what hits people the wrong
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way. Trump had a pretty effective part where he was talking about shutting down the economy. I
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thought that was maybe one of his best answers of the night, where he really, he really laid that
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out in a way. And I think that's important. Really? If people got that far, I thought there was a
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couple, something else with COVID. Did anybody else feel that Donald Trump, now there were, there,
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a lot of it was just chaos, but there were a few times where I went, that's presidential. That's
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not the Donald Trump I saw four years ago. For instance, the COVID part where he was talking
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about here are the stats and the companies, and he knew them all. You could tell he had been truly
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engaged in that, um, and knew what he was talking about, which I hadn't, you don't see what Donald
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Trump very often. And I think that made a huge, to me, if I was just somebody that didn't know what
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was really going on, what he said, I believed what Joe Biden said was kind of like, well,
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I don't even understand that. If, if I were on the Trump debate team and you guys weren't around
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and we were talking privately, what I would be stressing is the opportunity costs that were
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missed tonight. He let Biden get away with hammering him on preexisting conditions when he
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actually just issued an executive order that frankly, a lot of conservatives like myself are not in
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favor of telling you that you have to cover preexisting conditions. What happened at the
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end of the debate with, uh, with white supremacy, uh, when he just issued an executive order less
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than a week ago, that's, that was the worst. He just issued an executive order less than a week
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ago calling that declaring the KKK, a white, I'm sorry, a domestic terrorist group. Do we happen to
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have, do we happen to have that, uh, cut where he was talking? Cause I don't even know what he
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said. The white supremacist, white supremacist cut. We did have a little glitch in the feed
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around that time, but at least that's what I thought. Maybe he just, just, listen, if you
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had the proud boys getting mentioned in tonight's presidential debate, bingo, dude, you're the one
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in a million winner. I didn't think that was ever possible, but it occurred. You know, we were
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complaining a little bit about Chris Wallace and I thought you got what you, what I expected out of
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Chris Wallace, which there were, he did ask a couple of good questions, a lot of bad questions.
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He was, you know, on the wrong side of a lot of that stuff, but the worst moment of the entire
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thing from Wallace to me was when you're trying to get Donald Trump to denounce white supremacists
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for the 9,000th time. And now why Donald Trump just didn't do it, I have no idea, but he has
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done it a hundred times in the past. We've heard him all say it a hundred times. Joe Biden has
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denounced Antifa zero times. He has never been asked about it. The fact that you would ask Donald
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Trump to do something he's already done multiple times and not ask Donald Trump or Joe Biden to say,
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hey, Antifa, how about the elements of Black Lives Matter that are advocating for the destruction of
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the nuclear family? Will you denounce those things? And it's strange because he knows that.
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I've heard him speak off the cuff about that. He knows that. And you're trying to say Trump knows
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that. I'm criticizing Wallace on it, but you're right. Trump needs to bring that up. Trump should
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have just said at that point, wait a minute, Antifa, are they peaceful or not? Do you approve of
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them or not? You know, Black Lives Matter, the actual organization that wants to destroy the
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family, you approve or not? If he would have stood and said, no, Chris, Chris, Chris, I want those
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two questions. That's a reason to cause chaos and stop the debate. Chris, Chris, Chris, America wants
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to know the answers to those two questions. I think what each of these candidates did is not make
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this process accessible to people who were honestly trying and earnestly trying to make
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up their minds. They made it about totally themselves. The other thing that was really
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egregious was that Trump and Chris Wallace let Biden get away with not answering the will you
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pack the court question? Yes. He should have been forced to answer that question. You're running for
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president of the United States. We're supposed to be voting. He was saying that's going to make it the
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issue or not the issue. What are you talking about? You don't get to define that. It's the damn
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question. Right. We'll decide what's important. Oh, thank you. That's cut three. Play that,
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please. Vote now. Make sure you, in fact, let people know you're a senator. I'm not going to answer
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the question. Why would you answer that question? Because the question is, the question is, who is on your list,
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Joe? Who's on your list? Gentlemen, I think we've ended this one. He's going to pack the court.
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We're not going to give a list. We have ended this segment. We're going to move on to the second
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segment. How did they bail out? All he says, all he should say there is yes or no, sir. It's a yes or
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no question. It's a yes or no question. And he should have honestly done that with Donald Trump on the
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KKK. It's yes or no. Are you for the KKK or do you denounce them? Of course I denounce them.
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And he's done it a million times. I don't know why he hesitated there, but he has done that a
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million times. We've all heard him say it. Think about the questions here we're talking about that
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people didn't get answers to. How many justices on the Supreme Court does one of the presidential
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nominees think we should have? Is white supremacy bad? Will you cover my preexisting conditions? But
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everyone did find out how much money Hunter Biden made for Burisma. And I think this goes to something
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that, you know, we were talking about this morning on your show. There is a disconnect. And I say this
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working in conservative media, and I'm totally fine if Hunter Biden is guilty of everything that
00:19:48.220
people are accusing him of. You could put him in the basement of sing, sing, and we can never hear
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him sing for the rest of his days. I'm totally okay with that. But that's a criminal prosecution,
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not a presidential election. If I'm sitting there wondering, is my kid going to be able to stay in
00:20:01.500
school if there's four positive tests next week? And if he gets sent home, do I have to lose my job?
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The things that people care about didn't get addressed. The things that the most fanatical
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elements of each of our partisan medias get their jollies off of all got addressed. But the stuff
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people care about never got addressed. So I would disagree somewhat in the fact that this goes to
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how many Supreme Court justices? Is there a deep state? Is there justice in America? You prosecuted
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and persecuted me. Today we find out that was hoax. And you knew it, and Brennan knew it,
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everybody knew it. Comey knew it. We've got the documents. They came out today. So I've got to
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know, you were the guy in the office that said it. Your son took three million dollars from the
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mayor of Moscow. When are we going to have a conversation about that,
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Joe? That's worth one question. I think there's a way you have to frame that, though, in a way
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that makes voters care. Yeah. Are you guys, if I beat you guys again, are you going to try to do
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another coup against the 60 plus million people that voted for me like you did for me four years ago?
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See, there's difference. People want elections to be about them, not about the candidates. And both
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these guys made it about themselves and not about the people that are actually watching.
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So here is something that I think he tried to say, and he tried to cover that, but he didn't do it
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well. When he said there is no peaceful transition of power. He's right. That means what you're saying
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now is not a peaceful, and that is something everybody wants to know. Are you going to abide by the rules?
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And the answer to that, if you would have said that, will you accept the election?
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If everyone abides by the rules that we all know, sure I am. If somebody's breaking the rules,
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no. Can I go back to the packing the court question real quickly? Because it was not just
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packing the court, it was also the filibuster, right? And here's Joe Biden, who's in the Senate
00:22:00.540
for 127 years, a guy who was supposed to be- 185 by his own admissions team. I'm sorry.
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It's supposed to be a guy who cares about the Senate rules, right? This was his blood,
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right? He lived and died in the Senate. And he goes through this, and his answer to both of
00:22:14.720
those questions, packing the court and getting rid of the filibuster, was, I don't want to answer
00:22:18.560
that because whatever I say is going to become the issue. Well, it doesn't become an issue if you say
00:22:23.420
you're not going to do it. There you go. Right? So that was an answer. He is going to do it. The
00:22:28.940
American people should know that. And if there is one journalist left in America, they've got to get
00:22:35.700
him to answer that question. There's not. It's complete narrator. There's not one journalist
00:22:39.040
left in America. There's not. Let me go to Allie Stuckey, who was watching this. Were you at home
00:22:45.820
watching this, Allie? Yes, my husband and I were at home watching this. Well, some of it we were
00:22:51.660
actually watching. Some of the time we had to divert our eyes. Right. So tell me how it played to you and
00:22:58.720
how you think it's going to play to millennials and to women. My frustration at the beginning of
00:23:05.360
this, I was talking to a lot of my friends who consider themselves conservative, but mostly
00:23:10.300
apolitical. I was talking to the woman who followed me on Instagram. Our first frustration was with
00:23:15.900
Trump that he seemed to not let Biden dig his own grave and his consistent insistence upon the
00:23:23.700
bullying tactics. I didn't like that. But as the debate went on, my frustration grew with Chris
00:23:29.640
Wallace and it becoming this two-on-one debate to where Biden was never held against the wall for
00:23:35.540
the things that we are actually concerned with. I wanted to know his stance on the police and BLM
00:23:41.020
and critical race theory and law and order. I wanted to know his plan for the suburbs. I wanted to know
00:23:46.340
if he's going to be soft on China. And I didn't get the answer to any of those things.
00:23:49.960
Did you have a problem with Chris Wallace saying that these were civil rights education classes
00:23:55.880
when indeed they were classes on critical race theory, which is completely different?
00:24:02.120
Right. He said, what's wrong with racial sensitivity training? Well, critical race theory is not racial
00:24:07.180
sensitivity training. I thought Trump did really well in this, that this is a lesson to hate America.
00:24:11.920
And that's absolutely right. Chris Wallace has a lot to learn in this area. He probably didn't even
00:24:17.440
realize how much he showed his bias. But yeah, I did have a problem with it. It showed ignorance and
00:24:24.100
obviously just an antipathy towards the conservative stance on critical race theory.
00:24:34.300
Well, my millennial friends did. I can't speak for all millennials, but millennials are getting up there
00:24:38.980
now. We're in our 30s and some of them are starting to get in their 40s. And so we've got kids,
00:24:43.100
we've got mortgages. We have to care about this kind of stuff. And do you think it changed anybody's
00:24:48.740
mind? It depends on if they watch the whole debate. I think if people in the middle trying to decide who
00:24:57.180
really care more about personality and individuals than they do care about politics or policies and
00:25:02.640
platforms, which is wrong, but some people do. If they just watch the 30 minutes, the first 30 minutes of
00:25:08.240
the debate, I think they go against Trump because they don't like his personality. But the whole
00:25:13.600
debate, I actually think that Trump ended up hearing a little bit better.
00:25:16.840
Do you think that Joe Biden looked like he was, you know, starting to be like my grandfather when he
00:25:23.860
was towards the end? I mean, it was sad. I thought he started winded and he just didn't look like the
00:25:31.000
Joe Biden, even of the last primary. I said to Stu halfway through, if this is how much he's lost in the
00:25:37.260
last, you know, nine months, what is he going to be like four years down the road? I mean, it's just
00:25:43.100
it's just not even I can't even comprehend that he would be the president in four years based on the
00:25:49.220
rapid growth or rapid decline. Did that come across to you at all or not?
00:25:56.280
Yeah, it did. And I think it would have come across more if he had been allowed to speak,
00:26:01.620
because what we saw is that he can't speak for longer than about, I would say, five to seven
00:26:06.080
seconds without losing his train of thought. And Chris Wallace having to step in and remind him
00:26:10.480
what he was talking about. This is true when he is in interviews as well. But Trump, being who he
00:26:15.700
is, and maybe some people think that this demonstrated strength somehow, I didn't. He would
00:26:20.280
insert himself into Biden's response when it would have been a lot better for us to see that weakness
00:26:26.060
on display and for Biden to dig his own grave by wandering off into these trails and talking about
00:26:31.560
nothing. So, yes, I did see that weakness. I saw that cognitive decline. I think Trump distracted
00:26:38.260
from that a little bit by being so bombastic. I wish we would have seen more of that from Biden.
00:26:44.460
Let me play a couple of clips and I'd like to get your thoughts first. I will play three clips,
00:26:49.480
get your thoughts first and then go to the table as well. Let me play cut 13, cut 14 and then cut six.
00:26:59.320
You get the final word. Well, it's hard to get any word in with this clown. Excuse me,
00:27:04.820
this person. Hey, let me just take it. No, no, no. Okay. First, the clown. Next clip.
00:27:11.120
That's the end of the segment. We're moving on. He didn't take them. Vice President. No. Can I be
00:27:16.160
honest? It's a very important question. He stood up. He stood up. And he threatened Ukraine. No. Sir?
00:27:23.120
With it. Not true. You're doing it. You're going to have true. Gentlemen, flashbacks.
00:27:32.400
So I don't know if we even got there, but that's what Joe Biden said. Just shut up, man. And then
00:27:38.280
the last clip here, Donald Trump turning the tables and doing a bit of his own. He panicked or he just
00:27:44.440
looked at the stock market. One of the two, because guess what? A lot of people died and a lot more are
00:27:50.120
going to die unless he gets a lot smarter, a lot quicker. Mr. President. Did you use the word smart?
00:27:56.720
So you said you went to Delaware State, but you forgot the name of your college.
00:28:00.900
You didn't go to Delaware State. You graduated either the lowest or almost the lowest in your
00:28:06.280
class. Don't ever use the word smart with me. Don't ever use that word. Oh, give me a break.
00:28:10.600
Because you know what? There's nothing smart about you, Joe. 47 years, you've done nothing.
00:28:14.500
Okay. Allie, he was called a clown. He was told to shut up. You would have never done that with any
00:28:25.420
president before. Now the left does it regularly. Does it matter anymore?
00:28:31.500
You know, I've always said you can't out Trump. Trump is like Teflon. You can sling the mud at him
00:28:37.840
and it will just slide right off. And when you see someone kind of going to the level that sometimes
00:28:43.060
Trump goes to with those kind of ad hominem attacks and telling people to be quiet and all
00:28:47.120
of that, it just makes you look weak. I mean, we saw that with Marco Rubio in 2016. It didn't work
00:28:53.280
for him. I don't think it's going to work for Joe Biden either. I just think it kind of looks
00:28:58.860
embarrassing. Trump somehow in his persona, he can kind of pull that off, whether people like it or
00:29:04.220
not. I don't think Joe Biden can. Like you said, it comes across as very slow and very weak and very
00:29:09.940
reaching. I just don't think it's an effective strategy for him. Steve, do you agree with that?
00:29:15.000
Wholeheartedly. I mean, it felt weird when Marco Rubio did it. It just felt like Joe lunchbox.
00:29:23.020
I think that there were times that Biden had very effective counterattacks where he seemed like
00:29:29.360
more of the adult in the room. But I think he diminished his own argument dropping, you know,
00:29:34.760
you're a racist, you're a clown. I mean, are you running for president of the United States or do
00:29:40.960
you want to take over the young Turks? Make a decision. You won't be able to do both. And I think
00:29:46.200
that they believe that the answer to defeating him is to get down and into the mud and the muck and
00:29:52.300
the mire with him. You actually need to come over the top as the adult in the room. And I think those
00:29:57.020
were strategic errors on Biden's part that took away opportunities he had to maybe have maybe more of a
00:30:04.000
legitimate or clear victory tonight. Ali, thank you very much for joining us. I appreciate your
00:30:08.960
perspective tonight. Anybody else on this topic before I move on? I mean, you know, look, if
00:30:14.680
the opponent is Donald Trump, it's hard to get too upset at someone using the word clown.
00:30:20.680
I mean, Donald Trump does things like this all the time. I don't think it helps Joe Biden,
00:30:24.940
though. I think you're totally right on that. And that's what they'll say about it. They'll say that
00:30:28.220
he doesn't deserve any respect because he gives nobody else any respect. And so that's what's going to
00:30:33.440
come of that. That's what they think on the Today Show or on MSNBC. But there's but I don't I don't
00:30:39.900
think that a lot of suburbanites think that way. And I think that they were actually looking to Joe
00:30:43.820
Biden to get to get beyond this stuff, not to not to indulge more of it. Right. And so I think he
00:30:50.420
disappointed a lot of people that could that came into this potentially looking for something positive
00:30:55.240
out of him by allowing himself to get relegated into into these back and forths. I want to get into
00:31:00.760
the Antifa and the Black Lives Matter stuff with Dave Rubin is going to be joining us in a few
00:31:04.780
minutes. But let me play cut 15. This is Trump. This is Biden saying that Trump has been disastrous
00:31:12.360
for blacks. Listen to this. This is a president who has used everything as a dog whistle to try to
00:31:18.540
generate racist hatred, racist division. This is a man who, in fact, you talk about helping
00:31:24.280
African-Americans. One in 1000 African-Americans has been killed because of the corona of the
00:31:30.900
coronavirus. And if he doesn't do something quickly by the end of the year, one in 500 will have been
00:31:36.960
killed. One in 500 African-Americans. This man, this man is the as a savior of African-Americans.
00:31:44.040
This man cares at all. This man's done virtually nothing. Look, the fact is that you have to look at
00:31:51.160
what he's talks about. You have to look at what he did and what he did has been disastrous for the
00:31:56.700
African-American community. How's that going to play in the African-American community? I hope not
00:32:01.920
well. I think hopefully it'll play like if you don't vote for me, you ain't black played in the
00:32:08.280
African-American community. So really well, you know, and it would have been great if Trump would have
00:32:12.800
come back at him with I'm sorry, how many blacks have been aborted since 1973? Let me give you that
00:32:19.060
number. It's 16 million. I do care about the blacks being alive. I do care about black lives. Apparently
00:32:27.600
Democrats don't. You certainly don't, Joe, because there are 80 percent of Planned Parenthood abortion
00:32:35.800
clinics are located in minority areas. I mean, well, there's such an opening. So was this. But did he
00:32:42.060
did he take any advantage of that? Here's Trump's response. Cut 16.
00:32:49.860
You have treated the African-American population community, you have treated the black community
00:32:55.800
about as bad as anybody in this country. You did the 1990. And that's why if you look at the polls,
00:33:01.860
I'm doing better than any Republican has done in a long time because they saw what you did.
00:33:06.640
You call them super predators and you've called them worse than that.
00:33:12.120
He goes on to talk about the crime bill, et cetera, et cetera. Is that enough?
00:33:18.660
I mean, I don't think so. I mean, again, I guess we're Republicans are supposed to be against the
00:33:23.360
crime bill now while we're running a law. Maybe I'm alone. I think it's the last piece of really
00:33:28.100
good bipartisan legislation, frankly, in my lifetime. So there's a lot of good in that.
00:33:32.440
I'm an idiot. I'm a conservative. From the black perspective. Yeah. From the black perspective.
00:33:36.820
Yeah. The super predator thing. I remember being Hillary Clinton. Did she do this as well?
00:33:40.840
She did the super predator thing. I think they were all doing it.
00:33:42.680
They were all doing it. I mean, look, I think there's a, you know, Trump is using what he has,
00:33:47.860
right? You know, this is a controversial thing. The black community doesn't seem to like that bill
00:33:51.660
all that much. It's been something the left has been beating up on the right for, for a very long time.
00:33:57.780
And I've lost track at where we're supposed to be on this thing. I mean, to me, it looks like a pretty
00:34:01.940
good piece of legislation with some things that have been tweaked over the years that kind of fixed
00:34:06.320
it. But again, I, I don't think that that helps. I think a better, a better case is what Pat said.
00:34:12.500
I think a better case is as well is his economic record with African-Americans. You're looking at
00:34:17.860
these historic low unemployment rates, which Trump says really at every opportunity he has,
00:34:24.180
usually, I don't know why he didn't really get into that.
00:34:26.220
That's another opportunity cost that to me, that's the theme of the night. If you're pro-Trump,
00:34:30.300
I mean, a far better line of attack is to say, Joe, while you were presiding over the funeral
00:34:35.400
of the former grand wizard of the KKK, Robert Byrd, that you referred to at that funeral while
00:34:40.700
you were vice president as a friend, a guide and a mentor while you were doing that, I was cleaning
00:34:45.980
up your mess and we had the best and the lowest black unemployment rate since they started keeping
00:34:50.820
the stat. I'm not going to be lectured to about racism, uh, from somebody that did, uh, funerals
00:34:56.800
and eulogies for racist. Thank you. I yield the balance of my time.
00:35:00.160
Yeah. Uh, he's incapable of doing that, however. All right. If you're, uh, if you're watching us now
00:35:06.400
on YouTube, the blaze is a place to go for really the best conservative thought. Uh, and it's all over
00:35:13.140
the spectrum. We've had Ali Stuckey on, uh, Candace Owens. If you are a, uh, subscriber, you'll hear
00:35:18.680
Candace Owens' opinion on, on the debate. You'll, uh, you'll hear Stephen Crowder and all of,
00:35:25.380
uh, his, um, uh, opinions and also people who used to be on the left, but have found Jesus.
00:35:33.320
Uh, and, uh, and probably the biggest person to make that change was Dave Rubin. He's a member
00:35:39.820
of the blaze team, uh, as well. He's out in Los Angeles, Dave, thank you for joining us. Your thoughts
00:35:47.840
generally on the debate. Well, first off, it's good to be with you guys. That almost sounded like you had
00:35:54.800
to issue a trigger warning before you intro. No, not at all. I think the audience loves you,
00:35:59.860
loves you. You, you, you brought it around nicely. Um, well, I think the main takeaway,
00:36:04.660
and I suspect that you guys might've hit on this. I was doing a live stream on my channel,
00:36:08.680
which is why I'm joining a little late is that Biden did not implode. And the expectations I think
00:36:15.980
were so low for him. You know, there are so many clips of him losing his train of thought,
00:36:20.740
not knowing what he's saying, screwing up numbers, flat out lying in the rest of it.
00:36:24.400
And he didn't really have a terrible moment. I think Trump, Trump kind of went in hot where he
00:36:31.320
was really going after him, trying to knock him off his, off his pedestal. And it never fully
00:36:36.840
happened that, that being said, um, you know, the, the real issue here is that Biden knows
00:36:43.320
because of the cover that the media is going to run on him and run for him, that he can pretty much
00:36:48.620
lie about anything and get away with it in a way that Trump can't. So, you know, when,
00:36:52.720
when Biden said, the reason I got into this, uh, campaign was because of the very fine people
00:36:58.280
line in Charlottesville, it's like, that line is a lie. It's an absolute lie that I'm sure your
00:37:04.520
viewers know. And I'm sure you guys have talked about where right before Trump said there were
00:37:08.820
very fine people on both sides. And what he meant was very fine people of both sides
00:37:12.520
of the debate argument of the, uh, monument argument that the point is he said, I absolutely
00:37:18.880
condemn the KKK and the white supremacists and the rest of it. So, uh, Biden knows he can get away
00:37:24.200
with lies. I think, I think Trump's worst moment though, was partially because they were all talking
00:37:30.160
at once. But when, when Wallace asked him to condemn white supremacy, even though he's done this a
00:37:35.420
million times last week, he got flummoxed and he, it was almost because they were, there was a lot of
00:37:41.900
crosstalk, but he needed to put that down. He needed, he started saying it and then he stopped.
00:37:47.560
And, and I think that was really a bad moment. So I don't think there was really any clear cut
00:37:51.640
winner here. And as I said on my live stream, it's like, it's not whether the partisans think
00:37:56.520
that they're a guy one, that's not what matters because those people know what they're voting for
00:38:00.160
and who they're voting for. It's whether whatever that slice in the middle, and it's hard to figure
00:38:04.980
out how many people that actually encapsulates. It's like, did anyone watch this and say, okay,
00:38:10.180
I was truly moved to one of them. And I don't think we got that. Right. So do you think that
00:38:16.700
Biden, uh, did enough to hold his coalition together on the left? Will the left be upset with
00:38:24.380
him at all? Or did you see any movement on the left? Yeah. Well, look, Biden said he,
00:38:30.160
he wasn't for the green new deal. So now we got AOC is obviously going to be pissed at him.
00:38:35.180
He did kind of say he's for law and order. Trump was really trying to hit him on that.
00:38:40.640
So, you know, he did try to do what all candidates do, whether you're on the left or on the right.
00:38:46.380
Once you get through the primary, then you usually moderate back into something that feels a little
00:38:52.160
saner. I think the problem is, and I know Glenn, I was listening to you earlier today. You've been
00:38:56.840
talking about this for all. The problem is that the base is so crazy at the moment.
00:39:00.600
That it's like, can Biden be the one that stops that radical energy? I think the answer to that
00:39:07.600
is absolutely no. He did not falter tonight. Um, and I don't think it's like, I don't think he did
00:39:12.600
anything that the base is going to absolutely try to take him out. Um, but at the same time, Trump
00:39:19.040
didn't have a real knockout moment. And I think a lot of the real Trump people and people on the right
00:39:24.780
thought, Oh, this is going to be a cakewalk. And that's the problem. When you go in thinking, Oh,
00:39:28.800
we're going to win this thing for sure. If you don't win, it kind of feels like,
00:39:32.740
like almost like you lost. Let me play cut 18. Listen to this. This is Biden and Trump sparring
00:39:37.520
over Antifa. Watch Antifa is an idea, not an organization. You got it. Not malicious.
00:39:50.940
Well, then you know what? We're done, sir. We're moving on to the next. We're moving on to the
00:39:53.960
next. That's not an idea. Everybody in your administration tells you the truth is a bad,
00:40:00.260
is a bad. You have no idea. Is there anybody, is there any winner on that one?
00:40:05.240
So that was a good moment for Trump because anyone that has, has a flicker of, of a free
00:40:18.000
thought in their head, they know what's going on in the streets of Portland and New York city and
00:40:22.800
Seattle and Minneapolis and the rest of it. And it's Antifa violence. They're not telling you it's
00:40:28.100
not them. They're telling you it is them and that they are a radical Marxist organization and that
00:40:33.100
they're here basically to, to take down the patriarchy and end capitalism and the rest of
00:40:38.060
it. Uh, I've done a ton of college speaking events that Antifa shows up and protests violently and
00:40:44.080
calls fire alarms and the rest of it. So that's not an idea. If it was an idea, I would go to an
00:40:48.740
event and speak freely and, and I'd go, Oh, well, there are these people called Antifa and they don't
00:40:53.200
like me. Uh, but no, I've seen real violence. So, so what the, the real question though is, is why is
00:40:59.300
Biden so, uh, trigger happy basically to say that they're not an organization? And that gets to the
00:41:05.760
fact that the base is radical. So I think the average person, when they see things burn and then
00:41:11.560
they, they can associate that with Antifa, I think that was, that was a winning moment for Trump.
00:41:16.040
And I think the critical race theory thing was, was a winning moment for Trump also.
00:41:19.740
I think the, uh, the, the other piece of that was the Portland when he asked, why have you called
00:41:27.220
them? Have you called the mayor? Have you called the governor? That was a good question from Wallace,
00:41:30.680
I thought. Yeah. And, uh, and when, uh, when he, uh, said that it's only, the only trouble comes is
00:41:38.180
when they do come in, that's complete hogwash. And I think everybody felt that, um, any minds change,
00:41:44.960
Dave, any last thoughts? I don't think, as I said before, whoever that sliver is,
00:41:50.960
and we just don't know what that number of people is. It's hard to imagine that anyone watched tonight
00:41:55.480
and really said, wow, Trump just, just wowed me or Biden wowed me. Uh, I, I don't think anyone was
00:42:02.460
really moved, but look, that's why they do three debates. That's why we do a vice presidential debate.
00:42:06.720
That's why we got five weeks left on this thing. I think they'll go both go back in. And I think
00:42:11.660
Trump's people will say, you know, maybe it's better to just calm down a little bit. You don't
00:42:15.760
have to be so aggressive. And Biden's people, I think the fact that he didn't implode, I think
00:42:20.640
they're going to be pretty, pretty pleased with that, but he will have to go in and talk to the
00:42:25.460
radicals and basically be like, Bernie, did I give you enough there? Because he can't lose that base.
00:42:30.820
And as, as you said this morning, it's like, if he's the Trojan horse, he owes these guys. And, uh,
00:42:36.420
that's what he has to watch out for. Dave Rubin. Thank you very much. If you want to see Dave,
00:42:40.240
you can, um, you can check him out on the blaze, just use, uh, the promo code debate and, uh, you'll
00:42:46.620
be able to get him on demand. Um, and of course at, uh, at, uh, all the, uh, other places where Dave
00:42:54.080
Rubin is available. He's like, I mean, he's like McDonald's everywhere. He's everywhere.
00:42:57.700
He's like McDonald's. Thanks a lot, Dave Rubin. I appreciate it. Okay. Um, to close up,
00:43:04.520
I guess we look to the future. Um, I don't have that pit in my stomach that I had all day
00:43:11.140
because it's over. Um, but my fear was that it would be over tonight. I don't think anything
00:43:19.640
happened, um, that is going to change anybody's mind. Um, I think if we had real journalists,
00:43:27.880
they might be able to find some things in here that, uh, Joe Biden said that were not accurate,
00:43:34.900
uh, and would lead you to understand he is the radical that he is. Uh, but we don't really have,
00:43:42.520
uh, great journalists, uh, anymore, uh, except I hope, uh, the people that work at the blaze that
00:43:49.520
classify themselves as journalists. We are all talking heads and not journalists. Um, join us at the
00:43:55.940
blaze. We have the next debate is next Thursday, Wednesday, next Wednesday. And it's a vice presidential
00:44:02.300
debate, uh, which, uh, will be very interesting. Mike Pence, uh, will take on Kamala Harris and Mike
00:44:10.180
is really, really good. Your thoughts on that pairing. Electric. Yeah. Um, I don't know. Mike Pence
00:44:21.420
will have a very foreign Lauren look on his face a lot. Uh, and Kamala Harris will, um, say or do
00:44:28.540
whatever advances Kamala Harris. I mean, she's, uh, amoeba like. I mean, Mike Pence was a talk show
00:44:36.720
host. Uh, he knows, he knows how to communicate with people. I, I think, you know, at one point he
00:44:42.840
was really good at doing that and then he just kind of went away. He sort of disappeared. Um, and then
00:44:48.620
came back on the scene, of course, uh, uh, recently, but there was a time when he was really good at
00:44:54.880
this stuff. He might be, he might surprise us. He, he, he, he, right now he needs to look, he needs
00:44:59.440
to be less of politician. Yeah. Every time I see Mike Pence, he is a very schooled politician and
00:45:05.040
that's not what people want right now. He'll do fine. I mean, he'll bore people to death a little
00:45:08.920
bit, but he'll, he'll do fine in this, you know, this election will not turn on the vice presidential
00:45:14.120
debate. It will have, I don't think it can have a very large impact, but I do think, uh, Pence will
00:45:20.020
do well. He'll hold his own. He, he won't, he won't get knocked around by Harris. I think he'll do,
00:45:23.460
he'll do a good, a pretty good job. There's just only so much. This matters. Does anything,
00:45:28.560
does it mean anything of real substance that no one is going to be talking about the Hillary Clinton
00:45:36.300
thing tomorrow? Uh, yeah, I think that, I think it does. I mean, I think it's interesting because
00:45:47.100
it was released when it was coming out into the news cycle today, you'd think these things just
00:45:51.640
like the New York times tax report, right? It's, it's designed to become part of the debate,
00:45:56.360
right? And it didn't. So it's hard to imagine that it's going to have a big impact as of tomorrow.
00:46:03.360
I mean, I think goodness Trump's taxes did though. I'm glad they sneaked that right on in.
00:46:07.840
Yeah. That was the first thing people don't care about. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, you know,
00:46:11.760
he is president. They have, he has an attorney general department of justice. You want to move
00:46:17.120
this story along, call Hillary Clinton in front of a federal grand jury. Yeah. That'll move this
00:46:20.920
story. There'd be some coverage on that. Yeah. Okay. Um, we'll be back early tomorrow. Pat starts,
00:46:27.160
uh, what? 6am, uh, central time, 7am Eastern. We're back at nine Eastern.
00:46:33.360
You're at, uh, 12 Eastern. So enjoy your rest and we'll see you tomorrow. Thanks for joining the
00:46:40.540
blaze. If you, uh, if you want to subscribe, you'll hear Mike, Mark Levin's, uh, opinion on what
00:46:46.760
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