时间:2025-07-11 08:44:51 来源:网络整理编辑:時尚
Calling what happened in St. Louis on Sunday night a "presidential debate" is like calling most Twit
Calling what happened in St. Louis on Sunday night a "presidential debate" is like calling most Twitter users with eggs for avatars "reasonable conversationalists."
Try as you might, there is little possibility of having a real exchange of views with Twitter eggs, who invariably walk away thinking they've won. And there's no talking with Donald Trump, either -- a man who cannot apologize for a single thing he's ever said without hurling worse barbs.
SEE ALSO:One tweet summarizes tonight's presidential debateThe Republican candidate, if we can still call him that when GOP luminaries have spent the weekend repudiating him, spent the 90-minute town hall debate stalking the stage and lashing out like a wounded animal. A hyena, maybe, given how much the rising, hectoring tone of Trump's voice was starting to sound like howling.
Anyone who has ever seen a school bully strike back when someone calls him out got major flashbacks. For a man who doesn't believe in PTSD, Trump is certainly capable of triggering a great deal of it.
Given that she was able to speak reasonably, or indeed speak at all, in the face of Trump's repeated interruptions, his unprecedented and outrageous threats, and his creepy invasion of her physical space, Hillary Clinton deserves the Congressional Medal of Honor.
In a position where most of us would have wanted to punch Trump in the face, Clinton kept her cool. She offered a few canned lines, hesitated a few times, and could have batted a few more questions out of the park, but she was not knocked off her game.
Tweet may have been deleted
Like Tim Kaine facing Mike Pence in the vice presidential debate before her, Clinton knew what tonight was really about: allowing her opponent to lie enough times on national television to run weeks' worth of political ads in battleground states.
It's hard to know where to start on the sheer volume of Trump's mendacity. You've probably seen the fact-checking articles already. (If not, here's one.) His gaslighting denial that he ever tweeted the words "sex tape" was probably his mildest untruth of the night; that alone tells you how low we've sunk in 2016.
But he did tell one truth: Clinton is a fighter.
Tweet may have been deleted
In reviewing his latest book last year (it used to be called "Crippled America" until he flip-flopped on the title), I described Trump's prose style as:
Rather like sitting next to a charismatic bullying drunk at a dinner party. "I have proven everybody wrong," Trump says, then thumps the table in all caps. "EVERYBODY!" You can practically hear the other guests muttering polite agreement and checking their watches.
Boy, was Trump thumping the table in all caps in St. Louis, too.
He called Clinton "the devil"; he threatened post-election revenge on his opponent by appointing a "special prosecutor" to look into her "lies"; he casually refuted his running mate and professed affection for Putin; he dodged multiple questions about a tape in which he quite clearly made comments condoning sexual assault by, at one point, changing the subject to terrorism.
Tweet may have been deleted
Kudos to moderators Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz for trying to rope Trump in repeatedly -- fact-checking him in real-time, calling him out when he didn't even come close to answering the question. Kudos, too, for getting him to admit, as an aside, that he has skipped out on two decades of paying personal income tax.
But even Cooper and Raddatz seemed stunned into silence at the sheer volume of nonsense Trump was hurling, especially at his blatant attempt to hobble the umpires by claiming he was being given less time to speak. (He wasn't.)
The American system of presidential debates assumes a certain level of decency. There have been raised voices and candidates talking over each other, but nothing like this.
Tweet may have been deleted
Many statements rose to the level of eminent threat to the entire American experiment. Probably the most dangerous: Trump couldn't say whether or not he would ban Muslims from entering the United States. And in the most egregious moment of the night, he literally threatened to jail his political opponent if he wins.
If you're thinking that makes him sound like a would-be dictator in a banana republic, you're not alone. Trump has long been taking pages from the fascist playbook; fascists, after all, were never very clear about their policies beyond repeating the word "strength."
The closer we get to election day, the more dangerous this candidate looks. He has, as Clinton rightly pointed out, precipitated a countrywide rise in hate crime and given the Islamic State (ISIS) their best recruiting tool. He has provided aid and comfort to the Kremlin in its increasingly blatant attempt to swing a U.S. election.
We can only hope that on Nov. 9, we can all shake him off like so many 3 a.m. tweets from Twitter eggs.
TopicsDonald TrumpElectionsHillary Clinton
The U.S. will no longer have the final say on internet domain names2025-07-11 08:41
12場不敗!圖赫爾平斯科拉裏神跡 戰馬競有望破紀錄2025-07-11 08:00
壞消息!克洛普:範迪克傷情不樂觀 或無緣歐洲杯2025-07-11 07:43
尤文名宿 :C羅應該向球迷道歉 他需要為自己做解釋2025-07-11 07:16
This chart shows just how high Simone Biles can jump2025-07-11 07:00
曝C羅認為尤文配不上他 欲尋求其他歐洲豪門報價2025-07-11 06:54
穆帥愁!孫興慜將參加國家隊比賽 熱刺願放他走2025-07-11 06:49
河北新帥重視體能堪稱魔鬼教練 經常測試12分鍾跑2025-07-11 06:23
Nate Parker is finally thinking about the woman who accused him of rape2025-07-11 06:14
萊萬收獲德甲第268球 單場中框“帽子戲法”2025-07-11 06:01
Olympic security asks female Iranian fan to drop protest sign2025-07-11 08:43
拉斯帕爾馬斯主席遭起訴 從稅務和社保部騙了3700萬歐2025-07-11 07:41
國安與廣州隊仍是國腳大戶 入籍球員將獲得充分考察2025-07-11 07:19
深度:拉波爾塔時代巴薩猜想 留梅西+免簽3人能複蘇 ?2025-07-11 07:15
Despite IOC ban, Rio crowds get their political messages across2025-07-11 06:50
尤文換帥賠率囧叔第1齊祖第3 終極目標瓜帥克洛普2025-07-11 06:33
中超正在形成群雄逐鹿局麵 三隊成轉會窗口贏家2025-07-11 06:27
奧斯卡曬與新隊友李昂合影 2人身穿球隊訓練服亮相2025-07-11 06:11
Samsung Galaxy Note7 teardown reveals the magic behind the phone's iris scanner2025-07-11 06:04
河北新帥重視體能堪稱魔鬼教練 經常測試12分鍾跑2025-07-11 06:02