U.S. Voters Agree the First Debate Not 'Presidential'

The first debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden deteriorated into bitter taunts and near chaos Tuesday night as Trump repeatedly interrupted his opponent with angry — and personal — jabs that sometimes overshadowed the sharply different visions each man has for a nation facing historic crises.

The rapid fire rebuttles from both candidates was hard to follow according to Londa Gatt, a Michigander who has attended several dozen Trump rallies and plans to support the president again.

"Some of it was pretty hard to follow and they were just going off-topic and there was like a lot of defending going on and it wasn't presidential," Gatt said.

In the most tumultuous presidential debate in recent memory, Trump refused to condemn white supremacists who have supported him. There were also heated clashes over the president's handling of the pandemic, the integrity of the election results, deeply personal attacks about Biden's family and how the Supreme Court will shape the future of the nation's health care.

But it was the belligerent tone that was persistent, somehow fitting for what has been an extraordinarily ugly campaign. The two men frequently talked over each other with Trump interrupting, nearly shouting, so often that Biden eventually snapped at him, "Will you shut up, man?"

Andrea Cole, a Berniecrat (supporter of Senator Bernie Sanders) who is voting for Biden, thinks Trump instigated the interuptions early on, which influenced Biden to fall into the same pattern of responding out of turn.

"It's really a disservice to the American people that you can't really get any substantive thoughts or ideas or policy proposals through all of that," Cole said.

Despite his efforts to dominate the discussion, Trump was frequently put on the defensive about his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

The attacks turned deeply personal when Trump returned to a campaign attack line by declaring that Biden's son, Hunter, had inappropriately benefitted from his father's connections while working in Ukraine.

"I wish he was a little bit more mild-tempered, you know, about it and didn't interrupt so much. But I feel that they're partially to blame for it. You know, because he's got a fight to get his truth out. And he did it tonight," Gatt said. "I was like, yeah. A couple of times. Finally, I was hoping he would get certain things out and he did. And if he hadn't done that, he wouldn't have gotten it out. So I was OK with it."

A new report from two Republican-led Senate committees alleged that Hunter Biden's work in Ukraine at the same time his father was vice president raised conflict-of-interest concerns for the Obama administration, but the report did not link Joe Biden to any wrongdoing or misconduct. Trump was impeached for pushing Kiev to investigate the Biden family.

The president drew a lecture from the moderator Chris Wallace, who pleaded with both men to stop talking over each other. Biden tried to push back against Trump, sometimes looking right at the camera to directly address viewers rather than the president.

Cole believes the tactic could help bring home Biden's message to undecided voters.

"This should be about what's going on with the American public and the several issues that really are bringing everybody together. Our economic anxieties because of the pandemic, the issue of racism that's being very divisive," Cole said. "Biden, that's his focus. More is is is how to really help help all Americans and speak to all Americans rather than not just to his base."

The debate was arguably Trump's best chance to try to reframe the campaign as a choice between candidates and not a referendum over his handling of the virus that has killed more people in America than any other nation. Americans, according to polling, have soured on his leadership in the crisis, and the president has struggled to land consistent attacks on Biden.

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