politics

A weird greeting and a misleading selfie: 7 moments you missed from the Trump-Biden debate.

We've all had 24 hours to decompress and try to understand what the hell just happened in the first US presidential debate. 

It was...complete chaos. To say the least. Marred by President Donald Trump's constant interjections and interruptions of both his Democratic rival Joe Biden, and debate moderator Fox News' Chris Wallace, it's been labelled as the "worst presidential debate in history".

While the family were pictured wearing masks in the photo, Ivanka, Donald Trump Jr, Eric, Tiffany and Melania Trump were all seen with their masks off for most of the debate, despite wearing them as they walked in, and in photos.  

Reporters noticed that representatives from the venue approached the family and asked them to comply with mask wearing for the entirety of the evening, but Bloomberg News reports they refused. 

4. Biden's 'perfect' use of an Arabic phrase.

Biden and Trump were yelling about Trump's taxes, which is the story of the week. 

The New York Times on Monday reported Trump paid just $750 USD ($1061 AUS) in federal income taxes in both 2016 and 2017, and none in 10 of the previous 15 years.

Of course, viewers of the debate didn't get any clarity on the issue. Trump simply shouted, "I paid millions of dollars in taxes" while Biden yelled,  "show us your tax returns."

But it was a word muttered by Biden during the conversation that has many Arabic speakers abuzz.

The commentary today is that both women sent 'messages' with their style choices, without saying a word. 

6. The translators who simply couldn't keep up. 

The debate was hard to follow in English, so imagine watching it via a foreign interpreter or in sign language. 

With six voices on the recording, one Twitter user listening from Japan described the broadcast as "something akin to chaos". 

Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan's major national newspapers, referred to the debate as: “a show that is like s**t”.

Here's a taste of what they (tried) to listen to:

One Twitter user in Taiwan wrote that the translator in his country "straight up told his boss how the hell he is (sic) supposed to translate three people talking over each other live when this was happening."

An American who is deaf wrote: "Trying to watch six flying hands using sign language simultaneously. Made my eyes criss-cross."

7. The 'winner.'

Now, you might be tempted to think no one won, purely because no one really got to make any distinctive points. 

CBS’s post-debate poll found that 48 per cent of viewers believed Biden won the debate, while 41 per cent saw President Trump as the victor.

CNN's found 60 per cent in favour of Biden and just 28 per cent in favour of Trump.

Trump disagrees, and has since said "we won the debate easily last night," while referring to Biden sounding and looking "weak."

 Biden on the other hand has called the evening a "national embarrassment."

Feature image:  Morry Gash-Pool/Getty/Instagram.

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Top Comments

rush 4 years ago 2 upvotes
My favourite description of the debate was a guy (I think someone from CNN) who described it as "a hot mess, inside a dumpster fire, inside a train wreck".