London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Jul 23, 2025

America is cracking up, the first presidential debate proved it

America is cracking up, the first presidential debate proved it

The chaos that ricocheted across television screens last night was testament to the sad spectacle that is America today.
If you did not watch what could only charitably be described as a “debate” between the two US presidential candidates last night, I can assure you that you made a wise decision.

If you chose to read a book; if you chose to go for a long walk; if you chose to knit; if you chose to do anything other than participate in the mad, incoherent, made-for-TV farce, you chose to spend your time doing something more valuable than enduring a 90-minute spectacle that was testament to the sad state of America today.

The lunacy on display was the product of the presence of Donald Trump and Donald Trump alone. I am not going to engage in false equivalency and suggest that the Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, was, somehow, equally responsible for the chaos that ricocheted across television screens.

Trump proved, once more, that he is a pitiful excuse for a president. Calmness, thoughtfulness, maturity and rationality are anathema to Trump. Every disgraceful measure of this disgraceful president was on parade for a hellish evening.

Trump shouted obscenities. He lied. He thundered. He deflected. He smirked. He, incredibly, played, again and again, the victim of a fictitious media cabal and an equally fictitious attempted coup d’état.

This at a time when more than 200,000 Americans have died avoidable deaths, falling victim to a COVID-19 outbreak compounded by a near-criminally incompetent president who once insisted that the lethal virus would magically disappear by Easter.

Still, there were two halting moments that stood out – neon bright. First, Trump refused, yet again, to reject or condemn unequivocally white supremacy. Instead, he defended far-right vigilantism.

Second, Trump refused, yet again, to tell his militant supporters to stop hurting and killing Americans for exercising their right to vote or to protest.

Instead, he told his legion of rabid, gun-toting fascist militias to “stand back and stand by”. The overt, unvarnished message was as unmistakable as it was reprehensible: be prepared, on my orders, to intimidate, threaten or harm your fellow citizens – whom I swore to protect and defend – to preserve my interests.

By comparison, Biden gamely tried to share his ideas and prescriptions for what he would do as president. Agree or disagree with those ideas and prescriptions, Biden spoke to American voters with a discernible degree of gravitas and earnestness.

On CNN, the same, largely monochromatic bunch of know-it-all-all-the-time pundits who, prior to the “debate,” hyped the “epic” battle with hyperbole usually reserved for a Super Bowl, almost universally expressed horror at the “s***show” they had just witnessed.

No one was surprised by Trump’s unhinged performance, save the token Republican shill who suggested before the “debate” that it was unlikely Biden could withstand the withering attack that Trump was about to unleash.

Indeed, his chums agreed with him on this score: Trump was going to go after Biden relentlessly and, in effect, bash him like a human pinata. The president was, no doubt, primed to hurl a torrent of personal attacks, insults and epithets and, in so doing, put Biden routinely on the defensive.

Turns out, Trump behaved as expected. They yearned for a “s*** show” and they got one.

But he went too far, too often, the know-it-all-all-the-time pundits said, sadly.

Beyond the grating hypocrisy, the cable news networks trotted out the standard “debate” tropes with exasperating predictability.

An effervescent CNN personality assembled a group of socially-distanced, undecided voters from that notoriously fickle swing-state, Ohio. The gaggle of “I’m still on the fence” gnomes were treated with cloying deference and respect that they should never be afforded by anyone, at any time, for any reason.

As I wrote in an Al Jazeera opinion column earlier this month, if you are an “undecided” voter in the face of Trump’s soul-and-synapse-shattering, nearly four-year-long cavalcade of craziness, perjury, and criminality then, my goodness, you have either been in a self-induced coma or some form of witness-protection programme.

At the time of this writing, Trump has been in office more than 32,000 hours. The effervescent CNN host did not bother to ask the “undecided” gnomes why a one-and-half hour “debate” would help them make up their irresponsible minds when the previous 32,000 hours or more had not done the trick.

Finally, the Trump-Biden debate would be, we were told ad nauseam, a possible “inflection” point that could reframe the presidential election and its outcome.

If, like me, you do not suffer from short-term memory loss, you will remember the latest in a litany of these corporate-media-manufactured “inflection” points was Trump nominating yet another evangelical extremist to the US Supreme Court.

That happened late last week and Amy Coney Barrett’s likely ascendency to the court was supposed to revive Trump’s flailing campaign.

This week, that “inflection” point was replaced by another, unexpected “inflection” point after the New York Times reported on a trove of Trump’s tax returns. The newspaper revealed that Trump has paid little or no federal income taxes for years. Oh well, so long Amy Coney Barrett.

I suspect the shameful travesty that occurred last night will not be a vaunted “inflection” point, either.

Whoever wins, America is cracking up – and that is not debatable.
Comments

Oh ya 5 year ago
Gee i see whoever wrote this BS story does not even have the guts to put their name to it. Why did yoy not show the photos of the wire coming out of bidens left sleeve and the one by his tie. I guess you could not put your name on the story because your head exploded watching biden not answer the questions

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
US Treasury Secretary Calls for Institutional Review of Federal Reserve Amid AI‑Driven Growth Expectations
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Severe Flooding in South Korea Claims Lives Amid Ongoing Rescue Operations
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
Google Secures Windsurf AI Coding Team in $2.4 Billion Licence Deal
Jamie Dimon Warns Europe Is Losing Global Competitiveness and Flags Market Complacency
South African Police Minister Suspended Amid Organised Crime Allegations
Nvidia CEO Claims Chinese Military Reluctance to Use US AI Technology
Hong Kong Advances Digital Asset Strategy to Address Economic Challenges
Australia Rules Out Pre‑commitment of Troops, Reinforces Defence Posture Amid US‑China Tensions
Martha Wells Says Humanity Still Far from True Artificial Intelligence
Nvidia Becomes World’s First Four‑Trillion‑Dollar Company Amid AI Boom
U.S. Resumes Deportations to Third Countries After Supreme Court Ruling
Excavation Begins at Site of Mass Grave for Children at Former Irish Institution
×