Here we go, the first Presidential debate between Biden and Trump begins at 9 PM Eastern/6 PM Pacific.
How to watch it:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/25/politics/how-to-watch-cnn-debate/index.html
"The CNN Presidential Debate will air live on CNN, CNN International and CNN en Español, and via streaming on Max for subscribers and without a cable login on CNN.com. CNN will make the debate available to simulcast on additional broadcast and cable news networks.
You can also follow CNN’s live debate coverage on CNN.com, which will include analysis and fact checking."
"According to parameters set by CNN in May, all participating debaters had to appear on a sufficient number of state ballots to reach the 270 electoral vote threshold to win the presidency and receive at least 15% in four separate national polls of registered or likely voters that meet CNN’s standards for reporting.
Polls that meet those standards are those sponsored by CNN, ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, Marquette University Law School, Monmouth University, NBC News, The New York Times/Siena College, NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist College, Quinnipiac University, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post."
Edit And that’s it! Thanks for watching everyone!
tl;dw:
Consensus is Trump didn’t so much as beat Biden as Biden beat himself.
The real loser is CNN who failed to fact check anyone, and there were obvious fact checks on both sides.
We should assume Biden will do well in the debate and get as many eye balls watching it as possible. If you know people who might otherwise not watch the debate, consider sending them the how to watch link. Biden needs the debate win for his campaign where as Trump would prefer if everyone tuned out. It would be a missed opportunity if no one watches.
I’m sure people will be watching to see if Biden pulls a Mitch McConnell freeze or if Trump devolves into his mumble-core slurred speech.
Where it gets interesting is if none of that happens.
I still expect Trump to be yelling even if his microphone is muted, we’ll probably hear him through the other micrpphones.
Yeah, I think there will be people watching for that. I think they both will be trying to avoid that though so I doubt that we’ll see much of that. Also, the muted mics were a good call. Even if Trump does start shouting Biden should have no problem talking over him.
There might be a lot of people who aren’t paying attention still. So I would rather not be quiet. We won’t know for sure until the election, but it still seems reasonable that we are sleep walking into fascism. =(
I will say, this debate has the bigger potential to hurt Biden than Trump.
If Biden has a freeze moment, it will be clear he can’t continue.
Trump could literally drop trou and shit on the stage and his audience not only wouldn’t care, they’d cheer him for shitting on CNN.
This debate has the potential to hurt or help Biden. Biden needs a win. People need to be energized about his campaign, because he needs high voter turn out to win the election. A loss for Biden, a neutral performance, or no one watching, in this debate all functionally do the same thing. Any of those cases is a missed opportunity. Biden skating by in this debate isn’t going to cut it.
Trump succeeds when other people fail, so Biden’s performance will matter more than whatever Trump does. Trump has a cult. Since there won’t be a live audience, he could put a cap in Jake Tapper and Dana Bash and his supporters would cheer. So this debate isn’t really for the MAGA crowd. It’s for the rest of us.
I’m going to be incredibly frustrated if the headlines for the coverage after the debate is ‘no one watched’, because that can only help Trump.
It gets really interested if both happen simultaneously and we as a nation have to all just sit in awkward silence for 3 minutes wondering how we got here.