Poll of the Day > 2020 Presidential Town Halls

(+) Yeah! (+)

Trump: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5yUnUxpr_gv
Biden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZZzfrapNvo

Both are scheduled to start an hour and a half from now.

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Why didn't they just have another debate? Why two separate events? And at the same time?

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SpeedDemon20 posted...

Why didn't they just have another debate? Why two separate events? And at the same time?

Trump did not want a debate and said they were rigged.

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SpeedDemon20 posted...

Why didn't they just have another debate? Why two separate events? And at the same time?

Trump refused to do a virtual debate

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SpeedDemon20 posted...

Why didn't they just have another debate? Why two separate events? And at the same time?

the honest reason is that Trump has always done TERRIBLY at town hall type debates where he has to answer questions from actual voters rather than journalists or only his supporters

by having his own separate event they can do some damage control by at least not having his opponent present

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Trump: 81k views
Biden: 118k views


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Judgmenl posted...

Trump: 81k views
Biden: 118k views

thats actually really surprising

and is gonna drive him nuts

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Mead posted...

thats actually really surprising

and is gonna drive him nuts

It is, but I'm glad.

We've all heard Trump's greatest hits a thousand times by now.

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Trump: 105k
Biden: 149k

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Trump: 134k
Biden: 201k

clearly rigged.

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Yeah, if you support Biden, DO NOT watch Trump's town hall. Watch Biden's instead. I know it's fun to watch the Trump train wreck, but it's more fun to piss him off by losing ratings to Biden.

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The Trump "Town Hall" has basically just been an interview atm instead of an actual town hall. It's been entertaining so far.

SpeedDemon20 posted...

Why didn't they just have another debate? Why two separate events? And at the same time?

Because they decided to switch the rules so Trump said, "Fuck it," so both candidates decided to do their own thing.

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Biden: 252k
Trump: 175k

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It was like halfway through the Trump one before they had the first audience question >_>

The moderator is really hammering into Trump.

Judgmenl posted...

Biden: 252k
Trump: 175k

I kinda suspect that the Biden demographic is a lot more likely to watch on streaming which makes an apples-to-apples comparison hard. And neither stream exactly has the kind of numbers you'd expect.

I have it both open but only the Trump one is actually running. Kinda wondering if it counts for both.

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I'm gonna turn Biden's on and not even watch it just to give it a view

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Zeus_LLC posted...

I kinda suspect that the Biden demographic is a lot more likely to watch on streaming which makes an apples-to-apples comparison hard. And neither stream exactly has the kind of numbers you'd expect.

Of course BIden supporters are more likely to view these things. That's why you see stats like Biden voters are more likely to have things like college degrees.

Biden: 317k
Trump: 183k

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ugh Biden keeps giving detailed answers and remaining on topic

how am I supposed to be entertained, I cant meme this shit

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Mead posted...

ugh Biden keeps giving detailed answers and remaining on topic

how am I supposed to be entertained, I cant meme this shit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-l6tHeseDY

Biden: 367k
Trump: 203k

Pft, Trump can't even get 300k viewers.

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Woman asking the question -- who talks about voting for Hillary in 16 and probably for Biden in 20 -- complimented Trump's smile.

Judgmenl posted...

Of course BIden supporters are more likely to view these things. That's why you see stats like Biden voters are more likely to have things like college degrees.

Biden: 317k
Trump: 183k

Literally doesn't understand a word I fucking say, then asserts something completely different. Or do you somehow think this is only on streaming?

Judgmenl posted...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-l6tHeseDY

Biden: 367k
Trump: 203k

Pft, Trump can't even get 300k viewers.

Comes back to the previous: "Literally doesn't understand a word I fucking say, asserts something completely different."

I kinda suspect that the Biden demographic is a lot more likely to watch on streaming which makes an apples-to-apples comparison hard.



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Finished the Trump Town Hall, which was alright other than the fact that the audience barely asked any questions. They had a large question there but only 4-5 people actually got to ask questions.

The setting for the Biden event looks so different, with that tiny arena and big almost-empty stands where I didn't see anybody at first. However, one thing is very different -- right from the get-go the audience is asking questions, not the moderator.

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Lmao? Trump too tired to do two hours? Biden has 435k viewers now and Trump has zero.

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How short was Trump's?

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Judgmenl posted...

Lmao? Trump too tired to do two hours? Biden has 435k viewers now and Trump has zero.

Trump is a very low energy candidate

Sleepy Donald Trump

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Biden: "Americans don't panic"
Americans: "WE NEED MORE TOILET PAPER!!!"

George calls out Biden on his claim he was talking about shit in January and February, after which he walked it back. >_>

At any rate, Biden is being very slow to actually answer the question. He's had a lot of complaints about this and that, but he has yet to say much he would have done differently.

And right now Biden is saying, "Oh, I didn't feel like there was a need for a lockdown," despite him talking about lockdowns >_>

Biden keeps falling into the, "Oh, you need the government to provide money to these businesses and schools." What? And most of the provisions aren't really practical.

As I'm watching his long answer to the second question, once again I'm reminded by how little time Trump had to answer ANY question before the moderator cut him off and moved things off on a tangent. By contrast, Biden's moderator is calm, respectful, collected, and lets him finish sentences before asking questions.

It's also weird that Biden talks about mandates and then immediately admits mandates aren't really enforceable. What?

George: "Is it wise to raise taxes like that when the economy is in the state it is?"
Biden: "Absolutely." Then he starts making crazy claims about the taxes jumpstarting the economy.

Biden is going into the whole "made in America" spiel.

Just hit the first commercial break. The Town Halls are like night and day. The moderator is barely talking on ABC whereas it almost seemed they talked more than Trump on NBC.


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Jen0125 posted...

How short was Trump's?

One hour. I thought Biden's was supposed to be an hour, too. Happy to see it's got more time, just wish NBC would have given Trump that same time -- and, hell, time to talk in general.

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Zeus_LLC posted...

George: "Is it wise to raise taxes like that when the economy is in the state it is?"
Biden: "Absolutely." Then he starts making crazy claims about the taxes jumpstarting the economy.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/3-poll-of-the-day/78957230/945488277

Interview between Vanity Fair (VF) and a Republican strategist for GWB and Mitt Romney, Stuart Stevens (SS). Relevant to what you said...

VF: ...But you [also] talk about how cutting taxes has always been the core conviction of the party and thats part of it too. And I think the economics of the Republican Party have revealed themselves to have failedthey didnt understand the end game of what theyd been promoting, Grover Norquist and these guys, that it would hollow out the working class and leave them with nothing but this grievance, nothing but racism, nothing but wedge issues. Do you have any reflection on the economic ideas youve promoted?

SS: In [1993], Bill Clinton proposes a tax increase. It passes by one vote. At the time, every Republican predicted economic Armageddon. This was a time when Dr. Kevorkian was a popular cultural figure, the assisted suicide doctor, and they refer to it as a Kevorkian tax increase. So, I made a million ads about that. And we won every race in 1994 on that message. Guess what? We were wrong. It helped launch one of the greatest periods of economic expansion and growth in the history of the country. And Clinton was the last president to wrestle the deficit to some sort of standstill. So, I think you have to learn from facts. I think that theres been a deeply flawed economic theory at the heart of a lot of Republican economics.

Midway through the commercials I remembered, "Oh yeah, I'm not watching this live," and realized I could just fast-forward... although given the length of the stream it's a little hard to get the timing right.

...and did Biden just start his response with a suicide joke? >_>

Otherwise he's really fumbling in his response to the African-American voter. He's been very noticeably tripping over his words at times. Wow, and it just gets worse and worse. He shut his eyes for a moment while gesturing. I don't get it, he was being pretty coherent prior to this. This is surprisingly rough. And wow, that bank loan remark... it seems like he caught himself and started to change things up. At this point I'm not sure if he's trying to argue why black people should vote for him or why they shouldn't vote for him. "Because you know, and for example, if in fact you and I were the same age, and if we split our differences around the same age," >_>

I love the questioner's deadpan expression during all of this. At the end, George asks, "Did you hear what you needed to hear?" and, with a pained expression on his face, the man answers, "I think so." Then Biden immediately offers to talk to him afterward.

jfc, that was painful.

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Why does the left leaning Centrist voter keep bashing the left leaning Centrist candidate

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streamofthesky posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/3-poll-of-the-day/78957230/945488277

Interview between Vanity Fair (VF) and a Republican strategist for GWB and Mitt Romney, Stuart Stevens (SS). Relevant to what you said...

The problem with that assessment is that the economic expansion had little or nothing to do with the tax cut and was instead largely the result of the dotcom boom which later became the dotcom bust. You also had a series of trade deals which gutted American labor which also played something of a hand because it vastly reduced the costs of goods by outsourcing the labor to countries with lower safety regulations, cheaper labor, etc -- trade deals that were facilitated by REMOVING tariffs (ie, taxes) that existed to help keep US labor, etc, competitive against nations that weren't as heavily regulated as us (which, by the way, was a move more in keeping with free-market Republicans and libertarians than Democrats).

Kind of a general side-discussion that I'm not really going to get that into atm because I want to finish watching this.

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Blightzkrieg posted...

Why does the left leaning Centrist voter keep bashing the left leaning Centrist candidate

The left-leaning centrist candidates either didn't run this time or were eliminated very early, leaving a moderate leftist and... whatever Trump is (considering his beliefs don't fall neatly anywhere)

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Zeus_LLC posted...

whatever Trump is

The word you're looking for is fascist.
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Zeus_LLC posted...

or were eliminated very early

Tulsi Gabbard stayed in the race for ages actually

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GanonsSpirit posted...

The word you're looking for is fascist.

Yep that is pretty accurate.

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=now%207-d&geo=US&q=vote%20biden,vote%20trump

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=now%207-d&geo=US&q=biden%202020,trump%202020

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=now%201-d&geo=US&q=biden%20townhouse,trump%20townhouse

Thoughts?

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Republican Trump voter asked Biden about the crime bill he signed, which was kind of a hit job. Biden is kinda defending parts of it and then saying, "Well, the Federal part was okay, the states used it wrong."

Biden is starting to sound a lot like Trump when he's talking about community policing. Then after that he's talking about shooting suspects in the leg and calling cops teachers.

Second break. Biden started strong but his demeanor and behavior keeps changing.

SCOTUS question. Asking about request for safeguards against SCOTUS.

George: "The president is president for all four years, isn't he?"
Biden: "He is..." but blah blah blah weaksauce

And Biden again refuses to answer packing the court... and then he goes, "Well, I haven't been a fan," and then George goes, "Are you still not a fan?", and then Biden demurs, suggesting he'll go through with packing it depending on "how it's handled"... and then he goes into something unrelated.

George: "Looks like they're going to vote on it around Halloween."
Biden: "Perfect day." XD

And Biden is very strongly suggesting that he's going to pack the court and doesn't want to commit to it because it will "distract from what Trump is doing".

Third break? As the night goes on, Biden gets more entertaining.

Fracking question. Biden starts by explaining he's not for banning fracking. Immediately segues to renewable energy discussion.

George notes that a lot of people don't believe Biden's denial. Then George pushes Biden on his support of the GND.

Biden noted that the GND isn't realistic, then started jumping all over the place including going on a tangent about the Amazon. I need to rewatch that part specifically but it's hard to pinpoint that moment since the overall stream looks to be 5 hours long.

Another break? We just came off a break.

Biden is asked if Trump's foreign policy deserves credit for peace breaking out in the world, triggering a long rant.

Softball LGBT question which he softball answers.

Break again. This isn't so much "two hours" as it is maybe one hour content, one hour commercials.

"If you lose, how will you use your platform to (move us closer to the ideals, etc)"

Didn't give much of an answer to what he'd actually do. These non-answers are helping this town hall feel like a real debate >_>

Break!!

Keep seeing the same commercials (again, hard to skip them given the huge length of the video).

The after break was maybe a minute long and just asking about the next debate.

idk, the Biden town hall started pretty strong but gradually weakened and it felt like they kept making the commercial breaks more frequent and longer.

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So I've watched both of them and, all things considered, that "two hour" Biden Town Hall might have been barely over an hour when you took out all of the breaks. That was fucking insane.

The Trump "Town Hall" was basically a one-on-one interview for the first half, then a town hall for the second. When pressed, Trump once again denounced white supremacists and mentioned his commitment to denouncing white supremacists. When pushed on QAnon, he never gave a straight answer and instead argued that he didn't know enough about them to say anything like that. The moderator kept on Trump the whole time, frequently interrupting his responses. While there was *some* benefit to it -- in terms of trying to get harder answers -- it heavily detracted from from the time he should have been using to answer questions from audience members.

The Biden Town Hall was the complete opposite. Biden was given audience questions from the get-go with relatively little interruption from George early on. George did press him on a few things, but we didn't really get answers in many of those cases. In the early going, Biden was very composed, but that gradually faded as the town hall continued and some of his responses had some noticeable fumbles and a few moments seemed borderline incoherent. I half feel that the commercial breaks were there to give him a break because they seemed to pick up in frequency the more he began to exhibit problems.

I'm not sure either town hall had much of a high point, but the respective low points were Trump's QAnon response and Biden's desperate, incoherent answer to that young black voter who talked about many black voters choosing between voting for Biden or not voting at all. Thankfully that whole exchange didn't end with his offer to continue the discussion afterward, because that would have been a way to go out.

GanonsSpirit posted...

The word you're looking for is fascist.

That's the word you're desperately looking for and trying to apply at all costs, but it's the furthest thing from reality considering he's done less to restrict people than most other recent presidents and isn't pushing for the kinds of things that Biden is advocating.

Blightzkrieg posted...

Tulsi Gabbard stayed in the race for ages actually

I'm not entirely sure where she stood politically, but she was closer to the center than Biden for what little that may be worth.

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Why are the Dems being so wishy washy about packing the court when the GOP does it openly and proudly? Stop trying to be "better" than them, nobody cares, it's why you lost in 2016.

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Zareth posted...

Why are the Dems being so wishy washy about packing the court when the GOP does it openly and proudly? Stop trying to be "better" than them, nobody cares, it's why you lost in 2016.

???

Packing the court refers to expanding the membership of the supreme court. Since it can't have an even number it would involve Biden appointing 2 additional justices.

BlackScythe0 posted...

???

Packing the court refers to expanding the membership of the supreme court. Since it can't have an even number it would involve Biden appointing 2 additional justices.

The courts are packed in the sense that the GoP spent years leaving judicial seats empty in order to fill them all as soon as they had as much power as possible

What you are referring to is court expansion

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it's a semantic argument that people have instead of arguing with the fundamental points people are trying to make. "Packing the Court" originally referring to a situation that involved the goal of modifying a supreme court's composition (and likelihood to rule a certain way) in a 'nonstandard manner', introducing partisan justices by means of expanding the supreme court size and nominating judges that fit that agenda.

The important part being the goal here. If a bill was introduced to expand the court size while providing some fair distribution of justices that retained the same ideological balance, would that still be seen as packing the court? No, because the objectionable part is the changing of the court's political composition to be in favor with the party in power. Thus, packing the court can be seen as the goal of a political power grab regardless of the means in which it's achieved, i.e. packing the courts via expansion or packing the courts via holding seats empty until your party comes back into power.

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