The Republican nominee’s temperament was exactly the scenario that his advisers were reportedly worried about.

Former President Donald Trump’s volume slowly but surely ratcheted up over the first hour of the debate on Tuesday. He started off relatively calm, but as Vice President Kamala Harris needled him on his rallies, his standing in the world, and his legal troubles, he eventually blew up.

There was no sign of him calming down as the debate hit the home stretch and, as a result, his answers began falling apart, drifting into the same disjointed, incoherent ranting that Harris invited people to watch at his rallies.

  • Mossy Feathers (She/They)@pawb.social
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    2 months ago

    You know, he could have gone down in history as the angry meme man who told people they were fired on TV; and his crimes and shitty personality would have likely gone overlooked until after his death. Instead, he ran for president and this is how everyone is going to remember him. Incoherent, rambling, unstable, stupid, out of control, and demented; all while being regularly trotted out in front of the media by his own party like he’s some kind of show animal.

    I don’t feel pity for him, but I can’t help but be amused at how he didn’t just shoot his legacy in the foot, he blew it up with a grenade.

    • Wytch
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      2 months ago

      His legacy could have also been “80s real estate and business failure goes to prison for SA and financial crimes.” Instead, we have a two-tiered justice system and he gets to climb onto Air Force One with toilet paper stuck to his shoe at 72 years of age.

      We’re numb to injustice.

      • barsquid@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Yes, this is the correct take. He has been committing rapes and financial crime for decades. He should have been in prison long before 2016.

    • stoly@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I actually do feel sorry for Trump but can’t excuse his behavior. He was twisted by his super evil father who drove the older brother to suicide. Donald Trump had every opportunity in the world but zero chance of being a normal human.

  • kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago
    • She definitely needled him. I knew when she talked about all of the inane nonsense he talks about at his rallies and how he exhausts his own supporters so much they leave early during his 90 minute long ramblings that that would piss him off to no end, and sure enough all he could do after that was brag about his rallies and claim no one goes to her rallies. That being said, why in God’s name did ABC let him get the last word on. Every. Single. Talking point? No matter who was talking first, no matter the subject, no matter how off course he was taking the topic, he’d start whining after she finished talking and they’d turn his mic back on and give him more time. If I’m not mistaken they gave him an extra rebuttal one time then tried to restrict Kamala from responding back until she insisted so much that they relented and then they STILL gave Trump another minute to give the last word again! What the hell was that? Tell the fat orange fuck “no”, follow the rules and move on! If he wants to whine about her words, he can eat up time from the next question doing that. Don’t give him more of platform to spout lies unchallenged. He has plenty of that already.
    • samus12345@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Harris’ team wanted open mics so he could spew his bullshit and make himself look bad, so ABC pandering to him worked in their favor. Anyone who’s a cultist loves his verbal diarrhea and will support him no matter what, but there are always people on the very fringes of not wanting to vote for him that can be picked off every time he does it. They just have to be demotivated to vote Republican or at all, not convinced to vote Democrat.

      • Dagrothus@reddthat.com
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        2 months ago

        Yeah im biased but i dont see how any undecided voter hears that incoherent rambling and doesnt lean more towards kamala. Her facial expressions alone said all she needed.

    • stoly@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      This bothered me. He ended up with a lot more time than Harris, though strategically this might actually work in her benefit. He had more time to show how bad and unstable he is.

    • draneceusrex@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      No, no, you see he did biggly at the debate even though it was rigged and 3 vs 1 against him. ABC was so unfair to Trump! /s

  • 58008@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    He knew her strategy going in, because every media outlet talked about it and everyone in Darneld’s circle would have prepped him on it, but it still worked.

    This dude has been a layup this whole time, but everyone has fucked it up, until Kamala & Walz came along. I think everyone else expected too much of him and his base, and assumed that simply enumerating his flaws was enough.

    Kamala took a much more “show, don’t tell” approach, plucking his strings like a harpist in a mediaeval softcore porno, then standing back and letting the man embody and demonstrate his flaws unabated, laughing at him as he plays out the 3 lines of uncommented JavaScript that govern his emotional life. She could have late-term abortioned a Haitian cat right there on stage and it wouldn’t have made Dundald seem any saner by comparison.

    Of course, a debate doesn’t mean all that much at the end of the day. The Dendald Tramp contingent of voters probably don’t have a lot of fence-sitter types who might be moved by it. You’re either all in with that “first image of a black hole” lookin’ motherfucker, or you’re mentally well. But still, history will keep this debate fat and watered for the rest of recorded history. It will be shown to up-and-coming politicians being trained for the stage. It will be a permanent thorn in Drumald’s side and he will ruminate on it for the rest whatever remains of his pointless life. And it will hopefully be listed in the textbooks as one of the key turning points in the electoral win of the first female United States president.

  • iamjackflack@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    Omg did you know they are eating dogs? Honey look they are eating dogs! They are ruining this country! /s

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        2 months ago

        And where you go. How can you pee on a hydrant in front of a baseball game while dressed as a hotdog and NOT expect to be eaten. It’s all their fault. They should have dressed more modestly or have been more careful where they go

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      2 months ago

      I was almost impressed at first. He started out with complete sentences and something resembling coherence. Harris needed to hold out just a little bait and it was over.

      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        As a former prosecutor, she knows that letting a dumb defendant talk is how you win cases fast.

  • Optional@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I didn’t watch it.

    But my close personal friend who did watch it said she needled him but he largely didn’t pull a trump.

    We’ve seen this a few times in trump’s . . . whatever we call the time period in which all things are awful because of him - anyway, once at his first SotU speech and another for some big important reason or other - he makes a concerted effort not to be himself and just read the teleprompter. Like he intentionally skipped his adderall and shotgunning a diet coke.

    Apparently that was the case last night.

    So now I’m wondering - does the article say that because my friend missed the signs that trump was ranting incomprehensibly as usual? Or is it MSNBC’s tack that they’re out front with a liberal take in order to drive the narrative that way?

    I don’t know. I leave it as an exercise to the reader to question whether or not they watched it in real time versus saw clips and articles - and whether or not that difference has any weight with whatever voters are either undecided or are contemplating not voting trump.

    • bbbbbbbbbbb@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      I think I watched the first hour. Trump started off with his standard ramblings and conspiracies, immigration immigration immigration. Then as time went on and Harris kept personally attacking him it was largely the same, just he was yelling.

    • cheers_queers@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      your friend must have only watched the first few minutes. by the end, my brain was numb and i couldn’t focus on what he was saying, it was so entirely incomprehensible. i turned to my partner and told her now i know why his rally goers fall asleep or leave. it’s impossible to follow. he was also actually baring his teeth with rage at Kamala’s needling. it was cathartic honestly.

    • Asafum@feddit.nl
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      2 months ago

      Exactly.

      I’m all for Kamala, I absolutely don’t want another Trump admin or even Republican admin of any sort, but there’s a whole lot of copium and hope huffing going on right now. She did ok, but he definitely didn’t get mad and didn’t go too far off the rails… The most absurd thing he said was about people eating pets, the rest was typical Trump stuff. I listened to it, not physically “watched” so I didn’t see if his facial expressions betrayed him, but he didn’t sound mad at all.

      • Dashi@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        The after birth abortions were not absurd? I’m half way through watching it and that and the 28 million immigrants a day both sound kinda absurd.