More of the Facts - The Debate

 I did some fact checking after the debate Tuesday night. Wow! Amazing.

I was amazed that the Republicans are attacking the moderators. According to CNN: 

Trump talked more than Harris throughout the entire debate broadcast, and finished five minutes ahead after closing statements wrapped. At the end, Trump had spoken for approximately 42 minutes and 52 seconds, while Harris spoke for about 37 minutes and 36 seconds. (CNN)

Why would the side that got a nearly 5 minute time advantage, or a 6 percent advantage, complain about the moderators not being fair? From where I saw the debate the moderators were not being fair to Harris by letting Trump interrupt her and not shutting off his microphone as was agreed. 

I am concerned about the amount of misinformation and outright lies that Trump spoke. According to AP News Fact Checking, here are the most egregious lies of the evening:

- Trump shares inflated numbers around migrants and crime 

- Trump repeats false claims that noncitizens are being sought to vote

- Trump misrepresents crime statistics

- Trump endorses false rumor about immigrants eating pets

- National Guard soldiers on Jan. 6

- Trump falsely claims China is building ‘massive’ auto plants in Mexico

- Trump falsely claims evidence shows he won in 2020

- Trump claims Putin endorsed Harris

- Trump misrepresents key facts of the Central Park Five case

- Harris takes Trump’s ‘bloodbath’ comment out of context

Of the lies, the one that is very concerning is the one about immigrants eating pets. Joyce Vance writes about this lie as follows:

It's not just that the Haitian story is ridiculous. It's not just that it’s a lie. It is both of those things, but it is more than that; it is also dangerous. Dehumanizing people is what makes inhuman treatment of them possible. It’s how you justify the family separation policy that ripped children from their parents, some of them so young that reunification is still elusive more than five years later. In extreme cases, dehumanization is a path towards genocide, the way the Nazis called Jews in Germany vermin and claimed that they spread disease and used the blood of non-Jewish children in rituals as prelude to the Holocaust. Trump is using similar language as a prelude to the proposed mass deportations of migrants that both he and Project 2025 (which he claimed last night he’d never read) call for. Trump and Vance are setting up a society where atrocities against other human beings can be justified by dehumanizing them first.(Civil Discourse)

At times, and I watched the entire debate along with the post-debate commentary, it appeared that Trump forgot against whom he was running. He launched into more than one discourse about Biden and Harris reminded him that she was not Biden.

I remember all of the nasty and inappropriate things Trump said about President Biden in the past. Perhaps Trump should look into the mirror and upon realizing these same things are true about himself; that he is unfit to be president, he should quit the campaign and head out onto a golf course in a golf cart and do what he does best--sulk. That would be far better than continuing to tear the country apart through his lies and misrepresentations.  

-- Bob Doan, Tequesta, FL