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It wasn't a debate. Many of us debated in high school or college and there were rules that would have prevented the CNN debacle.

First of all, calling it a debate is like calling an elephant a donkey. They have nothing in common. They should call it a "free for all" with no rules.

CNN is working so hard to reinvent themselves with very little on-air talent. They still have Anderson Cooper and a few others worthy of being called journalists, but Jake Tapper and Dana Bash are not in that group.

They are trying to lure in the Fox viewers, but that market is over-crowded at this point with Newsmax and OAN and the Sinclair Network.

Many readers have likely judged real debates and have to cringe at the format of this debacle.

Their were no winners. Trump lied over and over with Impunity. Why didn't they put Trump's lies on the crawler? And he never answered any questions asked of him.

Here's my question that Convicted Felon Trump will NEVER answer.

Name 4 things that MADE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN done by your administration. That's only one a year. Why won't CFDT, or his campaign, or any Republican answer what MAGA has done for us.

My grades for the debate - Trump (F), Biden (D) and CNN (D-).

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They made the rich richer, full stop

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In doing so, they are also complicit in the death of American Democracy. I'm not folding though. Truth is power and I am going to do all I can to spread facts. I will use my own words and I will also repost those of the more eloquent. Please unite behind Biden/Harris. Fight maga, not ourselves, for God's sake!

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No argument here

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Sadly this not about facts but rather emotion and it is time to do some in person activism . When the right keeps threatening and no one gets jn their face they feel more emboldened

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Yes, this is true.

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Completely agree. My thought: no one gets on stage again with #45.

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Should not have in the first place. Everyone knew he was going to lie and bully; that's what he does. An occasionally muted microphone and compliant moderators weren't going to change that.

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D- is too high for CNN

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why is all the focus on Biden's mental acuity and not on that other thing's incapacity for anything but himself? These are crazy emphases on all the wrong things.

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A brilliant letter in today's NYT (7/13/24) called for the media to demand a one hour press conference with Trump so he would have to answer the 19 questions Biden answered from random press, not hand picked Fox news buddies. I wonder what that would sound like--how that hider and bullier and liar would look at the end of it. Same rules as the President's press conference. Limelight on him. Or lemon light.

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I call it the Henny Penny network

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lol Justin

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"They should call it a "free for all" with no rules." Or an ambuse, because it was.

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I agree with you Sandra P. Campbell that it should have been called -and agreed to as - a Free-For-All. But I disagree that it was an ambush. trump does not debate. He spews and demeans and distracts. They “prepped” Biden for a Debate. That was wrong. Knowing ahead of time that CNN decided they would NOT fact-check in real time, was a glaring, red-flashing clue it would be a vomit of lies vs Joe Biden. Not what Biden was prepped for. Who has ever been on stage with trump and not been discombobulated as national media zero in on your faults and not the guy fire-hosing lies?

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ambush/abuse = ambuse. Good word.

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Ambuse--ambush plus abuse!

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Sorry Dan--I didn't see your post before I made mine. This looks like I copied off of your paper in third grade!

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Biden's team agreed to the "rules" of the "debate" including that NO live fact checking would take place - in other words, the felon would not be interrupted or called out. All the talking heads could do, and they did, was ask Trump over and over to answer their question, which he rarely did. I agree with Dan that CNN screwed Biden on OPTICS, with the camera sabotage and holding the split screen on our President when he was unable to breath through his nose and looked like the moron that the Felon actually is.

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