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.

  • Optional
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    -52 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
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      62 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.

    • @[email protected]
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      52 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.

    • @[email protected]
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      -92 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
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        32 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.