As anyone who watched the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden
could see, it was clear from the get-go that the gloves were off.
"Don't use the word 'smart' with me. Don't ever use that word."
"Oh, give me a break."
"Because you know what? There's nothing smart about you, Joe."
The words "disaster," "train wreck," and "hot mess" could all be used to describe what happened
at the debate, which was roundly agreed upon by pundits as one of the worst presidential
debates in modern memory.
"I'm just gonna say it like it is. That was a s---show."
One of the reasons why the debate was so criticized had to do with how combative it was, with
personal snipes and shouting matches taking the place of coherent policy discussion.
As life coach and relationship expert Nicole Moore read the candidates' tone and body language,
she says the two of them "were at each other's throats like kids fighting in a schoolyard.”
As she put it,
"The debate felt more like sibling brothers sparring and not listening to their mother's
pleas to stop."
Fox's Chris Wallace served as the debate's moderator, facing what turned out to be an
impossible battle to keep the debaters on-task and the proceedings orderly.
Perhaps the debate organizers might want to think about hiring SuperNanny for round two?
"This is about, 'If I make enough of a fuss, you might just go back to this.'"
Other people think comic and podcaster Joe Rogan should step in, since he'd at least
be able to provide some interesting color commentary if the next debate turns into a
cage match.
As we gear up for the next debate, let's take a look at just what was going on at that first
matchup, underneath the surface, behind all the yelling.
"Will you shut up, man?"
Throughout the debate, Trump just talked over Biden whenever he felt like it. This verbal
bulldozing, Moore says, "display[ed] that he did not care about what Biden had to say
at all."
She also points out,
"It was clear from Trump's body language that he wasn't so much listening to what Biden
had to say as gearing up rebuttals as fast as he could."
Moore also observed,
"Trump's face appeared pinched most of the debate suggesting agitation and that he was
permanently locked into attack mode."
At the point in the debate where Biden was attempting to present his plans for the economy,
Trump was seen to "[throw] his hand in the air in a dismissive shooing away motion,"
one that Moore compares to a gesture we tend to use to mean "pfff...whatever!"
She says the hand gesture makes it plain that
"Trump thinks anything Biden has to say about the economy is absolute garbage and doesn't
even want to take his words in."
There was one instance when Trump was responding to the moderator's question about his campaign
rally events continuing during the pandemic and social distancing protocols. There was
a moment when Biden appeared to want to interject something, but Trump blew him off dismissively.
"President Trump, you're holding large rallies, with crowds packed together —"
"Vice President Biden, you are holding much smaller events, with —"
"Because nobody will show up."
Rather than becoming angry or hurt by this, instead, Biden broke out laughing. He was
prompted to laughter once more when Trump claimed to be okay with wearing face masks.
According to Moore's analysis,
"Outright laughing when someone else is speaking is a very clear body language signal that
implies you have no respect for what they have to say. It's safe to say from Biden's
body language that he finds everything Trump says to be so ridiculous it's not even worth
listening."
It wasn't all grins and giggles for Biden, though. While his stance was more relaxed
than Trump's throughout most of the debate, Moore notes that Biden's body language did
show his frustration building toward the middle and end of the debate.
At times during the debate, Biden even closed his eyes for a few seconds while appearing
to sigh, an indication that the constant fighting and provocations were exhausting him. Moore
says,
"It appeared as if he felt, at times, physically pained by the words that were coming out of
Donald Trump's mouth."
There was one striking difference between the candidates' form of address during the
debate. While Moore observed that during all of the "verbal sparring" the candidates tended
to face towards each other, their body language when they were facing away was particularly
revealing.
She says,
"In many moments during the debate, Biden physically turned his body away from Trump
and spoke directly into the camera, addressing the American people. Biden's body language
seemed to indicate that his interest during the debate was more in establishing a relationship
with the American people than relating with Donald Trump."
Trump, on the other hand, conveyed a completely different message. He could either be seen
turning and gesturing toward Biden or else turning his head to the other side. While
Moore interprets Biden's style of addressing the camera as indicating that he is trying
to talk to the American people, Trump, instead, prefers to point a finger at Biden in a literal
sense.
One takeaway from this first debate that will surprise absolutely nobody is that, as Moore
says,
"They both think the other person is an idiot."
Not only were there verbal insults on both sides, with Biden calling Trump a clown and
"the worst president America has ever had," and Trump saying to Biden, "there's nothing
smart about you," but their body language was also sending the same message loud and
clear. Moore remarks,
"They hardly looked at each other during the debate and when they did, it was either with
anger or with a laugh."
Whatever happens in round two, it's safe to assume the candidates won't be linking arms,
singing "Kumbaya" and agreeing to collaborate on a plan for world peace. At this point,
it would be less surprising to see Trump's old pal Vince McMahon come out and announce
that falls count anywhere, at which point Biden skips the small talk and tries to slam
Trump through the announcers' table.
Would it be pretty? No. Informative? Absolutely not. But entertaining? At least there's a
high probability of that.
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