Kasie Hunt
“The voice, open-mouthed look, and visual contrast between President Biden and former President Trump all have Democrats I'm talking to nearly beside themselves watching this debate.”
Katie Rogers
“Meanwhile, several people in Biden's orbit have told me different variations of the same thing as this debate continues, which is: This looks very bad.”
Jonathan Swan
“Democrats wanted to see Biden assuage voters' deep and well-documented concerns about his age and fitness for office. His performance tonight — his halting, hoarse voice and occasional struggle to finish his thoughts — is spiking Democratic anxiety.”
Howard French
“Look at it this way, Trump has been giving the second worst debate performance in history.”
Tim Miller
“Pretty clear that we are witnessing the worst presidential debate on style and substance in the history of our nation tonight.”
Meridith McGraw and Jonathan Lemire
“One of the main prescriptions we heard from Donald Trump's allies was for him to be more restrained on stage and so far, it seems he has listened. The muted mics are also working to his advantage in some ways, preventing him from shouting over Joe Biden like he did in previous debates.”
Dan Diamond
“Can we just acknowledge the state of American politics? One candidate for the presidency is indeed a convicted felon and just said ‘I didn't have sex with a porn star’ in a primetime presidential debate.”
Robert E Kelly
“This debate is a master-class in what's wrong with our media-saturated, horse-race obsessed politics. Trump is just lying and making stuff up. But he says it ‘vigorously’ and doesn't get fact-checked. Therefore he's winning. And so we'll spend the next month debating Biden's age rather than Trump's staggering incompetence.”
Garry Kasparov
“In 1960, JFK was 43 and Nixon 47! I'm not ageist, but this debate and the choice it represents between two feeble and broadly unpopular candidates is an indictment of a failed political culture and the two-party system.”