Trump’s racist remarks toward migrants and Palestinians was met with little more than “thank you, President Trump.”
Much of the attention on Thursday’s presidential debate fell upon President Joe Biden’s faltering performance, which has called into question whether he can even remain the Democratic candidate. In the aftermath, some have focused on former President Donald Trump’s nonstop lies.
Left largely overlooked, however, has been the open xenophobia Trump deployed against Palestinians and immigrants, and the silence with which it was met.
The most striking illustration might be Trump’s response to a prompt from CNN moderator Dana Bash, regarding Israel’s war on Gaza and the “humanitarian crisis” that Israel has created while killing thousands of Palestinians.
As Biden insisted that Hamas was the only entity standing in the way of a ceasefire, Trump actually pushed back on the idea. “You got to ask him,” Trump began, referring to Biden, “as far as Israel and Hamas, Israel is the one that wants to go. He said the only one who wants to keep going is Hamas.” He continued: “Actually, Israel is the one, and you should let them go and let them finish the job. He doesn’t want to do it. He has become like a Palestinian. But, they don’t like him because he is a very bad Palestinian. He is a weak one.”
Anyone that's surprised that Trump would make matters 100x worse for Palestine is hopefully re-evaluating their media-intake
That much was clear from when he was president - he basically put Hamas with their backs to the wall by destroying any hope on a two state solution during his term...
Seriously, for all the "genocide joe" rhetoric I see here and other sites, it's abundantly clear the other option is "He's weak, Israel should be allowed to 'finish the job' ".
Voters, do you prefer a level headed voice trying to minimize palestinian casualties, or would you prefer Israel get the all-clear to steamroll Gaza indiscriminately, likely annexing it wholesale? Very clear choices.
The answer from the people saying "Genocide Joe" will be "But BOTHSIDES" and "I refuse to vote for..." because they're privileged enough or deluded enough to think they'll be safe from the consequences of a Trump administration.
do you prefer a level headed voice trying to minimize palestinian casualties, or would you prefer Israel get the all-clear to steamroll Gaza indiscriminately, likely annexing it wholesale? Very clear choices.
Would greatly prefer the former, but unfortunately no such candidate was on the stage.
There was one guy lying about whether Israel wants to end the genocide while sidestepping the fact that he's the one supplying the weapons and political cover.
And then there was the guy telling the truth for the first time in years by pointing out that Israel very much DO want to keep the hostilities going..and then bemoaning that the other war criminal on the stage wasn't being gleefully bloodthirsty in public about it.
level headed voice trying to minimize palestinian casualties
Biden isn't doing that though, you can't send someone the bombs they're using to cause those casualties and say you're trying to minimize it. Minimizing Palestinian casualties would be using all tools at your disposal to make Palestinian casualties the as low as possible.
The question is would you rather a president who openly facilitates the slaughter of Palestinians or pretends to oppose the slaughter of Palestinians while facilitating it.
The answer is it doesn't fucking matter, ethnic cleansing is ethnic cleansing.
It was unrealistic but there was some hope still left - he buried that hope for good though and now Hamas is doing whatever they can to bring that discussion back on the table...
I think I made it 15-20 min in last night. I heard one candidate stumble, sound old, but make a point. Not ideal or reassuring, but something. I heard the other candidate tell nothing but lies and speak with hostility at a 3rd grade level. No substance, just lies and attacks. It's exactly what I expected, but I still had to go and hurt myself like that. I had to GTFO before I put my face through my monitor.
I know it's not new that our two options are Genocide Denier, and Guy the Agrees there is a Genocide, but wants to Help Genocide Harder, but it hurts every time they bring attention to it
Moderation was the biggest issue with the debate. Everyone knows how Trump doesn't believe in objective reality, so not pushing back on lies is harmful and dangerous.
The moderators were less moderators and more like living sheets of lined paper with the questions printed on them. Human teleprompters with no willingness or ability to engage with the speakers, only desiring to feed them question after question. There was no point to having them there. We traded actual moderation for the semblance of decorum by cutting off a microphone.
Much of the attention on Thursday’s presidential debate fell upon President Joe Biden’s faltering performance, which has called into question whether he can even remain the Democratic candidate.
The moment embodied a through line of the debate: CNN moderators Bash or Jake Tapper would ask a question; Trump would respond with something off-topic, dishonest, and dangerous; and the moderators, instead of pushing back or even acknowledging the absurdity of Trump’s answers, would simply move on, thanking the twice-impeached former president for his time.
In response to the same question, Biden said he’s still pushing hard for Hamas to accept a ceasefire deal and made clear that “the only thing I’ve denied Israel was 2,000-pound bombs,” given the risk to innocent people in populated areas.
Shortly after, Bash followed up with Trump, asking if he would “support the creation of an independent Palestinian state in order to achieve peace in the region.”
Trump referred to immigrants as hordes of millions coming from “prisons, jails, and mental institutions” into the country to destroy it.
The debate has triggered a broader reflection on whether a candidate other than Biden would be best suited to put down such cruelty, though some higher-echelon Democrats have thus far refused to entertain that possibility.
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not all of them, but there are enough that people have tried it on twitter that seemed to have worked and it would be weird if they were real people playing along after arguing