I admit I came in expecting a better show.
Donald Trump has been pursuing a
blaze-of-glory exit strategy for the past week or two, and I hoped he might interrupt the debate to zip open a satchel and allow a human head to tumble out. “This is the man you killed, Hillary,” he would have said. “What do you have to say to him—and us?” Instead, the Trump who showed up was, for the first 45 minutes of the debate, the Trump who could have won the first debate: calm, substantive by Trump standards, and attuned to Hillary Clinton’s weak spots. Then things went a bit south—maybe even crazy—but we’ll get back to that.
Hillary Clinton showed up, this time in a white suit that made her look like Jor-El, and played the role of Hillary Clinton. She offered long rehearsed litanies, including a timeline about how “when Donald Trump was [doing something unimportant or selfish], I was [doing something important and selfless].” She claimed that her dream of open borders throughout the hemisphere only referred to green energy (did they bother to road-test this talking point?) and then pivoted away from it to start
accusing Russia of interfering in the election. On the question of Syria, she continued to call for a no-fly zone, deflecting a question on whether that meant she was willing to shoot down Russian planes. She offered clichés about “investing in people.” It’s going to be a long four years, unless it ends in World War III.
Trump, by comparison, was downright sedate when things began. Was he making one last play for moderates or undecideds? Who knows, but he didn’t take Clinton’s bait and he remained quiet in his demeanor, offering less excitement than expected. He also had some strong moments, at first. He called Clinton out for her attempt to deflect the conversation away from open borders. He brushed off her certitude about Russia being behind email hacks and, asked if he doubted a U.S. intelligence assessment, answered, “Yeah, I doubt it.” (This would have sounded bad in 2000, but it’s not 2000.) He was effective on trade, channeling the increasing disaffection with the trend lines in manufacturing in the United States. He had some flashes of humor, admitting that he’d complained that the Emmy Awards were rigged and reiterating that he should have won.
But Trump’s control started to weaken about halfway in. When Hillary Clinton accused him of being a “puppet” of Putin, a predictable piece of bait, Trump lunged at it and responded like a four-year-old, or two-year-old: “No puppet. No Puppet. You’re the puppet.” If Trump is elected president, he’ll at least be good at communicating with very, very young people. He was oddly ineffective on immigration, seeming to ding
Barack Obama for deporting millions of people, rather than clarifying whether Clinton’s accusations that he’d round up millions were legitimate or not, and he missed any chance to press Clinton on her zero-deportation-except-for-violent-criminals policy. Then again, whether enforcement happens or not often depends on wonky specifics of policy, and Trump doesn’t do wonky specifics.
In any case, what everyone is going to be talking about today, tomorrow, and perhaps much longer, is that Trump flat-out refused to commit to accepting the results of the election. He said he ought to win. He talked about Clinton. But on election results, he was non-committal. “I’ll look at it at the time,” he said. Asked again, Trump said, “I’ll keep you in suspense.” As the joke goes these days:
Fact check: True. It was outrageous enough to be hilarious. But maybe not so hilarious in real life.
Afterwards, Trump’s veiled threat not to accept the election results was all anyone could talk about—on CNN, on Fox, on MSNBC. Understandably so. Some norms are sacred. But let’s not get too terrified just yet. No high-up political figure apart from Trump himself will be willing to keep fighting that battle after the losing numbers are in. His campaign manager, staffers, surrogates—all will leave the building and tell Trump to do the same. Our democracy, for now, can weather the challenge of a loser who refuses to concede. It shouldn’t ever have to do so, but it can.
There was one other moment that should be mentioned. It was less striking than others but notable for how Trump-y it was. Hillary Clinton was giving an answer about entitlements and how she would do good things and Trump would do bad things—normal election talk—and Trump leaned into the microphone to say, “Such a nasty woman.” Anyone is allowed to have such a thought in his or her head, of course, but adults usually exercise discretion in sharing it with the world. Perhaps Trump thought it’d win over liberals, conservatives, moderates, men, or women, but the safe answer is that it won over none of above. Hillary Clinton should sleep fairly well.