Sponsored link
Wednesday, August 19, 2026

Sponsored link

News + Politics'How many times does this guy have to show us who he...

‘How many times does this guy have to show us who he is?’

Trump refuses to denounce white supremacists in the worst presidential debate ever.

-

Wow.

I think the best response to the debate was Jason Johnson, a Morgan State University professor, who was on MSNBC.

Even a GOP consultant called him ‘unhinged.’

“As Lil’ Wayne said, ‘what the fuck?’”

Johnson didn’t actually say fuck, because it’s TV, but we all got the point.

Steve Schmidt, a Republican strategist, added: “This was a national humiliation. Trump was unhinged, disheveled, incapable of any type of argument.”

But beyond the almost-unwatchable disaster, we did get a clear message of who the president is: He refused to condemn white supremacists. He asked the Proud Boys to “stand by.”

That’s a stunning moment in American history.

“How many times does this guy have to show us who he is?” analyst Aisha Mills asked.

It’s pretty clear that Chris Wallace, who is a real journalist (unlike a lot of his Fox News colleagues) completely lost control of the debate. He let Trump violate the rules over and over, interrupting and shouting over Biden.

If there are going to be any more debates – and quite a few people tonight say there shouldn’t be – then the moderator needs to turn off Trump’s mic.

He tried to call Biden a “socialist,” which flies in the face of a 45-year-record of staying right in the center of the Democratic Party. He made up numbers about the cost of a green new deal.

But mostly he was incoherent, and as one observer noted, “I can’t imagine any parent telling their kids to go to school and act like the president.”

Wow.

48 Hills welcomes comments in the form of letters to the editor, which you can submit here. We also invite you to join the conversation on our FacebookTwitter, and Instagram

Tim Redmond
Tim Redmond
Tim Redmond has been a political and investigative reporter in San Francisco for more than 30 years. He spent much of that time as executive editor of the Bay Guardian. He is the founder of 48hills.
Sponsored link
Sponsored link

Featured

This year’s Bliss Fest was all about the sparkling ride

Elliott Peck's immersive jazz-folk, Combo Tezeta's energizing cumbia, Circus Bella's high clownery drove some Presidio heat.

Drama Masks: A sensitive Julius Caesar, lost in the ’70s shuffle

Marin Shakes' bold, beautiful, but muddled adaptation humanizes an autocrat at the expense of message or meaning.

Kiev, 1911: the Bund, revolution, and a sparkling work of historical fiction

'Radiant as the Stars' tells of a young woman who returns from the US to fight in the Russian Revolution—and it's based on a real story

More by this author

Kiev, 1911: the Bund, revolution, and a sparkling work of historical fiction

'Radiant as the Stars' tells of a young woman who returns from the US to fight in the Russian Revolution—and it's based on a real story

Lurie attacks affordable housing plan—and undermines his own proposal

By saying housing money hurts the cops, he may be undermining support for his own Housing Trust Fund.

The Marina Safeway project has a serious toxics and sewage problem

And yet, thanks to Wiener, there's no EIR. Plus: Punk politics in the 1970s—and today. That's The Agenda for Aug. 16-23
Sponsored link

You might also likeRELATED