01/10/2020
Article no2::
The chaotic and unwieldy debate, in which moderator Chris Wallace, from Fox News, struggled to rein in Trump and the president egged on far-right groups, yielded a large fundraising haul for the Democratic campaign.
In a conference call with reporters after the debate, Biden’s communications director and deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield, announced that the campaign raised $3.8m between 10pm and 11pm through ActBlue, the Democratic grassroots fundraising site.
“Tonight we broke the single-hour record for a campaign ever on ActBlue,” Bedingfield said. “And we broke our own hour record and raised $3.8m between 10 o’clock and 11 o’clock.”
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That fundraising infusion suggested that the total sum the campaign raised from the debate eclipsed the entire hauls some statewide or national campaigns have enjoyed.
The $3.8m was one plainly positive note for the Biden campaign following a debate that both Democrats and Republicans cast as a mess. After the debate in Cleveland, even usually reserved TV anchors could not help but denounce it as the worst debate they had ever seen – a “sh*tshow”, as CNN put it.
Speaking to reporters during a campaign stop in Ohio, Biden condemned Trump’s debate performance, saying he understood why some Americans would feel disgusted with politics.
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“The president of the United States conducting himself the way he did, I think it was just a national embarrassment,” Biden said.
Biden also specifically addressed one of the most startling moments of the night – when the president refused to denounce white supremacist groups such as the Proud Boys, telling them instead to “stand back and stand by” – and offered his own message to the far right.
“My message to the Proud Boys and every other white supremacist group is cease and desist,” Biden said. “That’s not who we are. This is not who we are as Americans.”
Biden described Trump’s debate performance, and specifically his refusal to condemn white supremacist violence, as “a wake-up call for all Americans”.
“For 90 minutes, he tried everything to distract,” Biden said. “And it just didn’t work.”
