Where was Donald Trump?

| 10:30 am EST February 26, 2020
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While it’s never easy to judge the winners and losers of a political debate, Palmer Report tries to offer fair and honest analysis. One thing much easier to determine was the quality of the debate overall – or lack thereof. By ignoring the real issues, such as Trump’s increased attacks on American values, Russia’s continued attack on our democracy, and basically Republicans in general, the debate devolved into a screaming circular firing squad.

Clearly, the moderation of the debate was lacking. That allowed all candidates to talk well past their allotted time, while also not stopping others from weighing in, even when their statements had nothing to do with the question at hand. Can we blame the moderators for their inability to properly silence the candidates? Mostly, yes. That is one of their main responsibilities and they all consistently failed to stop candidates from going well over their time limits, often responding with a soft “hey, wait,” which did absolutely nothing to regain power.

Can we blame the moderators for their questions? Absolutely. That’s the one thing they can easily control, and they were dismal at focusing on issues that matter most in this upcoming election. While we can all argue about what is most important when it comes to a Democratic debate, it should not be difficult to at least direct a small percentage of the questions towards the inability to even act presidential by the current occupier of the Oval Office, if not actually ask about his rampant increase in impeachable offenses.

By completely ignoring Donald Trump, the moderators completely failed at their job. While several candidates did their best in their attempt to attract or retain voters, the purpose of the actual event did little more than generate attention for CBS – and not the kind it was hoping for. Going forward, in order to properly vet all candidates and give voters a better view of the individuals they will be voting on to lead our country, the debates should focus more on the most important issues at hand, and many of them involve Donald Trump.