Watched The First 2020 Presidential Debate | Special Coverage & Analysis | PBS NewsHour from YouTube

The first of three 2020 presidential debates kicks off in Cleveland, Ohio, where incumbent President Donald Trump meets former Vice President Joe Biden.

We begin our coverage at 6 p.m. EDT with our nightly PBS NewsHour broadcast, followed by an hour of election-related programming.

At 8 p.m. EDT, NewsHour’s senior political reporter, Daniel Bush, will host a digital pre-show looking at the what to expect from the debate and talking about key issues this election cycle.

At 9 p.m. EDT, the debate begins. The 90-minute debate will consist of six 15-minute segments: "The Trump and Biden Records," "The Supreme Court," "Covid-19," "The Economy," "Race and Violence in our Cities" and "The Integrity of the Election."

Special coverage and analysis continues after the debate with NewsHour anchor and managing editor Judy Woodruff.

I only watched the debate, which started at 6:00 PM and the post coverage.

Too many white men yelling at each other. Trump, ever the lying bully did his best to interrupt and talk over Biden at almost every turn.

Trump started out a bit more logical and almost even thoughtful at the beginning, but then devolved into an annoying 3rd grader for the balance. I wish that Wallace had been better able to get him to allow Biden to actually speak.

Trump appeared to try to derail Biden in hopes he would have problems putting thoughts together, but only succeeded in making himself look like a bully who couldn’t control his own impulses. I honestly have to credit Chris for not yelling at Trump just to “shut the f*ck up.” I’m pretty sure that’s what I would have done in the situation after an hour and a half.

I wished that they could mute Trump’s microphone, but this would be a reverse version of Howard Dean’s famous scream. Biden would look oddly rattled because being 15 feet away he’d still hear Trump and have to deal with the distraction. Better would be to have them in separate spaces where they could turn off Trump’s microphone and allow each side to actually speak.

Trump’s inability to denounce white supremacy was abominable. Asking the Proud Boys to “stand by” is simply vile. And then to not-so-subtly suborn voter intimidation by asking his supporters to go to the polls to “watch” while simultaneously and painfully erroneously throwing doubt on voting by mail. When can we be done with this clown?

Sad that this is what our democracy has devolved into… this was so brutal to watch and I’m left a bit hopeless that America has apparently devolved to this.