CNN’s experiment with a more ordered and civilized debate imploded in real time on Thursday.
While the Presidential rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump featured muted mics so the candidates couldn’t interrupt, it did little to salvage one of the worst debates in recent memory, resulting in a cascade of criticism of the event — Biden as unfocused and lost, Trump as a bully and a liar, the moderators for not intervening to require clarity — and the network for letting it all happen.
Biden suffered from a scratchy throat that made him inarticulate and often inaudible (aides attributed it to a cold).