The first debate is this week. How does Biden debate a liar?

[Cyrano]

Virtually every word from Trump's mouth is a lie. How does any sane person debate someone who is living in a different reality?

How does a moderator keep control when everything that passes from Trump's lips are whatever pops into his head at the moment?

I can't see a way in which this doesn't get very ugly very quickly.

[beachbumbob]

1. this will not be a debate as trump has no grasp of the issues, so what to expect?

- trump personal attacks at biden and his family
- outright lies and deceptions at all other times



I highly doubt moderator will not be a fact checker, they want fireworks.

- Biden;s replies and answers must all go at the lies of trump to point calling him an outright liar and thief in front of america. Something Hillary clearly failed to do and that cost her the election more than anything else.
- Biden must focus on trump's veracity AT EVERY CHANCE, this will not be a debate on "issues" at all.

[marble falls]

2. You don't waste time correcting his lies. You declare your programs and the problems they'll fix.

[JT45242]

3. "that is not true Mr. trump" and "That is a lie Mr Trump" or "That is also not true Donald"

One of those should be said every time it lies.

1. NOt calling him President will get under his skin and make him lose his shit.

2. Do not mince words, do not debate lies. The media and everyone else sugar coats it. Call them for what they are.

3. Be armed with the facts to prove it. "There is no difference between a mail in ballot and an absentee ballot" here is a statement signed by the Sec'y of State of XX number of states saying that they are the same. What you said Donald, was both untrue and dangerous to democracy. For years, the Republican party used vote by mail to get large amounts of seniors to vote for them. Why are you afraid of that? Is it because yo have tried to kill social security and medicare by defunding them; Because you are responsible for the deaths of 160,000 seniors in the last 7 months of the pandemic which is more than all the members of that generation who died in the Korean and Vietnam wars together. Because you denigrated the service of those seniors and others in the military as "suckers", Why are you afraid of people voting Donald?

[FakeNoose]

4. There will be no give-and-take that normally happens in a debate

Biden should ignore anything Chump says or does, and just stick with his own script. Don't let Chump provoke you, just sidestep everything and keep on smiling.

To keep it moving forward, the candidates should even be in separate studios. Just put them together on the TV screen like it's a Zoom meeting. That way Chump's audio can be cut off when his time is up.

This will be Joe's chance to show he can handle anything. You can do it, Joe!

[luv2fly]

5. Calmly and with facts

Joe just needs to be Joe, and he doesn't need to do anything other than be calm, share facts, and ignore the ravings of the orange Anus on stage with him. A lot of this is going to rest with the moderators and fact checking news media, who I believe by and large are increasingly challenging the Anus on his lies. We shall soon see.

[frazzled]

13. No: calmly countering only with facts has been shown to only reinforce the lies.

From a clinical psychiatrist in today's New York Times. "How to Debate Someone Who Lies:
Truth sandwiches, ridicule and other tactics for Joe Biden when he faces President Trump.

When Joe Biden debates President Trump on Tuesday, he will have to figure out how to parry with an opponent who habitually lies and doesn’t play by the rules.

As a psychiatrist, I’d like to offer Mr. Biden some advice: Don’t waste your time fact-checking the president. If you attempt to counter every falsehood or distortion that Mr. Trump serves up, you will cede control of the debate. And, by trying to correct him, you will paradoxically strengthen the misinformation rather than undermine it. (Research shows that trying to correct a falsehood with truth can backfire by reinforcing the original lie. ) ...

The first weapon maybe the most effective: humor and ridicule. ... Now, imagine ... the presidential debate. Mr. Trump, faced with a pandemic and an economic downturn, tells Americans what a great job he’s done. In response, Mr. Biden should smile and say with a bit of laugh: “And just where have you been living? South Korea? Or Fiji? You cannot be in the United States — except maybe on the golf course. We’ve got about 4 percent of the world’s population and 21 percent of all Covid deaths and the highest unemployment since the Great Depression! You must be living on another planet!”

The retort mocks the president as weak and unaccomplished, which will rattle him. He is apparently so fearful of being the target of a joke that — unlike any president before him — he has skipped the last three roasts at the White House Correspondents Dinner.

Some of the president’s lies are not served by humor; Mr. Biden will have to confront them head-on, like the president’s disastrous handling of the pandemic. ... The cognitive scientist George Lakoff, who studies propaganda, calls this a “truth sandwich” — a lie gets sandwiched between true statements. Research shows it effectively corrects a falsehood, because people tend to remember the beginning and end of a statement, rather than what’s in the middle. Mr. Trump’s resistance to masks is also a target for a derisive truth sandwich: “Wearing a mask is one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of coronavirus. But you sure wouldn’t know it from the president, who has run around in public without one and mocks people like me who wear them. Is it vanity or that he just doesn’t believe in science? I don’t know, but the science is undisputed: wearing masks saves lives.”

More at link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/25/opinion/debate-trump-biden-lie.html?surface=most-popular&fellback=false&req_id=876644507&algo=top_conversion&imp_id=229853770&action=click&module=Most%20Popular&pgtype=Homepage

[world wide wally]

6. Joe just begins every answer with, "That's a lie", "That's another lie". And go on to give us

his response.
The fact checkers will spell it out after the debate.

[Drunken Irishman]

16. You're alone in that because Biden has way more to lose if he doesn't.

For better or worse, Americans have come to expect their candidates to debate. Pulling out now would not be good optics. It would even push the narrative that Biden is not mentally fit and only a figurehead candidate, which is Trump's entire campaign message. It would look bad. Hell, most Trump supporters already think Biden will conveniently come down with COVID to get out of the debate.

It's just too risky, especially if the media decides to continue with the debate and Trump essentially has free airtime on all the networks to spout his lies.

Biden can't risk coming off as if he is scared to debate Trump and no matter how you try to spin it, that will be the argument. Then he looks weak.

[Drunken Irishman]

22. Biden ducking the debate would lose him the election.

Anyone who's pushing this is either is ignorant to the realities or don't care. Biden can't afford to just skip out on the debate. It doesn't matter if the debate is pointless, and Trump just lies for the whole 90 minutes. It's still infinitely better than the optics of a 77 year old man who's been attacked for his cognitive skills ducking a debate. He would lose the election. Trump would gain the upper hand in this race for the first time since it began. He would run with the narrative that Biden is either too scared to debate or not mentally sound enough to and the media would happily oblige. They're already pushing on the fact Biden hasn't held an actual press conference this cycle - adding that would be devastating no matter how you tried to excuse it.

And worse, Trump would still get the airtime to likely spout his lies and Biden won't be there to defend himself or to go after Trump.

Ultimately, Biden has way more to lose not debating than actually debating, especially with how low the bar has been set for him. I actually read a poll where more Americans believe Trump will win the debate. Biden can actually gain some support for those who question his mental fitness. That's a win.

But to duck the debate would make him look weak and scared or almost an admission he's not all there...and no matter how they try and sell it, that's a narrative that could be devastating.

[Drunken Irishman]

29. Nothing could be as bad as the perception Biden is hiding.

Fair or not, at Biden's age, there's legitimate questions about his mental stamina. Same with Trump. Had Biden been out there campaigning normally, with big rallies and town halls, which he was doing in the primaries, I'd say he could maybe back out without it being devastating. But Biden has largely been hidden throughout and the last thing he can afford is a narrative to set in that he isn't well and ducking the debates because his handlers are afraid Trump will decimate him and his inadequacies will show.

I trust Biden. I think he's ready to take on Trump's insults. I do think Trump is just smart enough to not go after Joe's first wife and Beau. I do believe he'll go after Hunter. Biden has to be prepared for that and decide whether he'll passionately defend his son or pivot and attack the Trump kids.

But why I think it'll be a net win for Biden is that he just needs to seem competent. Trump has lowered expectations so much that Biden can easily seem the winner of he just looks functioning.

[Just_Vote_Dem]

8. I hope Biden laughs at some of his answers

That will set Trump off on a rage and make him look even more ridiculous

[lastlib]

20. "Donald, for once in your life, tell the TRUTH!"

"No more of your mashed-potato malarkey!"

[sarcasmo]

9. Drink every time Trump says Hunter Biden.

[Initech]

10. Four simple words: "GO. TO. THE. TAPE."

Trump can't lie his way out of video footage.

[TrunKated]

11. go back and watch the Biden/Ryan debate...

... when Ryan tried to Gish Gallop Biden with lies, Joe countered with his laughs, his charming smile, and facts.

[lastlib]

19. From Duane Gish, the notorious creationism promoter....

His tactic was to try to overwhelm his pro-evolution opponent with more phony bullshit than could possibly be refuted in the time allotted. He "won" a few "debates" that way, but of course, he never won the argument, because the argument was settled long ago by scientific fact. Science doesn't care what idiots like Gish *believe*--all that matters is what reality is.

[Tom Rinaldo]

12. I posted this on another thread...

Once and only once during the debate Biden perhaps should say something to the effect that "This President began his run for President with the lie that he would self fund his campaign, after he won the nomination, he lied when he said that he had no business dealings with Russia. On his first day in office he lied about the size of his inaugural crowd. When he said he never paid money to a porn star a check emerges with his signature on it. There isn't enough time left this year, let alone tonight, to debunk all the lies this President tells. The bottom line is, you simply can't trust a word that he says."

After that Biden can dismiss Trump with the equivalent of "There he goes again".

[BannonsLiver]

15. It's actually next week

Tuesday to be exact. This is Friday of the week before.

[grantcart]

18. Thank you

[lastlib]

17. "Mashed-Potato Malarkey!"

is the phrase I want to hear Joe use when Shit-Monkey spews a lie. Reference to that episode that Mary Trump recounted in her book, is BOUND to set him ballistic. That by itself will be worth the price of admission, and very likely to force huge errors on his part.

[LuckyCharms]

26. I like this.

Sounds like a winner.

[Awsi Dooger]

25. Reference the 22,000 lies repeatedly

Or whatever the Washington Post number is. Mention it in every response, to the point it becomes a central takeaway from this debate. So redundant that every post debate analysis immediately mention 22,000 lies. Abuse it to such extent that Saturday Night Live will parody Biden saying it so often.

Also, Biden should encourage twitter and other social media users to do the same. Biden could really boost his standing with young voters if he told them to tweet 22,000 lies to Trump's twitter feet. Pick out several themes to trend on twitter. Voter suppression could be another one.

He can't just stand there and use conventional responses

[FreeState]

27. We've had 4 years to come up with a stratagy

hopefully whatever it is works.

[Cyrano]

28. I'm not sure there is a strategy for dealing with a madman

Actually, the only one who has anything to lose in this debate is Joe Biden. Trump voters will stay with him even if he takes a dump on stage. I don't believe any Biden voter, or anyone leaning toward Biden, could be convinced to cross over to Trump. But their other choice is to not vote at all. This is what Biden must guard against.