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u.s. news Diahuebs 1 OctOber 2020

World reacts with surprise, worry to 1st Biden-Trump debate

(AP) Head-scratching per- showed few initial tremors. Danish Prime Minister Mette
plexity about U.S. democra- Frederiksen wrote on Face-
cy in Australia and Denmark. But one major worry to book: "An election debate in
Disdain for "chaos" and "in- emerge from the debate was the States last night, where
sults" between America's whether the election results interruptions and quarrels
presidential contenders in a might be challenged or de- were allowed to fill up way
Chinese Communist Party layed, in part because Trump too much. Fortunately, this
tabloid. A European market raised concerns about ballots is not the case in Denmark.
watcher's warning of a "cred- and possible vote-rigging that And I never hope it will be
ibility deficit" in U.S. politics his critics say are a ploy to like that. The harsh words
amid fears that a long tradi- tamp down turnout or scare polarize and split.
tion of peaceful, amicable people away from the polls.
transfer of power could be in Amanda Wishworth, a law-
jeopardy. A highly polarized and pos- maker in Australia's center- lyzed by politics and tones the debate was jarring.
sibly legally contested U.S. left Labor Party, said: "A lot that are foreign to its tradi-
Many across the world election is just around the of people would be scratch- tion," Veltroni said. "There's still just a level of
looked on largely aghast corner," said Stephen Innes ing their heads, especially disbelief, just shock, frankly,"
as the first debate between of AxiCorp, a foreign ex- here from Australia, where, Hu Xijin, editor of China's that the president and former
President Donald Trump and change trading services pro- believe it or not, our politics nationalistic Communist vice president "were talking
Democratic challenger Joe vider. "With mail-in votes is a little bit more gentle than Party tabloid Global Times, over each other, talking over
Biden devolved into a verbal likely to be too high (and po- the U.S. of A." wrote in the paper's micro- the moderator, in President
slugfest short on substance tentially questioned), there is Other government leaders blog that the "chaos, inter- Trump's case, telling each
but heavy with implications a chance that we still will not tuned in — but kept their ruptions, personal attacks other off, going off-topic,
for America's international know the result by Inaugura- distance. and insults" on display were a off-script," Vinjamuri said.
image. tion Day, with constitutional reflection of America's "over- "So I think it was something
Emotions and adjectives ran chaos ensuing." Steffen Seibert, German arching division, anxiety and extraordinarily upsetting be-
the gamut but few observ- Europe and Africa woke up Chancellor Angela Merkel's the accelerating erosion of cause people want to be able
ers appeared to come away to reports about the cacopho- spokesman, said she was "in- the system's original advan- to look to America to lead and
thinking that the last re- nous showdown overnight. formed about what took place tages. to guide and to role model.
maining superpower could "The comments I've seen last night," but he declined to Foreign policy issues were
rise above its bitter partisan from various European press comment. "I used to admire this kind largely absent from the de-
rancor as the election looms (outlets) is basically: 'I'm "We don't want to comment of televised debate in Ameri- bate, although Trump slung
barely a month away. happy I'm not an American on this, don't want to provide can politics, but I have much accusations that China had
voter this year.' It's just a an assessment, because it will more mixed feelings when paid Biden's son Hunter for
"If last night's presidential de- mess," said Jussi Hanhimaki, be immediately perceived as (I) watch it again now," wrote consulting work and Biden
bate was supposed to inform a Finnish-Swiss professor of an attempt to interfere," said Hu, who personally and attacked Trump's trade deals
and educate, all it did was International History at the Dmitry Peskov, spokesman through his paper routinely with China for failing to de-
merely confirm the credibil- Graduate Institute in Geneva. for Russian President Vladi- attacks American policies. liver benefits.
ity deficit in U.S. politics, as mir Putin. "The Russian Fed-
President Trump, and Dem- "That's all extremely disturb- eration has never interfered The editor-at-large of The Trump also repeatedly
ocrat nominee Joe Biden, ing for many Europeans, in the internal affairs of the Australian newspaper, Paul blamed China for the coro-
engaged in what can only who generally would think United States and never will. Kelly, described the debate as navirus pandemic that has
be described as a fact-free, the United States would be a a "spiteful, chaotic, abusive, killed more than 1 million
name-calling contest," wrote symbol of democracy -- that's Walter Veltroni, a columnist often out-of-control brawl- people globally and ravaged
Michael Hewson, chief mar- been the oldest democracy for Italian newspaper Cor- ing encounter with both can- economies around the world.
ket analyst at CMC Markets in the world — that has this riere della Sera and a former didates revealing their con- In the Mideast, the largely
UK. long, long tradition of, yes, center-left mayor of Rome, tempt for each other. domestic debate drew raised
While many in Europe fond- very acrimonious debate, but said he had seen all the U.S. eyebrows when Biden at
ly recalled the more even- there's always been a win- TV debates since Kennedy vs. "America faces a dangerous one point said "inshallah"
keeled America of yesteryear, ner and a peaceful transfer of Nixon in 1960, but "I have several weeks," he said. as Trump hedged on saying
others in Asia were monitor- power," he said. never witnessed a spectacle Leslie Vinjamuri, director of when he would release his
ing the markets,which were Kenyan commentator Patrick similar to the one last night." the U.S. and the Americas tax returns. "Inshallah" in
little changed mostly. Share Gathara quipped on Twitter: He said the debate showed program at the London think Arabic means "God willing."
prices slipped further in Ja- "This debate would be sheer how there are two Americas tank Chatham House, said It also can be used in a way to
pan and the dollar weakened comedy if it wasn't such a that appear irreconcilable. many European observers al- suggest something won't ever
against the Japanese yen and pitiful and tragic advertise- "The impression is that of a ready had "very low" expecta- happen.
the euro. European bourses ment for U.S. dysfunction." country in stalemate, para- tions of Trump, but even so

Debate commission says it will make changes to format

(AP) The presidential de- to its format to avoid a re- dent Donald Trump and ing to a person familiar with watched the first debate be-
bate commission says it peat of the disjointed first Democrat Joe Biden. the deliberations who was tween Trump and Hillary
will soon adopt changes meeting between Presi- not authorized to discuss the Clinton in 2016. That was
The commission said matter publicly and spoke on the most-watched presiden-
Wednesday the debate "made condition of anonymity. tial debate ever.
clear that additional structure The next presidential debate
should be added to the for- is a town hall format sched- Moderator Chris Wallace
mat of the remaining debates uled for Oct. 15 in Miami. struggled to gain control of
to ensure a more orderly dis- Meanwhile, the Nielsen Tuesday's debate in Cleveland
cussion of the issues. company said that 73.1 mil- because of frequent interrup-
lion people watched the de- tions, primarily by Trump.
One possibility being dis- bate on television, where it The candidates interrupted
cussed is to give the modera- was shown on 16 networks. Wallace or their opponent 90
tor the ability to cut off the That's more than any other times in the 90-minute de-
microphone of one of the television event since the bate, 71 of them by Trump,
debate participants while his Super Bowl, even if it fell according to an analysis by
opponent is talking, accord- short of the 84 million who The Washington Post.