Liveblogging a debate is an odd thing: You have to listen carefully to what the candidates are saying, but you’re also furiously typing away to deliver your brilliant commentary to a waiting world. For me, it’s exhausting. I have a one-track writing mind, and it doesn’t appreciate having background distractions. That’s why I can’t listen to music or have the TV going while I blog.
Obviously I have no choice during debates, but it means sometimes I miss things. Especially visual things. However, I know that my readers want to be au courant on all internet memes, so here’s one I missed last night: Looming Trump. Apparently Donald Trump is too hyperactive to simply sit in his chair when the other person is talking, so instead he wandered the stage. More often than not, he ended up about five feet behind Hillary Clinton, looming over her:
Scary Halloween costume idea: Dress up like Trump, go to a party, and stand 3-5 feet behind successful women. pic.twitter.com/tz6STpkccQ
— erin chack (@ErinChack) October 10, 2016
My guess is that this wasn’t deliberate on Trump’s part. It’s just an instinctive part of the stupid dominance games that control his life. On the other hand, some of his stupid dominance games were very, very deliberate:
Donald Trump’s campaign sought to intimidate Hillary Clinton and embarrass her husband by seating women who have accused former president Bill Clinton of sexual abuse in the Trump family’s box at the presidential debate here Sunday night, according to four people involved in the discussions.
The campaign’s plan, which was closely held and unknown to several of Trump’s top aides, was thwarted just minutes before it could be executed when officials with the Commission on Presidential Debates intervened….The gambit to give Bill Clinton’s accusers prime seats was devised by Trump campaign chief executive Stephen K. Bannon and Jared Kushner, the candidate’s son-in-law, and approved personally by Trump.
That’s Jared Kushner, as in “Ivanka Trump’s husband”:
As the candidates’ immediate family members shook hands it was also noticeable that Ivanka Trump and Chelsea Clinton, friends of years’ standing, ignored each other. Ms Trump had spent the last few days absorbing the news that her father once called her a “voluptuous piece of a–“. She looked sad, almost tearful, throughout the ensuing 90 minutes as Mr Trump attempted to crush the life out of his opponent.
Um…I’m not sure that’s why Ivanka and Chelsea weren’t on speaking terms. I think my boss has the better take:
Do not let stand the idea that Jared and Ivanka are moderating forces in Trump universe. They are the masterminds: https://t.co/sLsgpUtMUa pic.twitter.com/fCnUu22aHB
— Clara Jeffery (@ClaraJeffery) October 10, 2016
