[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 169 (Tuesday, September 29, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Page S5901]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, last night, President Trump delivered one 
of the most disgraceful performances at a Presidential debate that 
anyone has ever seen, and I do not mean that from a political 
perspective; I mean it from a human perspective.
  One can become inured to the President's tendency to melt down when 
confronted with his facts, his brazen lack of self-awareness, his 
stunning lack of regard for others, but it was maddening to watch the 
President last night--angry and small--unable to show a scintilla of 
respect, unable to follow even the most basic rules of human civility 
or decorum, unwilling to constrain a stream of obvious falsehoods and 
rightwing bile.
  Shakespeare summed up in ``Macbeth'' Trump's performance last night--
``a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying 
nothing.''
  Yes, President Trump's debate performance was, in the words of 
``Macbeth,'' a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, 
signifying nothing.
  In an hour and a half that felt like a lifetime, the President 
managed to insult Vice President Biden's deceased son and smear his 
living one, please a fringe White supremacist group, and cap the night 
off by, yet again, casting doubt on our own elections--tarnishing our 
own democracy. Those were just his worst moments. The rest of the 
debate saw the President heap lies upon lies--lies big and small and 
every size in between. This President and truth don't intersect at all.
  Still, one moment stands out. When asked to condemn White supremacist 
groups like the Proud Boys--classified as a hate group by the Southern 
Poverty Law Center and called ``hard-core white supremacists'' by the 
Anti-Defamation League--President Trump demurred and then said: ``Proud 
Boys, stand back and stand by.''
  ``Stand back and stand by.'
  President Obama once wondered rhetorically: ``How hard is it to say 
Nazis are bad?''
  Apparently, for President Trump, it is beyond his capacity. In a 
national debate, he not only refused to condemn a far-right group of 
violent White supremacists, but he told them to stand by.
  As much of the country was in despair last night at the President's 
juvenile behavior, one group was celebrating--the Proud Boys. They are 
who were celebrating President Trump's debate performance--White 
supremacists. Within minutes of the President's comments, the Proud 
Boys were online, rejoicing at the tacit endorsement of their violent 
tactics by the President himself. They made logos out of the 
President's remarks: ``Stand back and stand by.''
  I just want to ask my Republican colleagues: How are you not 
embarrassed that President Trump represents your party? How can you 
possibly--possibly--support anyone who behaves this way? Are you 
watching the same person we are? Are you listening? Are you not 
embarrassed that millions of Americans watched President Trump and 
thought: ``That is what the Republican Party stands for now''?
  He can't express sympathy for the families of 200,000 Americans who 
have died from COVID; can't go 30 seconds without interrupting someone 
when he is not speaking; can't refrain from attacking someone's family 
and pretending not to know a person's deceased son; can't honor the 
military, defend democracy, respect elections, or tell the truth; can't 
even make it through a debate without emboldening White supremacists.
  How are you, my Senate colleagues, not deeply, utterly, personally 
embarrassed that Donald Trump is a Republican? How are we not all 
embarrassed that someone who behaved the way President Trump did last 
night is our President? I know I am. How about you?
  Again, this President is just amazing, and his speech last night--``a 
tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.''

                          ____________________