Much of the attention on Thursday’s presidential debate fell upon President Joe Biden’s faltering performance, which has called into question whether he can even remain the Democratic candidate. In the aftermath, some have focused on former President Donald Trump’s nonstop lies.

Left largely overlooked, however, has been the open xenophobia Trump deployed against Palestinians and immigrants, and the silence with which it was met.

The most striking illustration might be Trump’s response to a prompt from CNN moderator Dana Bash, regarding Israel’s war on Gaza and the “humanitarian crisis” that Israel has created while killing thousands of Palestinians.

As Biden insisted that Hamas was the only entity standing in the way of a ceasefire, Trump actually pushed back on the idea. “You got to ask him,” Trump began, referring to Biden, “as far as Israel and Hamas, Israel is the one that wants to go. He said the only one who wants to keep going is Hamas.” He continued: “Actually, Israel is the one, and you should let them go and let them finish the job. He doesn’t want to do it. He has become like a Palestinian. But, they don’t like him because he is a very bad Palestinian. He is a weak one.”

  • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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    6 months ago

    level headed voice trying to minimize palestinian casualties

    Biden isn’t doing that though, you can’t send someone the bombs they’re using to cause those casualties and say you’re trying to minimize it. Minimizing Palestinian casualties would be using all tools at your disposal to make Palestinian casualties the as low as possible.

    The question is would you rather a president who openly facilitates the slaughter of Palestinians or pretends to oppose the slaughter of Palestinians while facilitating it.

    The answer is it doesn’t fucking matter, ethnic cleansing is ethnic cleansing.

    • drdiddlybadger
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      6 months ago

      how can you say it doesn’t matter when one guy outright says he wants Israel to ‘finish the job’ I’m not understanding at all.

      • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
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        6 months ago

        Biden is letting israel finish the job already.

        Israel refused his ceasefire and the UN resolution. And Biden responded by… Promising them he will help them attack Lebanon.

    • Hannes@feddit.org
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      6 months ago

      The answer is it doesn’t fucking matter, ethnic cleansing is ethnic cleansing.

      So if there is going to be a drought anyway and people are dying in a city no matter what you do and one politician says that showers and even using the Bathtub are okay but we should stop using water for the pools and gardens and another is just giving everyone the go to use whatever they want then “both are bad” because the first option is not perfect is just childish

      By not choosing and enabling the 2nd option you are making matters 100 times worse…

      • CaptDust@sh.itjust.works
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        6 months ago

        Everyone should just vote for the water shaman, I don’t understand why American politics needs to be so complex!

      • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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        6 months ago

        If everyone in Gaza is dead or displaced, it literally does not fucking matter. That is the path Israel is on, which Biden is assisting with.

        You are delusional if you think you can win an election on “the other guy will be more vocal in his support for genocide”.

        Instead of coming at me for pointing this out, you should be coming at any dem who isn’t calling for a massive u-turn in policy before it’s too late.

        This is the same head-in-the-sand thinking let everyone around Biden tell themselves that he was fit for this debate.

    • Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      They both suck. But one is for sure getting the job. Which one do you want? You have to pick one. You can protest it and hope to change it, but nothing like that can happen in time, you will be stuck with one of these two people. Please at least try to pick the one that has less terrible things on their resume and then actually protest for proper change. If you pick the wrong guy, you also won’t be able to protest for any kind of change.

      • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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        6 months ago

        They both suck. You have to pick one

        That’s how Trump won in the first place. You cannot message your way to winning an election. This is not a problem with voters, it’s a problem with democrats passing right-wing policy, and can only be solved by the democrats.

        If you pick the wrong guy, you also won’t be able to protest for any kind of change.

        You don’t get to say that while cops are beating the shit out of students for protesting. You shouldn’t be pissed at me, you should be pissed at the guy doing things that lose the election.

        • AbidanYre@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Cry about messaging all you want, that’s how the election system in the US works.

          One of these two people will be president this time next year. Only one of them has promised to be a dictator and attempted to forcibly stay in power after losing an election.

          • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
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            6 months ago

            You really don’t understand what I’m saying do you?

            No amount of messaging or vote shaming or self delusion can override the dogshit policies Biden has enacted trying to appeal to “moderate republicans”.

            But if you learned nothing from 2016, I’m sure in November you’ll blame everyone but the people with power.