It was dueling town halls. After Donald Trump dropped out of the second scheduled debate, his Democratic contender Joe Biden accepted a town hall meeting on ABC. Then, POTUS decided to do an NBC town hall at the same time. It was not pretty.
The president will hate the ratings, because he is all about ratings. The final numbers have not yet been announced, but it appears the former vice president left him in the dust.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow called the town halls “a strange replacement” for the second debate:
‘Let me remind you that what you just saw was a production of NBC News. We are MSNBC. We did not produce that event.’
One problem with that is we are in a voting season with close to 20 million Americans who have already voted early to avoid the longest lines. That means November 3 is no longer the end game. The Newsweek reported how many viewers were onboard at the end of the respective town halls:
‘At the end of Trump’s town hall, the NBC News YouTube channel showed 153,660 viewers were watching. ABC News’s YouTube channel showed 507,445 viewers at the end of Biden’s town hall.’
Trump has been a ratings fanatic since his days starring in his own reality television show The Apprentice. As was his style, Trump bragged about his numbers and went after Arnold Schwarzenegger who replaced him for lower numbers.
The man who occasionally sits in the Oval Office was livid when photos of his inauguration crowd was compared to that of President Barack Obama. He immediately sent his White House secretary out to deny what people could see with their own eyes.
The idea that his arch-enemy, a Black man, could best him drove his a little bit crazy. To make matters worse, women held a march right after with huge numbers.
Trump even bragged about his daily coronavirus briefings ratings never mentioning the people who were dying in the thousands. That all came to a grinding halt when he suggested people drink bleach to cure themselves of COVID-19.
Then, the TV numbers came in with the Democratic National Convention (DNC) bringing in more viewers than the Republican National Convention (RNC). POTUS could not bear it, and he declared the numbers wrong.
The president tweeted:
‘Wow! Despite the Democrats (sic) views across TV and online lie (Con!), we had 147.9 million, the Republican National Convention blew the Democrat National Convention AWAY,” Trump tweeted. “Not even close! Just like their lies on Russia, Football (PLAY!) and everything else! NOVEMBER 3rd.’
However, the ever-reputable Nielsen ratings hurt:
‘According to Nielsen ratings, the Democratic National Convention averaged 21.6 million viewers over four nights while the Republican National Convention average 19.4 million viewers over four nights.’
Trump tried a blow to Biden’s presidency, saying that his opponent’s win would mean “low ratings for media outlets:”
‘With no ratings, media will go down along with our great USA!’
Trump even ridiculed NBC for having the town hall. During a Greenville, North Carolina campaign rally, he told his fans NBC was “the worst:”
‘I figured, what the hell, we get a free hour on television.’
Twitter world went a little crazy too. Take a look at how America reacted:
— Mrs. Commander (@NaamaCohen8) October 16, 2020
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
