Internet explodes with memes during Trump-Biden debate

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Twitter users despaired last night as the first presidential debate descended into an unappetizing shouting match between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. 

Viewers longed for moderator Chris Wallace to turn off the candidates’ microphones like a Zoom call as the two nominees treated the host ‘like an inner city substitute teacher’ and constantly talked over each other during the 90-minute clash. 

One voter adapted a joke from The Simpsons to summarize the debate with the newspaper headline: ‘Old Man Yells At Old Man’. 

Another simply shared a picture of a weeping American continent – as the country readies itself for two more debates before the November 3 election.   

‘It’s safe to say that we’re in trouble,’ one viewer said as he posted a mocked-up picture of Trump and Biden as young children.  

Astronomer Antonio Paris posted a picture of himself in a spacesuit and joked: ‘I’m literally moving to Mars in the morning. Who’s with me?’. 

Kaniela Ing remarked that ‘there is one clear loser in this debate: Chris Wallace’ after the moderator struggled to keep order. 

Some viewers reacted with relief when the debate finally ended, with one posting an image of Frodo celebrating the Dark Lord’s demise in Lord of the Rings.  

Others wished the candidates could have had their microphones turned off, with David Sinclair joking that Wallace should have had on-and-off switches for Trump and Biden. 

Journalist Jen Ortiz offered a ‘free idea’, saying: ‘Mute the mics when they’re not supposed to be talking have we learned nothing from Zoom’. 

Hannah Jewell commented: ‘I think this might be more productive if they just wrestled.’ 

One viewer imagined further chaos with an image of long-shot candidate Kanye West appearing to take the microphone. 

Another envisaged the view from north of the border, with an imaginary Canadian responding with the comment: ‘This is f***ed’.  

The debate in Cleveland, Ohio, was as bad-tempered as had been feared, with Trump leading the way in yelling over his challenger and the moderator alike.

Trump went as hard on 77-year-old Biden as he’d threatened, saying the ‘radical left’ had the centrist Democrat ‘wrapped around their little finger.’

And he got personal, seeking to rile the former vice president by accusing one of his sons of corruption, and telling Biden that ‘there’s nothing smart’ about him. 

Biden hit back by launching the kind of attack on Trump which the billionaire president has rarely had to endure to his face.

‘Liar,’ ‘racist’ and ‘clown’ were just some of the missiles launched from Biden, who also branded Trump the ‘puppy’ of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

At one point an exasperated Biden, who leads strongly in the polls, turned to Trump and said: ‘Will you shut up, man!’ 

At times, neither Biden nor Wallace could get a word in, as Trump loudly touted his economic record and went after Biden’s son Hunter.

Trump had spread theories right up until the last minute that Biden would need drugs or an earpiece secretly providing answers to get through the night.

The anger-filled event did nothing to calm fears around the country that the presidential election, taking place in the middle of an ongoing coronavirus pandemic, could end in chaos.

Asked by Wallace whether they pledged to urge calm and refrain from declaring victory if the results are not immediately known November 3, Biden said: ‘Yes.’

Trump, though, wouldn’t commit, saying that if he saw ‘tens of thousands of ballots being manipulated, I can’t go along with that.’

And when asked if he condemned far-right armed militias like the Proud Boys group, Trump gave a cryptic reply: ‘Proud Boys – stand back and stand by.’