CNN’s June 27 presidential debate was meant to be efficient and fast moving, but it was not a good debate format. Taking place without an audience, just two candidates stood for 90 minutes, answering questions from CNN monitors within two minutes before muted microphones, while the cameras focused on their faces, not the whole scene, so we couldn’t see where or at what they were looking.

Many people are now critical of Biden over their perception that he’s too old to serve another term, after one bad evening in over three years of a good presidency. Instead, I saw an honest, intelligent man flabbergasted to hear the blatant lies, evasions and nonsense coming from Trump without any pause or fact-checking by the monitors. Often with mouth open in astonishment, Biden appealed mutely to CNN to do something. Then he sometimes stumbled over words or lost track of his point, wondering should he respond to Trump’s outrageousness or answer CNN’s question without any rebuttal first? Unfortunately, the two often got tangled and he struggled to fit important information into the limited minutes before his microphone was muted.

President Biden has accomplished an excellent record serving the democracy that is America in all its multitude of needs and people, and should continue to do so in a second term. Mr. Trump’s term was a nightmare and another would be even worse for America and the world.

Julie Stackpole
Thomaston