There is always an incredible amount of fear-mongering and general negativity in the US media. This is especially so for politics.
Here is my unsolicited advice:
In-depth political discussion from around the world; if it’s a political happening, you can post it here.
These guidelines will be enforced on a know-it-when-I-see-it basis.
Subcommunities on Beehaw:
This community’s icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
I think you are right on that. That was at least part of it. Biden’s mistake was expecting it to be a debate and not whatever that event was.
That’s probably why they chose to go without a live audience. I don’t wanna get conspiratorial, but all this shit seems to coincidental to not be on purpose.