Presidential debate: Biden’s team selling ‘Will you shut up, man’ t-shirts after retort to Trump
Joe Biden’s campaign is already selling t-shirts emblazoned with the words “will you shut up, man” after the Democratic candidate aimed the exasperated comment at his rival during the first presidential debate.
The black t-shirts have Mr Biden’s quote plastered over an image of a rather disgruntled Donald Trump, with a “Biden-Harris” logo underneath, and are selling for $30-33 each. They went up for sale on the former vice president’s campaign website while the debate was still in action, according to a report in The Hill.
The outburst came in the first 20 minutes of the debate, after a series of interruptions where Mr Trump repeatedly jumped in with jibes about packing the court with “the radical Left”. Frustrated, the Democratic candidate lost his patience and hit back with “will you shut up, man?”
“This is so unpresidential,” Mr Biden added.
It was just one of many such moments in the 90-minute debate that saw the two candidates frequently trade insults and talk over each other.
The retort was a hit on social media, with Hillary Clinton telling a follower she had “no idea” how much the former presidential candidate had also wanted to tell Mr Trump to shut up.
Jill Filipovic tweeted: “'Will you shut up, man’ is the line of the night. I feel so sorry for Hillary right now because I’m positive she wanted to say that and couldn’t.”
Ms Clinton, who ran against and debated Mr Trump in 2016, responded with “you have no idea”.
As the moderator, Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, ended the segment and tried to move the debate on, Mr Biden said sarcastically “that was really a productive segment, wasn’t it?", derisively telling Mr Trump to “keep yappin’ man”.
Throughout the debate, Mr Wallace had to urge Mr Trump to stick the two-minute time limit on his monologues on each issue.
Many commentators characterised the first debate as unproductive, with one commentator calling the event a “low point in American politics”.
“It was a debate in name, but it was a disservice to the voters who were watching,” Robert Yoon, a lecturer in politics and journalism at the University of Michigan, told Al Jazeera.
A virtual focus group of 15 undecided voters, run by veteran Republican pollster Frank Luntz, saw nine of the group still unsure at the end of the hour-and-a-half.
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