For those who managed to sit through the whole thing, the first of three presidential debates will probably be remembered less as a series of discrete moments than as a beleaguered and bewildered state of mind.

Throughout ninety painful minutes, the men competing to lead the world’s wealthiest and most powerful nation, Joe Biden and (more often) Donald Trump, hectored and shouted while moderator Chris Wallace tried (and usually failed) to reassert control. Dignity proved a scarce commodity as Trump and Biden talked over one another, Trump leaned further into unhinged reactionary appeals, and a performance embarrassing for everyone involved.

Though Wallace did pose a series of issue-based questions, answers tended to come out in streams of consciousness that quickly pivoted away from whatever issue was supposedly at hand. While Biden was not particularly lucid, the disruptive (and more disturbing) presence was invariably Trump, who interrupted so often that neither his opponent nor the moderator could get a word in edgeways.