By: Ritika Putta
“What America and the world witnessed Sept. 29 in Cleveland was not a debate. It was a debacle” (Tribune Chronicle). The first-ever presidential debate between former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump was quite eventful- the candidates hurling insults to the moderator urging President Trump to denounce white supremacy.
The debate started off with a bang: addressing the Supreme Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death and the open spot on the Supreme Court. Trump, given the first say on the topic, spoke greatly of his candidate, Amy Coney Barrett. According to a Notre Dame professor, she was the “single greatest student he’s ever had.” Minutes into the first topic, a fiery argument struck between Biden and Trump when discussing when the elections for the new Supreme Court Justice should be held- a preview of what chaos this debate would hold.
When asked about the raging California fires, President Trump assertively stated that forest management was the key to stopping these fires: “Every year I get the call, California’s burning, California's burning. If you had good forest management, you wouldn't be getting those calls.” Trump defends his action to pull out of the Obama environmental plan by citing economy statistics as it was “driving energy prices through the sky.” Joe Biden, however, had a different approach to the situation and has pledged to donate 2 trillion dollars to battling climate change. While Trump believed that the economy would crash, Biden believed the economy would rise with new job openings.
COVID-19 has weighed on our minds and our lives for over 5 months now. When asked to debate the topic of COVID-19, a series of arguments flew out. Joe Biden began his argument by attacking President Trumps’ “clueless” actions. He firmly asserted that he had a plan unlike the President however, we never heard what this plan was as a brawl began between the two candidates, attacking each other’s actions and beliefs. Trump did promise that our country would have the vaccine generally available months before the summer began and received chuckles from candidate Joe Biden. It seems as if our two presidential candidates are as clueless as we are on pushing through this global pandemic.
A particular topic seemed to enrage Americans over the US: the denouncement of white supremacy. When asked to denounce white supremacy, President Trump unwillingly said: “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.” Trump’s refusal to denounce white supremacy had millions of Americans disappointed. Trump quickly jumped to the issue of anti-fascists, claiming we needed to shut down the movement as “ANTIFA is a radical, dangerous group.”
As the debate progressed, it seemed as if the candidates forgot where they were. Each statement hit closer to home, more personal. Many of the times, President Trump proceeded to interrupt Joe Biden, ignoring the rules of the Presidential Debate. During one portion of the debate, Joe Biden, frustrated, said to Trump: “Will you just shut up man.” Joe Biden occasionally threw in scalding remarks such as “He doesn’t know how to stop talking.” Tensions, however, reached an all-time high when President Trump began to bring up Joe Biden’s familial affairs-his two sons. President Trump claimed that Hunter Biden had been “dishonorably discharged from the army” which we later found out was a false assumption. In addition, President Trump branded Beau Biden, Joe Biden’s late son, as a “loser.” This escalated the tensions between both candidates. At this moment, we knew this was a dogfight, not a debate.
The debate seemed to have provided some type of purpose: entertainment. According to the CBS News Poll, 17% of voters felt informed after the debate compared to the 69% of annoyed voters. This was not a debate; more of a dogfight, debacle, or any other word to describe a hot mess.
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