On September 29, Former Vice President Joe Biden and President Trump faced off in a ninety-minute debate which gave viewers dark flashbacks to 2016. The candidates discussed topics including the Supreme Court seat, COVID-19, the economy, race and violence, healthcare, and candidate records. The night ended with public outcry criticizing the amount of chaos that ensued throughout the debate.
Biden went into the debate as the leader in national and swing state polls, but also as someone who needed to re-introduce himself to the American people. The few voters who have not made up their minds are still looking for confirmation from Biden that he could do a better job than Trump. The President, losing in too many polls for comfort, had a chance to defend his actions and lead his attack on Biden. Moderator Chris Wallace from Fox News had promised beforehand on his “Fox News Sunday” broadcast that his goal was to be “as invisible as possible.” Wallace also believes that his job as a moderator is not to be the “truth squad,” as stated by the Washington Post, and that it’s up to the other candidate to call out any misinformation, causing controversy ever since he announced his stance in 2016.
The debate started off immediately with the recent Supreme Court nominee debate. On September 26, Trump nominated Judge Amy Barrett to the court and its pending Senate approval. Whether this choice should be allowed so close to the election is a point of controversy. Trump described how Barrett attended Notre Dame, and a professor there calls her his “best student.” Biden continued right into the different court decisions that could potentially get appealed if Barrett, a conservative judge, is chosen, such as the Affordable Care Act and Roe v. Wade. Trump replied, “You don’t know what’s on the ballot. Why is it on the ballot? It’s not on the ballot.”
The topic of COVID-19 proved itself to be one of Trump’s weaker points, especially as he has chosen not to address the topic too often at rallies or the Republican National Convention. The American public opinion on his handling of the pandemic is quite low; a poll from Project 538, a website that focuses on opinion poll analysis, from September 29 showed that 56.4 percent of Americans disapprove of the President’s response to COVID. Biden proceeded to attack Trump’s actions during the pandemic: “He is insisting that we go forward and open when you have almost half the states in America with a significant increase in COVID deaths and COVID cases,” continuing with, “You can’t fix the economy until you fix the COVID crisis.” Trump attempted to deflect the blame, switching his attack to China, racistly calling the virus the “China Plague” and frequently claiming that the virus was “China’s fault.”
Trump pushed hard on the accusations that Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, had taken out “billions” from business deals in China. Trump told Biden, “The mayor of Moscow’s wife gave your son $3.5 million,” neither of which claims have been backed up by evidence. In a bitter and emotional face-off about Biden’s sons, Biden brought up Trump’s comments on American military troops killed in combat being “losers.” He personally mentioned his late son, Beau Biden, who served a year in Iraq: “He was not a loser. He was a patriot. And the people left behind there were heroes.” Trump then switched the conversation again over to Hunter, accusing him of having a drug problem and being dishonorably discharged from the military, a false claim. Biden then replied, visibly shaking, “My son… My son, like a lot of people, like a lot of people we know at home, had a drug problem. He’s overtaken it. He’s fixed it. He’s worked on it. And I’m proud of him.” Biden is known to be incredibly protective of his family, something experts were worried might be problematic against Trump’s history of leading personal attacks on opponents. However, this proved to instead be a very strong moment for Biden and many praised him for his strong defense of his sons.
Wallace then changed the topic to climate change, asking each candidate to describe their plan. Trump went first, stating that “We have the lowest carbon.” He added that he believes California’s apparent lack of management of the forests is responsible for the fires, a statement he has used repeatedly over the years of fires in California. Biden discussed his $2 trillion climate plan, which will convert the US into a 100 percent renewable energy nation by 2050. He also cleared up a common falsehood spread by Trump, repeating that he doesn’t support the Green New Deal because he favors his own plan instead.
On the topic of race and violence, Wallace asked the President point-blank if he would denounce white supremacy, to which he never directly answered. Trump instead made one of the most controversial statements of the night: “Proud Boys—stand back and stand by.” Proud Boys is an all-male far right group that has been identified as a hate group by Southern Poverty Law Center. The next day Trump claimed, “I don’t know who the Proud Boys are.” His comments stuck with viewers, and Proud Boy representatives tweeted, “Standing back and standing by sir.”
During this segment, Biden also repeated his stance on defunding the police, saying he was “totally opposed.” In his words, “While I do not believe federal dollars should go to police departments violating people’s rights or turning to violence as the first resort, I do not support defunding police.” He pointed out that instead, “They need more assistance. When they show up to a 911 call, they should have a psychologist or psychiatrist to keep them from having to use force, and to help them talk people down.”
When the issue of the economy came up, Wallace dived right into the news about Trump’s tax returns. The news, reported on by the New York Times the following week, was that Trump had only paid $750 in taxes in 2017. When Wallace pressed him on these accusations, Trump claimed, “I paid millions of dollars and you’ll get to see it—and you’ll get to see it.” Trump has hid his tax returns behind the promise that he’s under audit, which is false. Biden and his running mate Senator Kamala Harris came out with their tax returns hours before the debate, supposedly in order to assure Biden had a clear shot at pressing Trump on his taxes. The segment finished quickly, and viewers criticized Biden for not taking enough advantage of the topic.
During the debate, Biden played both offense and defense, attempting to remain calm and unflustered under Trump’s attacks. He mocked Trump every chance he had, as opposed to only being a fact checker. Whenever Trump spoke a falsehood, Biden could be seen chuckling to himself. As for the moderator, Wallace was criticized throughout the debate for not being able to control the chaos by Twitter, although he tried constantly to fairly give each speaker an uninterrupted two minutes to speak. Leading to some heated face-offs with Trump, at one point the President said, “I guess I’m debating you, not him, but that’s okay, I’m not surprised.”
Biden finished with a look straight at the camera, urging Americans to vote, while Trump repeated his sentiment that he won’t accept the results of the election. The chaotic night finished off with Biden’s note: “Under this President we have become weaker, sicker, poorer, more divided, and more violent.”
To the public and the observing news anchors, the debate was out of control, with Trump failing to adhere to any of the rules his campaign had agreed to prior to the debate. Much of the segments included Trump talking over both the moderator and Biden. According to British Broadcasting Channel, in an effort to make sure the unregulated events of the first debate aren’t repeated, the Commission on Presidential debates agreed to add “additional structure” to ensure “more orderly discussion.” The debate following will be the Vice Presidential debate with Senator Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence on October 7 at 9:00 EST. The next two presidential debates will be on October 15 and October 22 at the same time.