A Rundown of the First 2020 Presidential Debate

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By Caroline Dehn, EIC Academics

The September 29th Presidential Debate between President Trump and former Vice President Biden took place at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. Moderator Chris Wallace decided to structure the debate around six of the most pressing topics of this campaign season: “The Trump and Biden Records,” The Supreme Court,” “COVID-19,” “The Economy,” “Race and Violence in our Cities,” and the “Integrity of our Election.” Each topic lasted about fifteen minutes, giving each candidate the opportunity to speak for approximately two minutes per question.

The first section, “The Trump and Biden Records,” focused mainly on the candidates’ tax returns. Prior to the debate, information on the President’s tax returns were released stating that he only paid $750 in 2016 and 2017 in federal income taxes despite the $500 million of income the Trump family reported in 2018 financial disclosure forms, according to The New York Times. Vice President Biden, along with his wife Jill, paid just under $300,000 in federal income taxes in 2019 alone. From the start, the two candidates were speaking out of turn and making personal attacks towards the other.

Because of the recent death of respected Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, President Trump, along with the support of Republican congressmen and women, nominated Amy Coney Barrett, judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals, to the Supreme Court. If Barrett is successfully nominated, the Supreme Court will have a conservative majority and has the power to set new precedent or overturn critical Supreme Court decisions. Vice President Biden and many of his Democratic colleagues fear Barrett’s nomination, worrying that it will lead to the overturn of the infamous Roe v. Wade decision, giving women the right to choose. During this topic and those that followed, President Trump was condemned many times by Chris Wallace for speaking over Vice President Biden and continuing over the two-minute answer time.

The COVID-19 pandemic is possibly the most serious issue of the current world, and both candidates were asked what their plan is to successfully tackle the coronavirus in the U.S. Vice President Biden outlined his plan to increase testing and PPE, take advice from the CDC and science, create a federal plan for rebuilding small businesses, and invest in an “effective, equitable distribution of treatments and vaccines,” among others according to the Biden campaign. Biden also used this section as an opportunity to ridicule President Trump for a lack of leadership during the pandemic, even calling him “the worst president America has ever had.” President Trump, however, blamed the Chinese government and people for the spread of coronavirus, calling it the “China plague,” and questioned the accuracy of the virus-related death records.

Since the rise of race activism we have seen since the killing of George Floyd on May 25th of this year, the candidates have been tasked to devise plans for the improvement of systemic racism in America, and how they will decrease violence happening in our cities. President Trump refused to denounce white supremacy, telling the Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group that has endorsed violence, to “stand back and stand by.” Instead of acknowledging and condemning white supremacy in America, the president focused on “left-wing violence,” via CNN. Vice President Biden vocalized his support for peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters, while also condemning the violence that has broken out in American cities; “burning down communities is not protest,” Biden emphasized.

Commentators of the debate were not impressed with how the candidates handled the September 29th debate, however focused more heavily on President Trump’s lack of respect for his opponent and how he refused to condemn white supremacy in America. Even though many Americans don’t agree with Vice President Biden on particular issues, he was applauded by commentators for making the effort to speak directly to the American people, unlike his opponent who did not address the country in such an explicit way.

Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Kamala Harris are set to debate on October 7th in Salt Lake City Utah. The next presidential debates are October 15th in Miami, Florida, and October 22nd in Nashville Tennessee.