On Tuesday, President Donald Trump and Vice President Joe Biden had the first debate of the election. Due to COVID-19, the structure of the debate was slightly different to previous years. Rather than the typical large audience, the candidates stood before a small, socially-distanced crowd on the campus of Case Western University, with their podiums a safe distance from one another. Forgoing the traditional pre-debate handshake, the debate began under the moderation of Chris Wallace of FOX News.
The debate almost immediately went off the planned discussion structure, veering from the first subject of the Supreme Court and Trump’s planned replacement. Trump started out speaking on the qualifications of Justice Barrett, and why his White House was planning to nominate a candidate for the Court during the election. When Biden was given the floor to speak, his replying comments relating to the Court and it’s upcoming ruling in regards to the Affordable Care Act, Trump began to interrupt his points with contradictions. From then onward, the debate followed a similar pattern. Biden struggled to get a word in edgewise, as Trump fired off multiple personal attacks on Biden’s past, family, and education.
Topics of the night included the response to COVID, Trump’s tax situation, issues of race, and others. The issue of systemic racism brought heated remarks from both sides, with Biden promising to address the systemic issues in law enforcement. In contrast, when asked if he would denounce the Proud Boys and other white supremeacist groups, Trump responded with “Stand back and stand by,” before turning his attention to the loose organization that is Antifa.
California was also a point of discussion, as the topic of climate change came onto the floor. Trump held his position from previous years, skirting a definitive answer on the effects of human-produced emissions and calling for a more aggressive stance with forest management, and raking the dried matter from the grounds. Biden spoke more to the national implications of an increase of global warming response practices, promising new jobs to help convert the US to a more green presence, as well as a rejoining of the Paris Agreement, which Trump previously pulled the US out of in 2017.
The final segment of the debate focused on election integrity, mainly the security of absentee voting–specifically voting by mail. Biden accused Trump of his hesitation being rooted in trying to suppress votes, and encouraged all Americans to vote safely both through mail and socially-distanced in person. Trump responded with an assurance that he planned to involve the Supreme Court, and that “[He’s] counting on them to look at the ballots”. He expressed concern over the potential wait time for ballot results to be processed, and refused to give a specific assurance that he would encourage his followers to calmly await the possibly delayed results, stating, “If [he] sees tens of thousands of ballots being manipulated, [he] can’t go along with that.” The next scheduled debate is the Vice Presidential debate on Oct. 7, with the next presidential debate set for Oct. 15.
