In the first of a series of presidential debates, Donald Trump and Joe Biden met in Cleveland to have their say regarding the key issues of the country in the first presidential debate.
The debate turned out to be a heated argument, with both the candidates blaming each other vigorously for all the setbacks of the United States.
While the major focus of Trump was blaming the Obama administration, Biden relied on blaming everything on Trump.
The debate was divided into six segments selected by the moderator, Chris Wallace of Fox News. Let’s have a look at how the approaches of both the presidential nominees differ in the first debate regarding the primary issues faced by the country.
The Supreme Court nomination and the first presidential debate:
The first presidential debate started with the most anticipated questions on the recent Supreme Court nomination by Trump. Trump jumped on praising the conservative justice, Amy Coney Barrett, and labeled her a “phenomenal academic and top justice.”
He constructed his views around the idea that he has the White House and the Senate and therefore has the authority to make the nomination.
He also added that he was elected president for four years instead of three years, so he can make the nomination. Trump also relied on the fact that he has enough time after the elections too, which gives him enough powers to swear in the person of his choice into the Court.
Biden talked more about the authority of the American people in having their voice in the nomination. He believed that the US is already in the process of elections, with hundreds of thousands of people already voted in early voting.
The responses came out as no surprise, as the one currently having the power tried to exercise his authority in the country and the one having little authority wanted to wait for the elections in case he wins the polls.
Health care:
Health care was an obvious issue to discuss in the wake of the prevailing COVID-19 crisis. This segment had an extremely heated conversation with a lot of molded facts coming out from both the desks. Trump argued that Obamacare is of no use for Americans and his administration will introduce a much better and cheaper health care program. Trump started arguments with the moderator, too, as he blamed him that he introduced the alternative health care plan just a week ago.
Biden, once again, started out blaming the Trump administration for the health crisis with the allegations like “He (Trump) is not for people needing any health care.”
The approaches of both the nominees were once again apparent, with Trump opposing the program introduced by Democrats, and Biden blaming Trump for negligence regarding the health care of Americans.
The reopening of the economy:
“He (Biden) wants to shut down the whole country, let alone the economy,” said Trump. Trump was more in favor of reopening the country after the long lockdown of COVID-19. However, Biden blamed Trump, saying he has no plan for opening up the country. Biden argued that only millionaires and billionaires are doing well in the middle of the economy, and labeled the economic recovery as a K-shaped recovery after the corona crisis. On the other hand, Trump said that we did a great job recovering the economy, and thus it’s a V-Shaped recovery.
Yet again, the approach of both the nominees was just to impress the voters with little factual information, with this session as one of the most contested one of the first presidential debate.
Racial issues in the first presidential debate:
Racial disintegration and injustice are other challenges faced by America these days. Biden accused Trump of handling George Floyd’s murder crisis in the worst possible way in the first presidential debate. He opined that Trump is the worst thing that ever happened to people of color with racial disunity at its peak during his presidency. He further added that “Trump is a man who did everything to increase racial hatred and racial divide.” Trump, instead of defying the allegations made against him, started to talk about the “94 crime bill” supported by Biden in which African Americans were called super-predators.
It seems that the approaches of both the candidates revolved around blame games instead of solving the issues currently faced by racial and ethnic minorities.
Climate change:
Trump always remained critical of Obama’s Paris Accord. His approach was clear in the debate, too, with the explicit negation of the said treaty where he said that this accord is driving the energy prices up. He further suggested that the US cannot afford to comply with this accord. He added that the US needs forest management instead of the Paris Accord to get rid of the forest fires. Biden, however, coined the term “Biden Plan” to give his response to climate change concerns. He was of the view that he will restore the Paris treaty to control the prevailing pollution in the country.
Response to the election results:
Trump said explicitly that election fraud is going to happen. He noted that ballots that are not solicited would be a big issue. Trump added further that he is counting on the Supreme Court’s judges to have a say on mail-in voting as early as possible. He showed the concern that eighty million mail-in ballots cannot be verified with the existing mechanisms.
“I am urging my supporters to go to the polls and watch very carefully,” said Trump. Perhaps he just didn’t want to give a clear go-ahead to the violence, so he used the code words.
Trump said that if he loses the election, the election will be fraudulent, and he can’t trust the election results in that case. However, the approach of Biden is quite different regarding this issue. Biden said that if he loses the election, he will accept, and if he wins the election, he will also accept the results.
First Presidential debate in a nutshell
The first presidential debate turned out to be a heated argument between the candidates. It was more of a local town talk with nominees shouting over each other than a proper presidential debate. Both the candidates were seen as energetic; however, the energies were utilized in a rather useless manner.
Most of the energies were misdirected against the opponents just to get momentary relief and to win the debate. The debate observed the personal attacks as well when Trump attacked Biden’s late son and accused his other son of relations with foreign nations. Only the polls will show who had the upper hand in the first presidential debate.
Eli is a Political Data Scientist with over thirty years of experience in Data Engineering, Analytics, and Digital Marketing. Eli uses his expertise to give the latest information and distinctive analysis on US Political News, US Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, and Racial Justice equipping readers with the inequivalent knowledge.
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