The First Presidential Debate Was A Dumpster Fire

As CNN’s Dana Bash put it so eloquently, the first presidential debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden was “a shitshow”.

It was hard to expect anything else - Trump is famously aggressive and both nominees have been ruthlessly going after each other via Twitter for months. Though perhaps Americans expected the moderator, Fox News’ Chris Wallace, to keep it under control; alas, the debate was nothing more than a yelling match between three old white men.

Trump is not a typical debater - he utilizes bullying, taunting, and a disregard for common courtesy. He was undoubtedly the reason why so much of the debate descended into a chaotic shouting match during which he blubbered over Biden’s words and Wallace’s pleas: “Mr. President-” Wallace would repeat over and over again, only to be interrupted by our head of state.

Though it is almost impossible to break down the points made by both parties during the debate, compiled below are a few of the main points that were discussed.

The COVID-19 Pandemic

Days ago, the death toll worldwide due to the coronavirus hit one million. President Trump has come under fire in recent weeks after it came out that he avoided telling Americans about the legitimacy of the virus. One of Trump’s tricks in debates is avoidance - he often refuses to answer questions, instead directing the attention to his opponent’s past mistakes. He used this during the virus debate, during which Biden accused the president and his administration of not having a plan early enough. Trump directed the conversation to Biden’s response to the swine flu when he was vice president under President Obama. This comparison is unfair - though swine flu did stir some panic in 2009 and prompted some schools to shut down, the fatality of swine flu is a fraction of COVID-19’s. The rest of the conversation was a muddled mess about masks, during which Trump belittled Biden for wearing a mask frequently.

The topic of rallies came up in question of Trump’s rally sizes, which Trump claimed reached crowds of “35,000-40,000” (this is false - his events have an average size of 7,000-8,000 people) and asserted that there has been “no negative effect” following said events. What he failed to recall was that former GOP candidate Herman Cain attended one of his rallies and later died because of the virus. Biden noted that he kept his rallies small to appease safety guidelines, leading Trump to cut in and proclaim that Biden only kept his rallies small because nobody would show up.

Trump also referred to COVID-19 as the "China virus". This is racist.

Supreme Court Justice

Following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, democrats have spent weeks urging the president not to elect another justice until after the election, but Trump has already chosen Amy Coney Barett. Biden noted that he had no problem with Barett, but worries that the three conservative justices that Trump has appointed during his presidency may pose a threat to the Affordable Care Act and abortion rights. He reminded the audience that the election was already happening, and that it is fairer for Trump to wait until after he is re-elected to appoint anyone. Biden urged Americans to “vote and let your senators know how strongly you feel.”

Law and Order

Trump has described himself as the “law and order” president and frequently tweets “LAW AND ORDER” to his 86 million Twitter followers. When asked about his thoughts on law and order, Biden responded that he believes in “law and order with justice where people get treated fairly,” implying that BIPOC are majorly affected by systemic injustices in the country, especially surrounding law enforcement and their response to cases involving black individuals. Trump blames the violence in the country on the Black Lives Matter protests.

He then refused to condemn white supremacy. About an organization called the “Proud Boys” (a far-right neo-fascist male-only group that promotes violence), he told them to “stand by.”

This is concerning.

Election Integrity

Trump claimed that mail-in ballots would mess up the election, saying that in many areas people received two ballots - which is false, and also not illegal. You can request more than one ballot if something happens to one of them, but ballots must be verified and only one can be submitted per valid voter. Many states have voted entirely by mail for 20 years with very few fraud cases, and states have protections against voter fraud.

Climate Change

Oh God. This one was rough. When asked about his climate change plan, Trump started spouting nonsense about how forests need to be cleaned up (?) to avoid forest fires and said that he believes humans contribute to global warming “to an extent” but didn’t give any specific plan. Biden tried to explain his plan, but Trump interrupted and asserted that his opponent believed in the Green New Deal, to which Biden responded “no, I don’t support the Green New Deal” but Trump’s mind was made up, and it can be expected that he will continue to tell his followers that Biden is a radical left-wing socialist who believes in the Green New Deal.

Overview

To reiterate, the debate was a hot mess. There were no winners because it was barely a real debate. Biden attempted to speak eloquently to the audience, but the insane amount of interruptions and belittlements spouted from President Trump made it hard for him to finish his sentences. Trump brought Biden’s children into the debate - including Beau Biden, who passed away at the age of 46 after suffering from brain cancer in 2015. Trump’s irresponsible, heartless mention of his opponent’s deceased child only further displays that he treats a debate like a schoolyard fight - he brings up personal difficulties and alludes that his opponent is stupid. There was nothing substantial about President Trump’s points.

Unfortunately, this is just the beginning. The next presidential debate is set for October 15th. Expect another big, fat, dumpster fire.

Author's note: please vote. Visit https://www.vote.org/ for more information.