Pictured Above: Joe Biden (left) and Donald Trump’s first presidential debate was considered by many to be one of the worst debates in American history.
Courtesy of The White House
By Trevor Martindale
President Donald Trump and Joe Biden took the stage Sept. 29 for the first presidential debate.
Fox News’ Chris Wallace moderated the debate and outlined six topics for the candidates to discuss: the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy, the outlook for the Supreme Court, race relations, election results and candidate records.
In a post-debate CNN poll, 60 percent of debate watchers believed Biden won the debate, while 28 percent believed Trump won.
Students had mixed reactions to the overall performance of each candidate.
Junior political science major Victor Macias supports Biden’s candidacy, but believes Trump won the debate.
“The purpose of these debates is not to propose substantive answers to the questions,” Macias said. “(Biden allowed) himself to be slandered repeatedly due to the simple fact that Biden refused to address accusations hurled by Trump with the same ferocity.”
Senior interdisciplinary science major Chelsi Chavez contends that Biden won the debate.
“Most of Trump’s points were extremely overexaggerated or (didn’t) make sense or (were) just wrong,” Chavez said. “Biden had facts and information to back his points.”
Lexi Bishop, a junior political science major, believes those who did not watch the debate were ultimately victorious.
“Neither candidate won,” Bishop said in an email to The Crow’s Nest. “There have been multiple fact checkers that have debunked many lies spewed by both candidates. The way everyone acted in the debate was an embarrassment to the nation.”
The COVID-19 pandemic was consistently discussed throughout the debate.
According to Pew Research Center, 62 percent of voters said the pandemic will play a large role in their vote in November.
Bishop doesn’t believe the topic made a large impact on the debate.
“The responses about COVID from Biden were mostly factually incorrect and Trump didn’t really respond; he just told Biden he was wrong,” Bishop said.
Macias was disappointed in Biden’s handling of this topic.
“Literally all he had to do was stick to the facts and he would have called Trump’s actions regarding the pandemic into serious question,” Macias said. “Instead of this, he opted to blame the entire broad spectrum of consequences brought about by the coronavirus solely on Trump, which was a horribly ineffective rhetorical point.”
The economy, which has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic was also discussed.
Chavez believed Biden intertwining the topics of COVID-19 and the economy was effective.
“It was really helpful to show that the stock market (improving) does not mean the economy is,” Chavez said. “There is a huge divide in fiscal growth for the 1 percent and (the rest of the country).”
The race relations segment included the one of the most discussed moments of the night.
When asked to denounce white supremacy and right-wing hate groups, Trump did not directly denounce them.
“Sure,” Trump said. He proceeded to ask for a name. When Wallace, the moderator, named the Proud Boys, a designated right-wing hate group, Trump responded by saying: “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.”
Bishop believes Trump adequately responded to the request to denounce white supremacists, but was confused by his statement regarding the Proud Boys.
“When asked if he was willing to condemn white supremacy, his response was ‘sure,’ which is the English language is the equivalent of yes,” Bishop said. “When asked to do so right then (and) there, he told the Proud Boys to ‘stand down and stand by.’
The first part of that, good. The second part, I don’t really understand. But being that he was talking as fast as possible and had little regard (for) what he was actually saying 90 percent of the time. He probably did not fully think about what he was saying. Ignorance is not an excuse; however, he did do as asked.”
Chavez believes Trump was placating to his base with his response.
“It is obvious that Trump is not concerned with racial tension in this country,” Chavez said. “He is only interested in keeping his following, which includes many people with racist views. (He) does not want to step on their toes.”
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, election security has emerged as one of the leading contentions between Trump and Biden.
They offered dramatically different views on the election results, as Trump continued to question the efficacy of mail-in voting and Biden committed to accept the election results.
Trump’s answers regarding election results struck fear into Macias.
“Trump’s reaction to the question of whether or not he would accept the results of the election (is) actually terrifying,” Macias said. “(He) cited random conspiracy theories about ballots with his name on (them) being found to have been thrown away to manipulate the election.”
Macias is also afraid that Trump’s comments alone may lead to voter intimidations and suppression.
“Not only did Trump attempt to scare the voters away from the (voting) booths by insinuating that their votes wouldn’t count, but he also blatantly encouraged voter intimidation by his supporters at voting centers,” Macias said.
Bishop believes Biden mishandled this topic and was wrong.
“Biden just denied the facts and tried to make personal jabs at the president,” Bishop said. “I have a feeling that the outcome of this election will end up in the Supreme Court.”
The next two debates are now up in the air after President Trump tested positive for COVID-19.
