Trump vs. Biden: Debate or Brawl?

US President Donald Trump vs. Democratic nominee Joe Biden (Former Vice President): September 29,2020, moderated by Chris Wallace, Fox News anchor, in Cleveland, Ohio [90 minutes].

1. Supreme Court:

The dominant issue on Capitol Hill right now is Trump's nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  But while the debate opened with questions about the high court, the details were largely lost amid the chaos, as Trump interrupted Biden's answers and Wallace struggled to rein in a debate that was devolving into disarray from its opening moments. While she doesn’t lack in credentials, Barrett’s stances are in favour of demeaning everything late Justice Ginsburg worked towards, be it abortion rights, lgbtq+ rights, healthcare, etcetera. In conclusion, Trump is still pressed on nominating Barrett, while Biden is in support of waiting after the elections to appoint a new Supreme Court justice.

2. COVID-19: 

Trump strategy of damage control of his horrific mismanagement of COVID-19 is to divert attention from it. His dismissive attitude of the crisis is clearer than ever, downplaying the risk, and deluding the extreme fatality. Not only did he openly boast about not wearing masks and having huge rallies, but also mocked Biden for having one on. Trump claimed the vaccine process is political and instead of a robust defence of his record he sought to claim a hypothetical President Biden would have done worse.  One of Biden's most effective moments of the debate came when the topic turned to the coronavirus pandemic and he directly addressed the camera and the voters at home as he made his case for why he is the best person to handle the pandemic.

3. Taxes:

A New York Times last week said Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes in 2016, the year he won the election. The report, which cited tax return data extending more than 20 years, said he had paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years because he reported losing much more money than he made. When this report was referenced by Mod. Wallace during the debate, Trump dismissed it. He was pressed to say how much he paid in taxes but declined. "I paid millions of dollars in taxes. Millions of dollars in income tax," he said. Then he said that he attempted to avoid taxes as much as possible, referencing tax breaks that he and others try to claim.

4.Racism:

Trump repeatedly used the phrase “the China plague,” and continuously  blamed China for the pandemic Perhaps the most striking part was when the moderator, Chris Wallace, asked Trump to condemn white supremacist and militia groups. "I'm willing to do anything. I want to see peace." Pressed further, Mr Trump said: "What do you want to call them? Give me a name. Give me a name?" Finally, he said: "Proud Boys - Stand back, stand by, but I'll tell you what, somebody's got to do something about Antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem... This is a left-wing problem." ‘Stand by’ means to ‘await further instructions’, much to the joy of Proud Boys, a neo-Nazi organization, who used Mr Trump's "stand back, stand by" call in a new logo posted on Telegram shortly after the debate. Wallace raised another issue: Trump Administration’s plan to direct federal agencies to halt training sessions on racial sensitivity. “I ended it because it's racist,” Trump responded. “I ended it because a lot of people were complaining that they were asked to do things that were absolutely insane. It was a radical revolution that was taking place.” He said that it taught the military to ‘hate our country’, which really says something about his perception of racism in America. Biden is not to be let off for this segment. While he may have learned the right words to say in 2020 to avoid accusations of racism, as in his “plan for Black America,” he lacks the policies, actions, or record to back them up.

5. Economy:

Biden claimed Trump has "done nothing to help small businesses." But, Trump has helped towards the creation of the ‘Paycheck Protection Program’ that distributed about $525 billion in forgivable loans to more than 5 million small businesses, although $130 billion was unused. The road to keeping small businesses in America afloat is certainly not over. As Vice President, Biden helped oversee the recovery from the 2007-2009 financial crisis. In President Barack Obama's second term the economy added about 2.5 million jobs per year, while Trump added 2.1 million per year during his first three years in office. "We had 10.4 million people in a four-month period that we've put back in the workforce. That's a record the likes of which nobody's ever seen before... Our country is coming back incredibly well," Trump said. Labor Department data does show that from April to August 10.6 million jobs have been added to US businesses, but it still stands small in view of the 22.1 million jobs lost from February to April. Even before the pandemic, the unemployment rate was at a sharp 3.5 per cent. "Millionaires and billionaires like him...have done very well," Biden said of Trump. The combined wealth of billionaires jumped in the weeks after the coronavirus lockdowns, the Institute for Policy Studies found. "When the stock market goes up, that means jobs," Trump said.  Stock prices typically track investor expectations for future corporate earnings and do not necessarily mean more jobs, especially right now. For example, the S&P 500 Index had regained its entire 35% loss by August and is currently barely behind what it was in February, yet the US economy has recouped only half the jobs lost since the crisis began. "We handed him a booming economy. He blew it," Biden said, while Trump claimed, "We built the greatest economy in history."

6. Political Alignment:

Throughout the debate, Trump tried to paint Biden as a radical leftist, trying to put words in his mouth. Biden, for his part, made his stance very clear: He does not support ‘the new Green deal’ (instead supports “the Biden deal”), he does openly reject Medicare-for-all, and he will not disavow the police (though, his choice of running mate already made that). It is safe to say that Biden stands neither left nor right, but is tucked comfortably in the Middle.

7. Climate change:

This is the first time after 20 years that a clear question about climate change has been raised by the moderator in a US Presidential Debate.  Trump stated he wants “crystal clean water and air”, argued we have “the lowest carbon” and said China, Russia, and India send-up “real dirt into the air”. When pushed further, he agreed — to an extent — that human pollution contributes to global warming of the planet. Nevertheless, he refused to acknowledge the impact of climate change, and the gravity of the issue. He said climate action would drive energy prices “through the sky”, and complained about the economic costs of various environmental plans. His administration has torn down essentially every federal climate action the US has ever undertaken.  Biden has laid out a $2tn plan to invest in green infrastructure that will try to eliminate US climate pollution by the middle of the century. He would put 40% of climate investments toward environmental justice, including in communities of colour that are more likely to be surrounded by polluting fossil fuel infrastructure. Yet, his stance on  A fitting remark by RL Miller, political director of Climate Hawks Vote summed up the segment: “I would have been OK with Wallace skipping. He asked a very shallow question with the limited follow-up”, but it cannot be denied that Biden, only if barely, comes out on top with this issue.

8. Voting:

Trump has repeatedly threatened to withhold funding from the postal service to limit voting by mail, arguing that the method increased the likelihood of voter fraud. This claim has largely been refuted by experts and the FBI.  During the debate, Trump urged his supporters to monitor polling places, betraying an ignorance of election laws in most states, which require poll watchers to be registered in the county or precinct where they operate. In his closing statement, Trump once again lashed out at the mail-in ballot system, calling it “a disaster”. “This is going to be a fraud like you have never seen. We are going to do well. But, who knows? We are not going to know [the election result] for months,” he said. [Results are expected to emerge a few days after election night since a large number of people are expected to cast their votes before November 3.]

9. An Overview:

The debate was lined with constant interruptions, underhanded attacks, condescending attitudes, and was aptly rather ‘unpresidential’. Trump made remarks about Biden’s dead veteran son Beau, and his other son Hunter who went through addiction and recovery and constantly undermined his intelligence. Biden in turn called Trump ‘Putin's puppy’, and a clown, and told him to shut up or ‘stop yapping’ multiple times during the debate. On why the electorate should vote for him, Donald Trump said, "There has never been an administration or a president who has done more than I have done in three and a half years." Biden said, "Under this president, we've become weaker, sicker, poorer and more divided." Unfortunately, for the USA, this presidential debate has no winners, neither candidate is good enough to lead the country to a bright future, it is only a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea, and it is quite clear who the devil is.

---

Writer: Hia Sadho

#trump #biden #2020presidentialelection