Last week was the first presidential debate of the 2020 election cycle, with many people tuning in from all over the world with the hope of watching President Donald Trump and presidential candidate Joe Biden debate over various topics. What people got was a debate that has been referred to by some news outlets as the worst presidential debate in our country’s history. With the next set of debates just around the corner, it is crucial to consider the debates’ significance and how the President’s recent diagnosis of COVID-19 might affect the debates and the rest of the election.
The main reason the United States holds these debates is for the candidates and the voters to know what position each candidate has on different topics. The current format of holding debates only became a significant step in the election cycle in the 1970s with the candidacies of Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford. Both of these facts come from SXU Political Science Department Chair, Dr. Matthew J. Costello. As for the reason that the debates held a standard last Wednesday, Costello said, “… aside from the limited attention span of voters—they are held as the election nears when many people solidify their voting decision.”
One interesting thing of note that Costello brought up was if there is any proof that presidential debates effectively sway voters, was “Not really. Most people are already set on who they will vote for; even most undecideds who say they’ve not made up their minds lean one way or the other. Generally, the debates offer an opportunity to find that your choice is justified. They can, however, be upset if there is a major mistake…These leave images that may sway voters who find the candidate incredible. Generally, though, there are not such memorable moments.”
When asked if there was anything different about this previous debate when compared to last year, Costello had this to say, “The format was fairly standard. They are generally not debates as opportunities for state positions and then react to the other’s state positions. The major difference this time was the performance of the president with his constant interruptions and unwillingness to abide by the rules he had agreed to. There are always some interruptions and deviations, but this was a qualitatively different kind of performance.”
When most news sources merely exaggerated the topic as ‘the worst debate in our country’s history,’ Costello said, “There have always been rude performances. Al Gore huffed and snorted at GW Bush through the first debate and was considered boorish for doing so. The performance by the president, though, was much more boorish and rude. I don’t like hyperbolic language, so worst, I am not sure, but it was pretty bad.”
The one thing that has currently taken the nation, if not the world’s attention, has been President Trump, and many of his staff members have recently tested positive to COVID-19. Costello expressed when it came to how this might affect the election, “We’ll see—the next debate is less than 14 days from his diagnosis, so if the president follows the guidelines, he should be quarantined, which would upset the schedule. The White House claimed there was no debate preparation going on, but that turns out to have been a myth to dampen expectations as several people, including Hicks and Christie, were doing debate prep, which got them exposed to each other. If his team needs to be quarantined that could derail the president’s debate preparation.”
Lastly, Costello had this to say for students at SXU when it came to the election, “Vote—make up your own mind and vote—to be silent in an election is to be powerless as a citizen. Because 18-29 year-olds are the least likely to vote, we have two white septuagenarians running [for] president. Make your voice heard, and you will get represented. Be powerful.”