This year’s presidential debate on September 29th was arguably the most chaotic debate in U.S. history. Blatant unprofessionalism by Trump, a helpless moderator, and moments of incoherent back-and-forth by the two candidates, made for quite the spectacle and leaves questions for how future debates should be handled.
The Commission on Presidential debates designed the first debate to be six, fifteen-minute, segments, with two-minute answers from each candidate to the first question and open discussion for the remaining segments. Moderator Chris Wallace decided the topics and both parties agreed to the rules of the debate. The topics included the open seat in the Supreme Court, racism and the related protests, COVID-19, each candidate’s records, and the integrity of the election.
Trump and Biden definitely came in with two distinct strategies. Throughout most of the debate, Biden talked directly into the camera, to the moderator, or into the audience. This was a clever, non-verbal, action by Biden which vested the focus of his words on the American people rather than framing the debate as a dispute between him and Trump. This sends a powerful theme that Biden’s campaign is centered upon and aligns with the message he mentioned during his speech at the Democratic Convention: “This is a partisan movement. This must be an American movement.” Only when interrupted or personally targeted did the former VP turn to Trump.
Trump came with a strategy he has consistently used since 2016: loading his speech with hyperboles, misinformation, nationalistic propaganda, and even targeting the opposing candidate’s personal life. One of the points made by Trump that stands out the most is his response when asked why he decided to end racial sensitivity training; Trump declared that the training was “racist” and that they were teaching “very bad ideas and, frankly, very sick ideas” and that ultimately “they were teaching people to hate our country.” The moderator then moved the topic to law and order and framed the question with the fact that there have been dramatic increases in homicides that have been “equivalent” in both Democratic and Republican-led cities. Moderator Wallace then asked the question: “Is this really a party issue?” Donald Trump responded that it was a party issue.
However, there came a few times where Biden also listed exaggerations and unfairly blemished Donald Trump’s career. He states a half-truth about one-quarter of the way through the debate, stating, “he’s [Trump] going to be the first president of the United States to leave office having fewer jobs in his administration than when he became president.” This holds up as only a half-truth because it wasn’t Donald Trump’s fault that COVID plagued the world and caused a negative economic hit. Sure, as Biden states, more preventive measures could have been taken to minimize the damage, but overall the problem still stems from nature, not Trump. He, at times, also interrupts his opponent, but not to the extent that Trump has interrupted him.
The exact distinction of their strategies is that Donald Trump uses hate, fear, and division to beat out Biden; Joe Biden uses hope and unity as the strategy to win over the American people. Donald Trump reiterates that Biden did not do anything for 47 years and that he will lead the country into economic failure. He brings up the “radical left” which is a great tactic to retain his original right-wing supporters. What’s ironic is that many of Trump’s supporters are actually radical right like the Proud Boys which Trump told to “stand back and stand by.” Joe Biden tries to garner the support of middle-class America and progressives with his stance on economic and justice issues.
Leaving behind the politics, radical views, and misinformation, what remains as the most striking aspect of the debate is the unprecedented lack of professionalism. If two potential leaders of America can’t follow simple guidelines and rules of a debate, how can there be any structure and harmony in how this country will be led? There is a lot of a talk going around about the option to shut down the microphone when the guidelines are overstepped, but we will have to wait until the next presidential debate to see. Till next time.