2020 Election: Recapping Major Points From The Final Debate - Isabella Sportelli

 

    As the 2020 election season nears a close, tensions are higher than ever. I think both sides can agree that the first Presidential Debate was nothing short of a mess, as it may have been the least productive Presidential Debate in history. President Trump went right for the jugular as he executed a very aggressive debate tactic full of interruptions. This aggressive nature was completely exposed and the center of attention in this debate which could very well be his downfall in the coming days. It brought to the forefront the main concerns that Americans have with Trump: his personality. However, there were numerous times when Biden would say things that were blatantly untrue, great opportunities for the President to jump in, but unfortunately, he was so busy jumping down Biden's throat that nothing could resonate with the American people. According to CBS News Instant Poll, 48% thought Biden won, 41% thought Trump won, and 10% thought it was a tie, numbers that mirror the national polling, once again proving this was extremely unproductive. This left viewers with the common question: who will be able to redeem themselves and pull through at the next debate? 

    Last week, Trump and Biden went head to head one last time for the final debate. This debate, unlike the first, was much more controlled, reserved, and presidential. There were many topics discussed, the first of which, of course, being COVID. This is usually a losing topic for the President, as when mass numbers of people die, people tend to blame the President, regardless of actions taken or why it happened. This is exactly the way Biden went about debating this in saying that Trump was singlehandedly to blame for all those that died of COVID. If there was an "empty chair at your kitchen table," it was to Trump's accountability. Biden even makes the statement, "Anyone who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as President of the United States of America." Trump, on the other hand, decided to take a more optimistic approach to the virus. According to him, we have to learn to live with the virus and move on with our lives, as "the cure cannot be worse than the problem itself." He attacks Biden for continually pushing to lock down the country, a point that may benefit him considering that many Americans are generally fed up with lockdowns. Even though they are still being rightfully cautious, ultimately there seems to be a consensus that normalcy needs to return soon or else there won't be a nation to return to. This is especially true given the logical fact that all a lockdown does is delay the outbreak, not stop it. We cannot close up our nation or simply "hide in the basement." Biden counters with a very pessimistic approach. He continually talks about shutdowns because of a supposed "dark winter" the country will be entering in a few weeks where guaranteed thousands more will die. He says a vaccine will most likely not be available until the middle of next year, something Americans do not want to hear. The contrasting vision to Trump is that we cannot learn to live with it because we're learning to "die with it." All in all, depending upon which candidate comes out on top, there are potentially two completely different futures for America in the coming months. 

    Russia was another big point in the debate, with Biden claiming to take Putin head-on and saying he does not understand why the President refuses to take on Russia which is just simply not true. Trump has been significantly harsher on Russia than the Obama administration ever was. Trump countered with some false claims as well which is worth noting. However, some of his claims were true and he makes the point to say that Biden is a longtime corrupt politician who went into office poor/lower middle class and is now worth around $9 million dollars. There are major questions to be raised. The debate proceeded to move onto the subject of Hunter Biden who Trump accused of picking up huge checks in China, Russia, and Ukraine. It has been determined that Hunter Biden received a $3.5 million dollar check from Moscow and huge checks from Ukraine and China as well. However, there is no evidence to suggest that Biden was picking up any of the money except for suspicious emails. Biden finally counters by disregarding the subject, pointing at the camera, and saying that the American people do not want to hear about this, they want to hear about them. Trump completely calls him out on this typical political statement as an attempt to move on from the subject of family corruption, not Biden's best moment.  

    The debate then moved to foreign policy and Trump began discussing how the United States has a good relationship with North Korea at the moment. Biden proceeded to say that "We had a good relationship with Hitler before he invaded Europe, come on." The United States did not, in fact, have a good relationship with Hitler before World War 2. Another important point that came shortly after was Joe Biden making the statement that no one lost their private insurance under Obama Care which is also completely false. 

    Illegal immigration was another major point. Joe Biden went with a more emotional appeal, talking about the children separated from their parents at the border. However, Trump continually badgers him asking "Who built the cages, who built the cages, Joe?" to which Biden could not answer because it was the Obama Administration who created the cages. Biden continually tries to promise to carry out his plans on illegal immigration, but Trump then came back to the central idea that Biden was in government for 47 years and did nothing, and served as VP for 8 of those years. Similarly, Biden promised to heal the "racial wounds" within the country, but Trump kept hammering home the fact that he had several chances to do something years ago and didn't. Later on, Biden says he has been arguing that we should "not send anyone to jail for a pure drug offense," to which Trump again replies, "Why didn't you do it?" Biden finally responds by saying "We had a Republican congress" which stops the debate dead. It is necessary to point out that the Democrats did not have a Repulican congress. The Democrats actually had a super majority in the Senate as well as a majority in the House. 

    The final point in the debate tackled the prevalent issue of climate change. Trump was continually hammering the point home that Biden pledged to ban fracking. Biden came back by saying that under his policies, fracking would only be banned on federal lands even though there have been several recorded accounts of him saying he wants to gradually move away from fracking altogether. Perhaps one of the biggest statements in the entire debate came later on from Biden declaring that he wants to end the oil industry, an industry responsible for millions of jobs throughout the country. A statement this big may even cause him to lose Pennsylvania.

    All in all, these were the major points to be taken away from the debate. Only time will tell which candidate pulled through and will be elected the next President of the United States. It might sound cliche, but it is very important to get out and vote! If you have the opportunity to use your voice, you should take it, as this may be one of the most important elections in history. 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/who-won-debate-first-presidential-biden-trump/