Okay, I get it. Talking about politics can be disheartening and tiring, but we need to keep the conversation going no matter how defeated we feel. I’m going to try to make this article short, sweet, and to the point by highlighting the major points from the debate so you don’t have to sit through it and yell at the TV screen as I did.
The debate that took place Tuesday night was, well, a lot. As CNN news anchor Jake Tapper bluntly put it, “Well, that was a hot mess, inside a dumpster fire, inside a train wreck. That was the worst debate I have ever seen.” He goes on to mention that the reason the debate was so terrible was mostly due to President Trump and his insane debate tactics, and Tapper is not wrong by any means.
I want to begin talking about how President Trump handled himself during the debate because this truly was the biggest takeaway from the night. We saw how he handled himself in the 2016 debates when he treated the democratic nominee Hillary Clinton almost as badly as he treated this year’s Democratic nominee, Joe Biden. Trump is incredibly “good” at attacking his opponent and deflecting the questions he gets asked. During the debate, Trump purposefully interrupted Biden, (which you’re not supposed to do, both candidates get two full minutes to answer the questions asked, with no interruptions) and the moderator to not only deflect the questions that he was being asked but, also to try to get Biden off track and rile him up. A common recurrence we saw was Trump using extremely personal attacks on Biden and his family. For example, Biden brought up his son Beau, who died of cancer after serving in the military, to highlight Trump’s criticism of military members after he called them “losers” and “suckers.” But, Trump brought up Biden’s other son Hunter in the middle of Biden’s answer, who was discharged from the military due to his drug addiction. This extremely unpresidential and unempathetic strategy performed by Trump got the two debaters off-topic and allowed Trump to not have to answer the questions posed to him during that certain segment.
Trump’s strategy pretty much took up most of the night and is the only thing people are talking about today. I couldn’t tell you one question he answered without some sort of attack or deflection. A moment that stood out to me though, and most of the American’s who watched was when Trump was asked to denounce white supremacy and he didn’t. As the moderator asked Trump, “…Are you willing, tonight, to condemn white supremacists and militia groups and to say that they need to stand down and not add to the violence in a number of these cities as we saw in Kenosha and as we’ve seen in Portland? Are you prepared to specifically do that?” Trump stalled and deflected but ended up saying “Proud Boys, stand back and 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.” Now, if you don’t know who the Proud Boys are, they are a male-only group of right-wing extremists who are known for bashing leftist protestors. So, in actuality, instead of denouncing white supremacy, Trump encouraged it. Although many social media sites have kicked the Proud Boys off, people were still able to grab screenshots of the group on an app called Telegram and on the social media site Parler. On Parler, one Proud Boy mentioned how Trump had pretty much permitted them to attack protesters, also saying “this makes me so happy.” Other Proud Boy supporters began creating merch with the words “Proud Boys Standing By.” Trump’s words gave many of the Proud Boys validation and who knows what they’ll do now. Trump understands that many of his supporters are white supremacists which is exactly why he didn’t denounce them.
As for Biden, he did an okay job considering what he had to deal with. His obvious strategy for the debate was to try and get his points across to Americans watching at home. By this I mean he kept making sure that whenever he answered a question, he would look straight at the camera, talking to all of us watching at home. This was a considerable contrast to his opponent Trump, as Trump only talked to himself or yelled at the moderator most of the time. It was refreshing to see Biden address the people watching because, for most of the debate, it felt like two little boys fighting and not actually including the people at home who are watching and wanting answers and hope for the future. There were however moments that Biden didn’t keep his cool. A moment that many people have been talking about was his snarky comment to Trump after he wouldn’t stop interrupting him. When asked about his opinion on the Supreme Court, Biden was circling his answer as Trump kept interrupting him. Biden finally had enough and said, “Will you just shut up, man?” As someone at home watching I can’t say I was surprised by this, Trump totally deserved it. But, do I think that it was diplomatic or okay to say? No, definitely not. The point is though, the debate was a trainwreck because of Trump’s unwillingness to adhere to the rules. Don’t get me wrong, there were definitely moments when Biden would interrupt Trump but, the majority of the wrong-doings were done by Trump.
There was a lot more that happened in those 90 minutes and I can assure you that every news outlet has at least a dozen articles and videos highlighting the debate. In general, the main thing you need to take away from the debate is that it wasn’t really a debate. It was a competition on who could speak the loudest. And if that was the actual case, sadly, Trump would take the cake. But, this rude, interrupting strategy is exactly how Trump won the presidency in 2016. People saw a man who asserted his power in a very tangible way, and his supporters who still support him watched him on Tuesday and loved it, even going as far as to say that he won. He claims that he didn’t practice for the debate but, I can assure you that he did and the jabs and interruptions against Biden were planned. I think the one thing that we can all agree on is that no matter what Trump does or says, his supporters will support him. His reality TV type charisma and his willingness to say whatever he wants is exactly what his people want. I wish I could say I know what’s going to happen in November but I can’t. All I can say is please if you’re 18 or older, register to vote to save our democracy.