“I’m going to say it like this. That was a shit show,” CNN’s Dana Bash stated after last night’s first presidential debate of 2020. She went on to say, “But that is really the phrase I’m getting from people on both sides of the aisle on text and the only phrase I can think of to describe it.”
Quite frankly, I couldn’t agree with her more, and I would even go far as to say that it truly shows how embarrassing this election has become. Before I believed that the election’s result could go either way, but this debate only confirmed my belief.
To break this down into an overall view, I found that Trump did one of these four things throughout the hour and a half:
- He boasted about his administration and himself.
- He attacked Biden and his family while also making under-the-breath comments.
- He talked about what he wanted rather than specifying how to get there.
- He wasn’t following the rules that he and his campaign agreed to.
On Biden’s side, I noticed he did one of these three things:
- He was as close to the topic as possible.
- He talked about what he wanted and how to specifically get there.
- He made under-the-breath comments as well.
All in all, I felt that this entire debate was Trump throwing a temper tantrum. Biden, for the most part, stayed on topic with some slip-ups and some bickering.
The first topic was about the Supreme Court and the decision on the nominee to take Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s place. Trump answered first, and he, as usual, boasted about his administration’s 2016 election accomplishments- winning the presidency, the Senate, and swinging the court to the right. He believes that because of this, he has the right to nominate Amy Coney Barrett for the position.
He claimed that a professor she had at Notre Dame stated, “She’s the single greatest student we’ve ever had,” in order to back up his choice, even though there is no proof of this. What I noticed is that he used the Lack of Proportion fallacy, which basically means that there is either over-exaggeration or under-exaggeration. Here, we can see he overexaggerates her potential legitimacy and ability to perform the task as a Supreme Court justice.
Biden’s response was that he believes we should wait for the election to pick the nominee, so the American people can have a say in who is taking over RBG’s seat. He mentioned that not only she believes the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional (which was fact-checked as an exaggeration- again Lack of Proportion), but she could also get rid of women’s rights, shutting the door that RBG opened up for women.
When it was an open discussion, Trump immediately took over and wouldn’t let Biden speak, or he would interrupt him, which is a frequent issue throughout the debate. He stated that he should pick because he was “elected for four years” and that those four years weren’t up yet.
In retaliation, Biden pointed out Trump’s indecision about COVID-19 which costed 200,000 people’s lives. Trump swung it around on him and stated about 300,000 military personnel had a lack of health care during Obama’s reign. This showed a Two Wrongs Make a Right fallacy. He doesn’t address the loss of 200,000 people and turns it into a competition. He tried to justify allowed 200,000 Americans to die by turning it on Biden.
The moderator, Chris Wallace, then moves on to talk about health care. He starts off by asking Trump what his plans are for health care to which he responded: “Well, I guess I’m debating you and not him. Big Surprise.” It was a condescending statement to Wallace, but it would make sense since just before this, Wallace had to remind Trump of the debate’s rules, which led to bickering.
Trump steered off from the question, and when he did talk about health care, there was Suppressed Evidence, which is another fallacy, and a lot of it was misleading. Biden did his best to answer the question, but Trump disobeyed the debate’s rules and interrupted him; however, Biden pushed on and tried his best to ignore the President.
During the open discussion, Trump wouldn’t let Biden speak at all. He attacked Biden on irrelevant matters which is an Ad Hominem. After Biden spoke about his health care plan that doesn’t follow former Democratic candidate, Bernie Sanders’s, health care plan, Trump stated, “You just lost the left.” Once again, this is a Lack of Proportion. He overexaggerates just who Biden would have lost with that statement if any.
Trump had a tendency to talk about Obama Care rather than his own personal health care plan, which still doesn’t formally exist. Biden even commented on this: “He does not have a plan. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” Biden continued to urge the American people to vote.
The next topic was about COVID-19 which the candidates briefly touched on earlier. Biden started and immediately stated some statistics which were proven to be true: “We, in fact, have five percent- four percent- of the world’s population, 20 percent of the deaths.” He pointed out that Trump didn’t do anything, even though he knew about it before it spread. He claimed an Ad Hominem by stating: “You should have gotten out of your bunker.”
During Trump’s turn, he claimed that if Biden was president during COVID-19, we, as a country, would basically crash and burn. This is a Slippery Slope fallacy which means you state a certain scenario that leads to complete disaster with no wiggle room of potential positivity. He brought up the swine flu epidemic in 2009, saying that he had lost thousands of lives. Again, Trump showed a Two Wrongs Make A Right fallacy. Biden’s response was: “14,000 dead. You lost 200,000”, which still isn’t great, but it’s a whole lot better than 200,000 people dead.
Trump also committed two Ad Hominems towards the end of this section. He committed a full attack on Biden’s intelligence: “Did you use the word ‘smart’? So you said you went to Delaware State, but you forgot the name of your college.” The second Ad Hominem is that he attacked Biden for wearing masks since the beginning when Trump wouldn’t.
The next topic was about the economy. Trump went first by saying “We built the greatest in history”. Several fallacies were used here. Lack of Proportion, Suppressed Evidence, and even Appeal to Ignorance, which means he had an argument with no proof or evidence but believed he is right because the opponent didn’t have facts against him. He then leads into talking about divorce and alcoholism and completely steers off from the topic.
Biden went on to say “Millionaires and billionaires have done very well” during the pandemic while the common people are still suffering. We get poorer while they get richer. It all fell back onto the pandemic to which Trump stated that people want their businesses and work to be open. Biden’s reply was: “People want to be safe.”
Trump was asked about his federal income taxes released a couple of days earlier, which stated that he paid $750 in 2016 and in 2017, and in 10 out of the past 15 years paid nothing, excluding 2018 and 2019. He responded with that he paid millions and that it was a lie, though the tax refunds say differently, and it was fact-checked saying differently as well. This means he created a Lack of Proportion fallacy to cover his alleged tax fraud.
Biden stated that his economic plan would create about 7 million jobs and grow the economy about 2 to 3 trillion dollars. In response, Trump once again attacked Biden and his family and went on to talk about the mayor of Moscow’s wife who allegedly paid Biden’s son millions of dollars. This is Ad Hominem and just steering from the topic completely.
Following that was the topic of racism issues. Biden points out Trump’s disturbing action to have D.C. police spray protesters with pepper spray and tear gas, so he could get a photo opportunity in front of the church across from the White House. He even pointed out that “His former spokesperson said, you know, ‘Riots and chaos and violence help his cause’. That’s what this is all about.” This was fact-checked and deemed true even though the President claimed it wasn’t. Trump claimed that Biden called Black Americans “super predators” which was deemed misleading because there is no evidence of that.
Chris Wallace then went on to ask if there is separate but unequal justice in the country. Biden stated about the police that “There are some bad apples… They have to be held accountable”, and “The fact is there is racial insensitivity. The people need to be aware of that.” Biden also wants to give more funding to the police and put Trump under fire for wanting to cut back on law enforcement spending. Trump turned it around on the left and states that these “radicals” are “teaching people to hate our country”. He even claimed that it is a party issue and not a racism issue.
Wallace continued to ask Trump if he condemns white supremacy and the KKK. He refused to, and he even told the Proud Boys- a militant white supremacy gang- to “stand back and stand by.” This is terrifying in itself because he basically condemned racism that goes on without directly stating so.
Wallace then asked the candidates why the people should elect them as president over their opponent. Trump steered from the question and boasted about himself. He never directly gave an answer, leaving viewers unsatisfied. Biden, however, stated: “under this president, we will become weaker, sicker”. He even points out Trump’s disrespect for the military to which Trump turned it around on him and attacked his son, which again is an Ad Hominem.
The next topic was climate change. Trump said: “I want crystal clean water and air. I want beautiful clean air. We have the lowest carbon. Look at our numbers now. We are doing phenomenal.” He claimed what he wants, but he never explained how he wanted to get there or explained the policies to get there. It was fact-checked and deemed misleading.
Biden described specifically what he wanted to do and that he wants to and will rejoin the Paris Accord. He pointed out what Trump hasn’t done much of anything to help the climate crisis, and even referred to the time he wanted to nuke hurricanes to get rid of them which is on record to which Trump responded: “I never said that.”
Wallace then asked how confident each candidate is that the election will be legitimate and fair. Biden started off by saying he wants everyone to vote. He encouraged everyone to vote no matter what. Then he went on to say: “His own homeland security director, and as well as the F.B.I. director, says there is no evidence at all that mail-in ballots are a source of being manipulated and cheated.” This was fact-checked and deemed mostly true: the homeland security director has stated nothing, but other intelligence officials have stated it is safe.
Trump responded by steering away from the question once again. He talked about having no free transition of candidates. He stated that ballots are a disaster and that there will be voter fraud.
Finally, Wallace then asked if they would encourage their supporters to be calm no matter what. Biden simply says “yes” with some explanation. He even says that he will be supportive of the outcome because he believes the people will make the right choice for themselves. Trump, however, encouraged his followers to be poll watchers to make sure everything runs smoothly which is illegal- it’s loitering.
Overall, the entire thing was- as Dana Bash stated- a “shit show”, and there’s really no other way to describe it. Trump was very misleading, and he altogether created one of the greatest Begging the Question fallacies I’ve ever seen, which means he kept avoiding the question and refused to give proper and satisfactory answers and that he just went in circles. Biden contradicted himself a few times and made some under-the-breath Ad Hominems and comments. He did, however, answer the questions as best as he could and stayed on topic as best as he could.
I think this entire debate showed us three things: (1) our candidates want to make this a personal battle rather than a true debate, (2) we need to be active and present in the polls, and (3) we need to choose what we believe is the lesser evil.
To watch the debate, you can find it here. It begins about 28 minutes in. For fact-checking articles of the debate comments: you can find one from The New York Times and from PolitiFact.