The presidential debate of 2020 was anything but a traditional debate. What started out a normal debate devolved quickly into a yelling fest between not just the debating candidates, but the moderator Chris Wallace as well. Twitter followers were quick to point out that the debate was President Trump was debating both the moderator and former VP Biden.
As Charlie Kirk President of Turning Point USA pointed out, Chris Wallace interrupted Donald Trump 76 times last night. He only interrupted Joe Biden 15 times.
Chris Wallace, who had vowed to remain invisible during the debate decided to debate Trump on the issue of health-care. Wallace asked, "You, in the course of these four years, have never come up with a comprehensive plan to replace Obamacare, and just this last Thursday you signed a largely symbolic Executive Order to protect people with pre-existing conditions five days before this debate."
Trump, realizing he was debating Wallace twelve minutes into the debate responded, "Well, first of all, I guess I’m debating you, not him, but that’s okay. I’m not surprised. Let me just tell you something. There’s nothing symbolic. I’m cutting drug prices. I’m going with Favored Nations, which no President has the courage to do because you’re going against big pharma."
President Trump pointed out to Biden, he "lost the left" over his claiming he would not use the Bernie Sanders health care plan of "medicare for all." But instead claiming he was using the "Biden" plan.
Another contentious issue at the debate was whether Biden answered the question his party has been claiming was their plan of "packing the courts." Biden never answered the question. Instead, he responded by saying, "Whatever position I take on that, that’ll become the issue. The issue is the American people should speak. You should go out and vote. You’re voting now. Vote and let your Senators know strongly how you feel." When pressed on the issue Biden finally responded that he was not going to answer the question.
When Trump kept pressing Biden with respect to "packing the court" Wallace abruptly ended the segment after realizing Biden was getting irritated with his comment, "This is so unpresidential." Then following up with "keep yapping man."
Questions regarding Covid-19 that has shut down the economy. Biden remarked his administration would have acted faster and that Trump downplayed the virus. However, this statement is in direct conflict with how the Trump administration acted.
When there were only 5 cases of COVID in the United States, Secretary Azar offered to send in health officials to China and was refused. According to the CDC website, "January 31, the president of the United States signed a “Proclamation on Suspension of Entry as Immigrants and Nonimmigrants of Persons who Pose a Risk of Transmitting 2019 Novel Coronavirus,” which limits entry into the United States of persons who traveled to mainland China to U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents and their families." This response prompted many people to claim the president was a racist. And politicians were rallying behind the Chinese community to stop the president from enacting his travel ban.
Biden implied during the debate he would close the country down again to gain control of COVID. "You can't fix the economy until you fix the COVID crisis," Biden concluded, lambasting the president for wanting to lift coronavirus restrictions in order to restart the economy before the outbreak has been dealt with.
On the issue of race relations, Biden brought up Charlottesville, "Close your eyes, remember what those people look like coming out of the fields, carrying torches, their veins bulging, just spewing anti-Semitic bile and accompanied by the Ku Klux Klan. A young woman got killed and they asked the president what he thought. He said, “There were very fine people on both sides.” No president’s ever said anything like that." Fact-checking this comment, here is the exact quote from the President.
“Excuse me, they didn’t put themselves down as neo-Nazis, and you had some very bad people in that group. But you also had people that were very fine people on both sides. You had people in that group – excuse me, excuse me, I saw the same pictures you did. You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of, to them, a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name.”
“I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and white nationalists because they should be condemned totally.”
Biden who has had no shortage of gaffe commentary regarding people of color recently stated, "Unlike the African American community, with notable exceptions, the Latino community is an incredibly diverse community with incredibly different attitudes about different things.”
He told Charlamagne Tha God on the Breakfast show, "Well, I’ll tell you what, if you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump, then you ain't black," prompting outrage from the African American community.
Here are a few more comments that many consider being racist in nature.
“You got the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.” (That’s in reference to President Obama.)
“In Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian-Americans moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent.”
When Trump attempted to explain why he was ending government-supported Critical Race Theory, Biden interjected with "He's the racist."
On the issue of the violence affecting Seattle and Portland, Biden exclaimed that it was Trump's campaign manager who said, "Riots and chaos and violence help his cause.” That’s what this is all about." Fact-checkers were quick to point out, "Kellyanne Conway Did Not ‘Hope for More Violence."
Biden was quick to explain that ANTIFA was not an organization and that it was merely an idea, not an organization. However, when Trump was asked to condemn white supremacy, he did so on multiple occasions contrary to what the pundits in the mainstream media have claimed.
Issues about Biden's son Hunter came up, where Biden staunchly defended his son's escapades in Ukraine and China. Even implying the Trump family had corrupt business dealings with foreign countries, to which, President Trump and Biden had a good deal of cross-talk finally being interrupted by the moderator with, "Well, as the moderator, sir, I’m going to make a judgment call here."
The most contentious issue of the night was The Green New Deal. When asked if he supported it, he came out with "No, I don’t support the Green New Deal.:
The campaign ad speaks for itself. Clearly, either Biden was lying or just confused by the line of questioning.
While the debate was mostly cross-talk between two opposite opinions regarding how the country should be run, the debate according to most would not sway voters from either party.