Last night, the “third” and final 2020 Presidential Debate took place in Nashville, TN. The event was moderated by NBC White House correspondent Kristen Welker. As we all most likely know by now, the second debate did not officially occur because of President Trump’s positive COVID-19 test results.
It was announced this week that, for this debate, the candidates’ microphones would be muted at certain points. Is this really effective? Personally, I wasn’t sure if it was. It is effective for the audience to hear one person at a time, however, the candidates seemed to be a lot less disruptive than they were during the first debate. It was clear that they listened to their staff and the people who believed it was hard to understand what was going on during the first debate, and it worked out well for both of them.
I don’t think this debate did much for either candidate.
President Trump said that there would be a vaccine for COVID-19 within the next few weeks, though many doctors and scientists think that it will be well into 2021 until there is any real change in the pandemic. He also made an attack on Dr. Anthony Fauci, implying that he didn’t actually know what was going on for a long time at the beginning of the COVID spread in the United States. He also stated that after speaking to accountants, he will be releasing his tax returns to prove that he paid more than the rumored $750. There were mentions of his Chinese bank accounts and Wall Street, with Trump explaining that he never received any money from the Financial District.
The President also claimed that he “[was] the least racist person in the room” during the debate, and believes that he has been the best President for the black community, “possibly with the exception of Lincoln”. This made me do the fastest double-take I have ever done in my life. President Lincoln, the man who created the Emancipation Proclamation and ended slavery in the U.S., being compared to a man who would not condemn white supremacy during the first debate and praised right-wing terrorist organizations in the same country. Something seems off here.
Former VP Joe Biden was mediocre. He got some good blows in towards the President, but there was some pretty serious rebounds when it came to issues such as immigration (how the Obama administration was not successful when it came to helping immigrants) and race (the 1994 crime bill). However, he maintained the skills that I praised him for in the last debate, such as eye contact and finding ways to reach out and relate to the American people. Also, his reactions to things Trump said were pretty funny so I’ll give him credit there.
There was mention on how he planned to improve Obamacare and racial tensions in the country within his first 100 days in office. Something that really stuck out to me was fracking. Fracking, boiled down, is a way to get oil and gas by using high pressure on bedrock. This is very damaging to wildlife, and leads to water pollution. Both candidates are for fracking, but on different levels. This stood out to me because Joe Biden was one of the only members of the Democratic party who believed that the country should continue to use this as a way to have fuel until there is another, environmentally safe method. Trump made it very clear that Biden seemed to be very back and forth on his opinion of fracking in order to get the democratic nominee.
Like I said, I don’t think anyone gained or lost points during this debate. It looked like what a presidential debate should be, and I do appreciate that. This debate was not at all as messy as the previous one, and I think that it was a combined effort from both candidates. With the election day now 11 days away, make sure to vote if you can and spread the work to others!