2020 Presidential Election: A Recap

1st Presidential Debate

On September 29th, President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden faced off in the first presidential debate of the 2020 election, moderated by Chris Wallace, a journalist and Fox News anchor. Less a “debate” and more a storm of interruptions and personal attacks, this train wreck of an event proved very difficult to watch. I will attempt to discuss the “highlights” of this debate, but overall, policy discussions took a backseat.

In the first segment, Chris Wallace asked whether or not the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat on the Supreme Court should be filled before or after the election has taken place. Trump answered first, advocating for his nominee, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, to fill the seat as soon as possible, and, in his response, Biden voiced his support for waiting until after the election. While Biden was delivering his reply, Trump interrupted him for the first time. This initiated the first verbal sparring match of many to come between the two, with Chris Wallace pleading with Trump to let Biden finish. Biden finally snapped minutes into the ordeal and delivered one of his most famous lines of the night: “Would you shut up, man?”

One of the most heated topics of discussion was the Trump administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Biden blasted Trump for his response to COVID-19, or, in his view, lack thereof, arguing that “[Trump] still doesn’t have a plan.” Trump, interrupting him all the while, continued to insist that he handled it effectively and successfully. After much back and forth over this, the segment ended with petty personal attacks from both candidates, most notably Biden’s mockery of Trump’s bleach comment from a few months ago and Trump’s claim that Biden doesn’t hold large rallies because he can’t “get the crowds.”

They also covered the topic of civil unrest in relation to systemic racism. Biden began by denouncing Trump’s reaction to protests against racial injustice over the past few months and condemning Trump’s frequent use of what he believes to be dogwhistles to promote hatred and division. Trump followed up by attacking Biden for his alleged lack of support from law enforcement officials. “You can’t even say the word ‘law enforcement,’ because if you say those words, you’re going to lose all of your radical left supporters,” Trump said. The portion of this segment that gained the most attention, however, was when Trump refused to explicitly condemn white supremacists when asked to do so. “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by,” he said in reference to one of the most well-known organizations of white supremacists.

Towards the end of debate, the candidates were asked whether or not they think the election will be fair. Even though there is no evidence supporting it, Trump reiterated his claim that mail-in voting will lead to unprecedented voter fraud. Biden responded with the reassurance that there is “no chance at all that mail-in ballots are a source of manipulation or cheating.”

As CNN’s Jake Tapper so eloquently put it, this debate was “a hot mess inside a dumpster fire inside a train wreck.”

2nd Presidential Debate

In the second and final debate, which was held on October 22, each candidate was given two minutes to deliver his initial response to a question, during which time the other candidate’s mic was muted. After each had his two minutes uninterrupted, it was an open discussion.

The goal of this was to reduce interruptions, and it seemed to work well. Under the constant threat of being muted, both candidates allowed each other to speak. Most of the same topics were discussed and on the whole, this proved to be a much better representation of the two candidates up for election.

Final Presidential Election Results

Joe Biden surpassed 270 electoral votes on November 7th, making him the winner of the 2020 presidential election. However, President Trump has not yet conceded, and many of his supporters and government allies have joined him in refusing to recognize President-elect Biden’s victory, peddling thus far unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud. Trump continues to challenge election results in courts nationwide, but this is unlikely to yield any meaningful results. Regardless, Biden and his team have already begun the presidential transition process. “We’re going to go on in a consistent manner putting together our White House… and nothing’s going to stop that,” he said on Tuesday.

About Post Author

Emma Lynch (’21)

elynch21@mlschools.org

Happy

0 0 %

Sad

0 0 %

Excited

0 0 %

Sleepy

0 0 %

Angry

0 0 %

Surprise

0 0 %