SCREENSHOT TAKEN BY ROBERT BENAVIDEZ DURING TUESDAY’S LIVESTREAM OF THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE VIA C-SPAN
Fernanda Figueroa| THE RIDER
The first presidential debate between President Donald J. Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden descended into chaos Tuesday night as the president continuously interrupted Biden.
From the start, President Trump interrupted Biden through the majority of his responses, causing the vice president to continuously lose his train of thought. Fifteen minutes into the debate, as Biden encouraged citizens to vote, Trump’s retorts got the best of the vice president, leading Biden to say, “Will you shut up, man.”
Both candidates showed a different style of debating. Biden resorted to a conventional method, speaking directly to the camera in order to try and get his message across. Trump used the same tactics he used during the 2016 election, which included personal attacks and constant interruptions.
“Mr. President, your campaign agreed that both sides would get two-minute answers. Uninterrupted,” said Chris Wallace, anchor of Fox News Sunday and the debate moderator. “Why don’t you observe what your campaign agreed to as a ground rule.”
The debate, which was held in Cleveland, was divided into six segments to discuss topics such as the Supreme Court, COVID-19, the economy, race and violence, and the integrity of the election, all chosen by Wallace.
Asked about the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, Trump praised Barrett and said it was the Republicans’ right to nominate her, claiming that Democrats would do the same.
“We won the election and therefore we have the right to choose her,” Trump said. “[She’s] a phenomenal nominee, respected by all, top academic, good in every way, so I think she’s going to be fantastic.”
Biden, while he has no problem with the qualification of Barrett, said the issue is since voting has already started citizens will not be able to properly express their view regarding the nominee.
“The American people have a right to say who the Supreme Court nominee is,” Biden said. “That say occurs when they vote for United States senators, and they are not going to get that chance now because we are in the middle of an election, already. The thing that should happen is we should wait and see what the outcome of the election is because that is the only way the American people get to express their views.”
When it came to COVID-19, Biden did not hold back, blaming the 200,000 deaths in the United States on the lack of response by the president, telling Trump to “get out of the sand trap and your golf course” to help save lives.
“When [Trump] was presented with the numbers he said, ‘It is what it is.’ Well it is what it is because of who you are,” Biden said. “The president has no plan. He hasn’t laid out anything.”
Trump retaliated, claiming millions would have died under Biden, that he did things Biden would never have done and that the “fake news” is distorting his record.
“If you looked at what we have done, I closed it,” Trump said. “We got the gowns, we got the masks, we made the ventilators. You wouldn’t have made ventilators, and now we’re weeks away from a vaccine.”
In regard to recent reports that Trump only paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017, Trump said he paid millions of dollars in taxes while Biden urged him to show the American people his tax returns. While Trump was disputing the tax code, Biden called him “the worst president America has ever had.”
Switching to talk about race and violence, Wallace asked Trump if he would condemn and ask white supremacists and militia groups to stand down. Trump replied, “Sure, I’m willing to do that, but I would say almost everything I see is from the left wing, not the right wing.”
Biden chimed in, asking him to, “Say it. Do it. Say it.”
“Proud Boys, stand back and stand by,” Trump said. “But I’ll tell you what, somebody has got to do something about Antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem. This is a left-wing problem.”
The vice presidential debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris Oct. 7 will be moderated by Susan Page of USA Today.
The next presidential debate will be Oct. 15 at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami and will be moderated by Steve Scully of C-SPAN Networks.
The final presidential debate will be Oct. 22 at Belmont University in Nashville and will be moderated by Kristen Welker of NBC News.
