Supreme Court
On the topic of the Supreme Court, in light of the recent death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Trump said that the constitution is “clear” about his “responsibility” to consider a nomination to replace Ginsburg. He said that he is within his rights to appoint Amy Coney Barrett, as he won the 2016 election, which gave him control over both the White House and the Senate.
Joe Biden, on the other hand, called Trump’s prospective appointment of Barrett an “abuse of power”, and said that Trump must hold off on naming and appointee until after the election, regardless of who wins. He said that the “American people have a right to have a say in who the Supreme Court nominee is”.
Biden also expressed his concern at Americans being stripped of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, which protects 20 million people, as Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court believes the ACA is not constitutional. He also said that he is worried that Roe v Wade, which protects women’s right to abortion, could be under threat if Barrett is appointed.
Coronavirus
Biden took aim at Trump’s coronavirus response, saying that, while the US forms just 4% of the population, it accounts for 20% of the deaths from the virus. Trump retorted that the virus is “China’s fault” and that the US’ contribution to the world’s death toll from the virus is misleading as “you don’t know how many people died in” China, Russia, and India.
Despite evidence suggesting otherwise, Trump claimed that the US is on the path to recovery, as “far fewer people are dying”. Nevertheless, he was not exactly clear about his commitment to adhering to measures to ensure adequate disease control For instance, when asked about the efficacy of masks, which he has previously questioned, Trump said that he only wears a mask “when needed”, and said that masks shouldn’t be required if there is proper social distancing and testing in place. Many of his rallies have hosted tens of thousands of supporters with little to no social distancing and many of them not wearing a mask.
Biden, for his part, has held much smaller rallies and said that he would respect and value the opinions of scientists to inform his decision-making. In the recent past, Trump has contradicted the statements made by the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert Redfield, who said it would likely be summer 2021 before a vaccine is made publicly available. Trump has instead baselessly claimed that the vaccine will be publicly available much sooner, and during the debate said that “we’re going to deliver it right away”.
Biden also expressed his reluctance to re-open the economy and schools unless proper sanitation and personal protective equipment (PPE) are both provided and guaranteed. At the same time, he also said that Trump responsible for much of the damage wrought by the virus, as the President knew about the seriousness of the virus back in February yet said that the US owes Chinese President Xi Jinping a “debt of gratitude” for his transparency. Biden accused Trump of failing to push for American investigators to be allowed into Wuhan to surmise the severity of the threat during the early days of the outbreak.
Economy
On the topic of the economy, Trump said that the US is in a V-shaped recovery and that the downturn it is currently facing is due to the “China flu”. Nevertheless, he patted himself on the back for putting 10.4 million back to work over the past 4 months, and warned that Biden would undo this hard work and “destroy this country” by “closing down the whole country”. As he did during the entire debate, Trump also ran off on a tangent to randomly proclaim: “I’m the one that brought back football.”
On the other hand, Biden said the US economy is undergoing a K-shaped recovery, wherein the millionaires and billionaires that Trump is working for are doing better than ever but working-class Americans are not. He said that Trump is the “first President in American history to have fewer jobs than when he entered office”.
On the topic of reopening the economy, both candidates predictably disagreed, with Trump saying that he wishes to reopen all parts of the economy as soon as possible, while Biden said that it doesn’t make sense to reopen when over half of the states have an increasing number of cases. Biden remarked, “You can’t fix the economy until you fix the Covid crisis.”
Taxes
It recently emerged that President Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017, despite being a billionaire. When asked about these reports, Trump said that he, in fact, pays “millions of dollars of income tax”. Biden lamented that Trump “pays less taxes than a schoolteacher”
Away from the topic of personal finances, Trump professed that he is committed to lowering taxes and further deregulation to empower businesses to create growth and jobs. Conversely, Biden said that he will “eliminate the Trump tax cuts” and proposed an increase of $4 trillion in corporate taxes by increasing the rate from 21% to 28%, claiming that this will create $1 trillion in economic growth and over 7 million jobs. He also said that he would work to reduce the country’s trade deficit with China, which he said Trump has increased during his term in office.
Race
Amid protests against systemic racism and police brutality, many of which have descended into chaos and violence, Trump did little to hint that he is working to eliminate, address, or even acknowledge systemic racism. Instead, he boldly repeated what he has said on Twitter so many times before, saying, “We believe in law and order.” He said that the ‘people’, too, “demand law and order” but that many of the country’s biggest cities rest in the hands of the “radical left”.
Trump claimed that he has done more for Black Americans than anyone, with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln. However, he recently ended racial sensitivity training for federal employees and said that federal grants would be withdrawn to those who offer such training, calling such programs “racist”. He said that America must “go back to the core values of this country” and fight back against the idea that “our country is a horrible place, a racist place”.
In addition, while he initially said that he is “willing to condemn white nationalist groups”, he quickly changed the topic when he was asked to clearly state that he does. Instead, he deflected to “Antifa” and the “radical left”.
Biden decried Trump’s response to the Charlottesville protests three years ago, when the President said that there were “very fine people on both sides”, despite the fact that peaceful anti-racism protestors were confronted by violent white nationalists, including members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).
The former VP also acknowledged that there is an unequal system of justice for Black Americans in education, work, and law enforcement. Nevertheless, he was less enthusiastic on the topic of condemning systemic racism within the police force, saying that the “vast majority” of officers are “good”, and that their reputation is tarnished by a few “bad apples” who need to be “held accountable”.
Law and Order
Trump attributed recent spikes in violence that have emerged from anti-racism protests to Democrat-led states and cities, despite evidence suggesting that there are upticks in violence in both blue and red states.
As stated above, Biden refused to characterize the police force in its entirety as a racist system. Nevertheless, he did acknowledge that there is a need for a “reimagination” of policing which incorporates some of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement’s call for community control of policing.
He stopped short of fully endorsing the BLM position, however, and said that he is “totally opposed to defunding local police” and said that the police in fact needs “more funding”, wherein frontline officers are accompanied by trained professionals such as social workers and psychologists to reduce the ‘need’ for armed officers to use force.
On the topic of riots and looting in several American cities, Biden unreservedly said that “violence should be prosecuted”, but added that “riots and chaos help [Trump’s] cause” as the president “doesn’t want to calm things down” but instead “pours gasoline on the fire”.
Climate Change
Trump said that he pulled the US out from the Paris climate accords and removed multiple Obama-era environmental regulations (such as those on emissions from power plants) as they were a “disaster” from the standpoint of American businesses.
He admitted that humans contribute to climate change and forest fires “to an extent” but that the vast majority of the current climatic events, such as the fires in California, can be put down to ‘mismanagement’ rather than human-induced climate change.
Biden, on the other hand, said that he would work towards ending the use of fossil fuels and getting the country to net-zero energy emissions by 2035 and said that he would bring an end to coal and oil-fired plants in the country. He also promised that he would rejoin the Paris accords as soon as he enters office as it is “all falling apart” without the US’ signature, pointing to massive deforestation and fire-setting in the Amazon Rainforest under Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
On the domestic front, he said he plans to offer tax incentives to ‘weatherize’ 2 million homes and 4 million buildings over the next four years, which he said will create millions of jobs. Biden clarified that he does not back the “Green New Deal”, which was put forward by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders, among others.
Election Integrity
In recent weeks, Trump has threatened to defund and disempower the US Postal Service (USPS) as part of his baseless allegations that mail-in ballots will lead to a fraudulent election. He repeated these claims during the debate, when he said that “unsolicited ballots” will lead to “fraud like you’ve never seen”.
He urged his supporters and all Americans to go to the polls and “watch very carefully” for “bad things”, hinting that the election may be rigged in favor of the Democrats. Trump was also non-committal when asked whether he would respect the results if Biden were to win and agree to a peaceful transfer of power, saying, “I hope it’s going to be a fair election. But, if I see tens of thousands of ballots being manipulated, I can’t go along with that.”
Biden, as he and others have done on multiple occasions already, said that there is “no evidence” that mail-in ballots are susceptible to ‘rigging’ or ‘cheating’. He said that people should be allowed to vote as they wish to, and said that if they are to vote in person, then proper social distancing measures should be put in place.
FULL RECAP: First US Presidential Debate (September 29, 2020)
Here is a summary of the major talking points from the first presidential debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
September 30, 2020
IMAGE SOURCE: OLIVIER DOULIERY / APUS President Donald Trump (L) and Democratic nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden