Highlights of The Final Presidential Debate

By Yara Belhaj

​Presidential debates in the United States date back to the seven debates that took place between then senator Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas. These debates became known as the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and set the foundation for modern day presidential debates. They were meant to provide civil and constructive dialogue that gave a solid idea of what voters should expect in the future with the winning candidate.
 
Now, debates are less about constructive dialogue and more about “soundbites” and “pithy retorts”, both characterized by insults, opinions, lies and one-liners.
 
Since the first debate of this election, many criticized and provided numerous suggestions to manage interruptions and overtime of each candidate’s response. Among those suggestions was a mute button to ensure that each candidate has only 2 minutes to answer a question uninterrupted. Fortunately for this second debate, they implemented just that.
 
The threat of being muted worked tremendously compared to the first debate, and each candidate was forced to respect each other’s response time. That, however, did not stop President Donald Trump from attempting to get a few punches in after the completion of each response and the start of each question. Strategically, both candidates opened a new can of worms right before they were cut off, which then forced Kristen Welker’s hand as moderator to give a chance for a 10-30 second rebuttal.
 
Although this last debate was much more civil than the first, it was still not a great debate, despite the job well done by moderator Welker. Their responses were filled with false statements, accusations, and minor insults.
 
Welker strongly requested for both candidates to be very specific with their answers, but they failed miserably almost every time. It did however work on Joe Biden at times, which resulted in solid points. These points clarified Biden’s plans to help the country recover from the pandemic by providing resources for businesses and schools to open safely and offer rapid testing for the country.
 
In terms of their views regarding the country’s status, they seem to be living in different countries. Trump lives in a country where the United States has the cleanest air and cleanest water, booming economy, and where the young can catch the coronavirus with no consequences. When really the U.S. ranks 10th in air quality and 29th in water quality. In fact, there is still much work to do when it comes to the environment, especially since Trump ceased participation in the Paris Agreement and repealed Obama’s Clean Power Plan. The economy is still recovering from the biggest recession since World War II and still not doing as well as the pre-pandemic times. As far as cases go, Welker said it best when responding to Trump’s strong suggestion to open schools, “Boston became the latest city to move its’ public school system entirely online after a coronavirus spike.”
 
With Trump, there seems to be no plan for the future, no replacement for Obama Care, no resources for reopening safely, negligence of climate change action to save big corporations some money, and no concern whatsoever for foreign interference with elections. However, he was able to swat a few at Biden in regard to the crime bills he endorsed between 1980 and 1990 that put thousands of young black men in prison for minor drug possession charges. Biden’s contributions to these bills might not necessarily be forgivable despite his acknowledgement of it being a “mistake” when questioned by Welker.
 
Voters need to consider what they value most, a corrupt past or a corrupt present. There is no denying that the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus was not the best. The administration failed over 200,000 dead Americans. In honor of the late John Lewis who dedicated his life fighting for voting and civil rights, I’ll leave you with his message, “the vote is precious. It is almost sacred. It’s the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democratic society and we’ve got to use it.”