Trump vs. Biden. Comments on the First Presidential Debate (I)

 

photo edited by Laura Lai

by Laura Lai/Comment

The first of the Presidential debates series took place on September 30^th, 2020. It brought in front of the American voters the current U.S. President Donald J. Trump, running for a second mandate, and the Democrats nominee, former U.S. Vice-President, Joe Biden. [1] The candidates were invited to answer a series of questions prepared by moderator Chris Wallace on American policies that are of great interest for the American voters.

Not everybody watching this debate is American citizen or an eligible voter in the up-coming Presidential elections. And I am one of those people. The general interest of those non-eligible to vote is for the American economy to boom and to avoid any crisis, so that the all the other world’s economies not to get in a recession in this inter-connected economic world. The reasons why a non-eligible voter would watch the American Presidential debate are different, but, generally, they are a treat for any political scientist. Besides, I love ideas and I love debates.

Chris Wallace – who btw accomplished his moderator task fantastically well and with lots of professionalism without raising his voice not even when he had to talk over the candidates talking over each other – was disappointed by the outcome of this debate. He said afterword: ‘I baked this beautiful, delicious cake and then frankly the President put his foot in it.’ [2]

As a political scientist who loves ideas and loves debates but without any right to vote in the American elections, I want to make some objective comments about the language of both candidates. Obviously, both candidates used English language! J

            The way Chris Wallace was disappointed by the President, I was disappointed by Joe Biden’s discourse. Many of his answers include a judgment of Trump: ‘irresponsible’, ‘liar’, ‘billionaire’, ‘clown’, ‘he has no plan’, ‘he doesn’t know how to do that’, etc. Arguments to suggest that the opponent is ‘irresponsible’, ‘liar’, etc. would have been better, as the voters can understand what lack of qualities is referred to through arguments. Trump seemed, to me, dragged into this and spontaneously reminding that Biden was not the first in his class, ‘I think I’m debating you [the moderator] not him’, ‘good luck! [with answering a question] – so, he did not call him ‘stupid’, but put the argument first and left the voter understand what he implies – and he also referred to some corruption allegations implying the son of Joe Biden. Generally, he mainly referred to achievements so far (alone or in comparison to the Obama Administration in which Joe Biden was Vice-President).

            Furthermore, Donald Trump, at his turn, was arrogant with Joe Biden through words: ‘you’re second’, ‘for 47 years [of Biden’s political career] you didn’t do nothing’, but I am not sure how to interpret the frequent laughter of Joe Biden to Trump’s arguments either, if not as arrogance-related. Joe Biden developed at length on the answer of health – as in the Administration he served, there was an intensive work and debate on ‘Obama Care’ – and on environment, that the Democrats have at heart more than the Republicans proved to so far. The point is that despite the fact that Joe Biden developed at length these issues frequent in his speeches as politician, he seems to pull himself together and retake his answer when interrupted with some difficulty. In my opinion, Donald Trump did not come to this debate to create chaos as it was afterword argued, or to ‘put his foot in a beautifully baked cake’. My interpretation of the frequent interruptions is that the current President is quick-minded, used to take decisions quickly, eventually risk everything or to win everything – and this is about his probably 47 years in business. A career politician instead is a field in which things are discussed over and over, decisions are changed over and over, time is lost over and over … on public money.

            Let us take the recent example of the U.S. Southern Border. It took months that in terms of sufferance feel like ages, centuries even, since the moment the U.S. President Donald Trump declared a national emergency situation and required the Congress for a $4 billion financial support in humanitarian aid, to the moment the Democrats approved it. During this pandemics, I read that the President wanted to provide ‘right-away’ the American people with some financial support for housing during this pandemic, but the Democrat politicians made things difficult.