The Presidential Debate, which took place on Sept. 10, was a rather unprecedented one. It involved the replacement candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, and Former President Donald Trump. Throughout the debate, it became increasingly obvious what a mismatched pair of candidates I was watching. Donald Trump, the 78-year-old Republican candidate, handled himself in his usual manner: childish, rude and totally incomprehensible.
Referencing past debates (specifically, from 2016) is a good way to compare speech and general clarity of the candidates. There is a stark difference. While I personally disagree with almost everything Trump said in 2016, I could understand all of what he was saying, and there was a clear message. Today, by comparison, it’s not totally clear what he is actually talking about. He did not stay on topic at any time during the debate. Trump began talking about immigration and border issues when he was asked about the economy. He made an out-of-left-field comment about Haitian residents eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. This claim turned out to be false. He spouted a lie that doctors are performing post-birth abortions on newborn babies. He was fact checked by one of the two moderators, Lindsey Davis, who said, “There is no state where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born.” This has led to many claiming the debate was a “three against one” and that it was unfair. This is a clear example of fact-checking a truly disturbing and unsubstantiated claim.
Trump also talked about establishing further tariffs on foreign goods. He does not seem to understand the ultimate outcome of a tariff. While it does raise money, it simply increases the cost of imported items on consumers. A tariff on electric vehicles coming from China, for example, would increase the cost on China to import to the US, thereby hiking the price. Tariffs are not something that the American people generally want to vote for. I suppose they don’t teach these things in the Wharton School of Finance. He also often resorted to low-grade insults.
On several occasions he called her a “radical, left-wing liberal” and called her father a “marxist.” These supposed insults are designed to use as many buzzwords as possible to prey on the fears of the American people. Trump did the same thing when talking about the border. He refers to all immigrants as criminals who come from “prisons and mental institutions” to steal jobs and murder people. This is just a scare tactic designed to sow division among the people and to alienate lawful and unlawful immigrants alike. I should also mention that most “illegal immigrants” are not hopping the border but rather overstaying visas.
Kamala Harris, on the other hand, carried herself with a degree of professionalism and clarity far removed from her Republican counterpart. She pledged to support small businesses, correctly identifying them as the backbone of a healthy capitalist society. She pledged to reaffirm many women’s reproductive and health rights which have been stripped by the Supreme Court in recent years. Most of all, she pledged to fight for the American citizens instead of billionaires and corporations. She pledged to bring respect back to the Office of the President and prevent further embarrassment to the US as its most recognizable and important public figure. In the most recent debate, Harris did not just win, she completely dominated her opponent.
