We are close to officially electing the President and The United States of America should be prepared for all possible outcomes. The second presidential debate, originally planned for the 15th of October had to be delayed since Donald Trump had the COVID-19 virus and he canceled the debate because he did not want it to be online.
Therefore, two weeks prior to the date of the elections, the second presidential debate took place at Belmont University, Tennessee. This time, with more preparation, and with the focus and objective to have a clear, straightforward debate. However, it was not as significant as the first event: since around 45 million Americans had already voted, it seemed that the possibility for this debate to help voters decide was slim.
The intention in the beginning was clear: handle a debate with more precaution in order to discuss the effective, essential information and try to avoid distractions from either Democratic candidate Joe Biden or Republican candidate Donald Trump. In fact, in order to accomplish this objective, the moderator changed, and had the power to mute the microphones just in case the candidates didn’t respect timing and discussion, such as in the first debate. After a series of extra measures, the central objective was accomplished better than last time. The moderator handled a good and continuous discussion with both candidates and the interventions were more controlled, leaving a better impression on the American society.
However, there’s no debate without controversy, and it is almost impossible to avoid tension between these two candidates. Once again, Trump and Biden focused some part of the discussion on personal issues, such as tax payment and or their experience in their latest public positions. Nevertheless, the important part of the discussion was centered in some of the most urgent, yet recent events of Trump’s administration and of 2020. For example, many of the statements and one of the key points of the debate was the follow up on the COVID-19 crisis and how Trump handled it.
It is important to note that this debate should not have been devoted only to these topics, the aim was to inform more on new things. This second presidential debate was more objectively looking forward foreign policy, in which Donald Trump had a more empirical advantage over Biden because of his recent presidential experience. Nevertheless, and inevitably, the thread of the discussion became more personal and negative about Trump’s administration. The race topic was again in the spotlight, discrepancy automatically came on Trump’s side, ideas started to disconnect and criticism over the achievements for the Black community were put in doubt. In fact, Trump claimed to be the least racist person in the room, assuming he was the president who did more for those communities in American history.
After a series of commentaries, Biden constantly repeated his core values, which are family and the security of all people, implying that those belonging to the communities mentioned before would be better off with him. This was of course another point of discrepancy on Trump’s side. He constantly attacked the value of the family Biden was trying to represent in his political speech. We don’t know at the moment which of the policies proposed, and which speech will win. However, what we know for sure is that the election decision is coming fast and the United States will soon find out who will be their next president.
Photo: Shruti Mathur/The Quint
