On Tuesday, Sept. 29, Americans tuned into the first presidential debate of the 2020 race. The candidates took the stage in Ohio with moderator Chris Wallace. The debate ended up being more of a shouting match despite Wallace’s effort to let either candidate have their two minutes of speaking time. Although the debate was nothing short of a debacle, some important topics were brought up throughout the debate. From violent crimes in America, to Covid-19, and the economy this debate covered a plethora of hot topics.
Throughout the campaign to be the next president, each candidate is presented the opportunity to get on stage in front of the American people and discuss important topics with the other candidate. In theory, this is a great idea. After last night’s performance however, the debate left many Americans frustrated. CBS News did a survey after the debate concluded which stated that 69% of the watchers felt more annoyed than entertained. On top of that, 83% of the viewers agreed that the overall tone of the debate was negative (CBS News). Even though it was arguably the worst presidential debate to occur to date, it is important to know what was said and whether or not the statements made were true.
From the beginning it was agreed upon from both sides that either candidate would have two minutes of uninterrupted speaking. Wallace proposed the questions for six different segments that were designed to be roughly fifteen minutes.
Biden made the remark over violent crimes in America, “When we were in office there were 15% less violence in America than there is today”. According to factcheck.org, this statement was somewhat true, violent crimes declined 15.7% per 100,00 people. But, Biden’s claim about the violence today was wrong. Last year the rate for crime was 5.1% less than in 2016.
Covid-19 was at the forefront of the majority of the conversation amongst the candidates. Biden made the claim that if Trump’s “own head of the CDC said … if everybody wore masks and social distanced between now and January, we’d probably save up to 100,000 lives”. This statement was refuted by factcheck.org, saying that this merely a project from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, not the head of CDC Dr. Robert Redfield. Biden then continued to advocate for the use of masks and that it is our best line of defense. Another subtopic involving the coronavirus was shutting down the country. President Trump mentioned that Biden opposed travel restrictions that were set in place on China at the end of January. This was done in an effort to stop the spread of Covid-19. This statement showed to be false by Biden’s campaign on Apr. 3rd. Biden in fact endorsed these travel restrictions put on by Trump because it was guided by medical experts.
Finally, another big topic discussed amongst the candidates was the economy. One of the things that Trump was confident in his claims were that his team created the best economy. This statement would turn out to be false. The nation’s economic growth has matched Trump’s best year of 3% growth 17 total times (factcheck.org). Trump also made claims that Biden wants to shut down the country, meaning shutting down the economy as well. This statement can not be proven true or false because there is no way of knowing what Biden would do. But Biden did state he consider shutting down the economy if it was deemed necessary by expert scientists.
Although the candidates rarely allowed the other individual to speak their two minutes uninterrupted, there were some important subjects covered. It is vital for voters to pay attention to these debates to see the two candidates’ side by side and discussing the issues they may face once elected. Not only is viewing these debates key, but also fact checking the statements made to ensure they know if they are receiving the truth.
Sources:
FactCheck.org. “FactChecking the First Trump-Biden Debate.” FactCheck.org, 30 Sept. 2020, www.factcheck.org/2020/09/factchecking-the-first-trump-biden-debate/.
CBS News. “Debate-Watchers Say Biden Won First Debate, but Most Felt ‘Annoyed’ – CBS News Poll.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 30 Sept. 2020, www.cbsnews.com/news/who-won-debate-first-presidential-biden-trump/.
Story Record:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eQ-dREy9xIw0AFpyhZJRKGc1MQxNCkenajgqsWi7qJ4/edit?usp=sharing
Instead of: “On Tuesday, Sept. 29, Americans tuned into the first presidential debate of the 2020 race. The candidates took the stage in Ohio with moderator Chris Wallace. The debate ended up being more of a shouting match despite Wallace’s effort to let either candidate have their two minutes of speaking time. Although the debate was nothing short of a debacle, some important topics were brought up throughout the debate. From violent crimes in America, to Covid-19, and the economy this debate covered a plethora of hot topics.”
What about: “The first presidential debate covered a plethora of hot topics but ended up being a shouting match between two candidates and a moderator.” The other information can be added in later paragraphs.
However, to keep this timely, it may be better to adjust it to, “Because the first presidential debate devolved into a shouting match, there are a number of changes afoot for the second debate.” If you lede with that, I would suggest getting the upcoming debate plans out first and then moving on to a review of the previous debate.