On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump and former Vice-President Joe Biden faced off in Cleveland for an abysmal debate that has been universally criticized. The conduct of Mr. Trump—a former businessman seeking his second term—was closer to that of a Kindergarten student than the behavior that is generally expected of a sitting president. During the 90-minute television spectacle, Mr. Trump continually interrupted, mocked, and personally ridiculed Mr. Biden, at one-point suggesting the former Vice-President should not use the word “smart” because he graduated lowest or close to lowest in his college class.
“When you wrestle with pigs,” Dr. Alan Draper—Professor of American political development at St. Lawrence—began in an interview, “You can’t help but be covered with mud. That’s what happened with Joe Biden tonight. It was cringeworthy. It was a train wreck. It was nothing that anyone of us as Americans should be proud of.”
The reaction to Mr. Biden’s performance has been mixed. As likely anybody would, he struggled at times to convey his message through the President’s interruptions. “Will you shut up, man?” Mr. Biden said in a moment of particular frustration.
In a tense, chaotic exchange—moderator Chris Wallace spoke in unison with both candidates, as he unsuccessfully tried to corral Mr. Trump’s constant interruptions—the president suggested Mr. Biden’s son, Hunter, was thrown out of the military because of past drug problems. Perhaps shocked that even Mr. Trump would stoop to that level, Mr. Biden turned, pointed at his opponent, and had a particularly effective retort. “That is simply not true,” the Vice-President began, visibly angered. “My son… like a lot of people you know at home, had a drug problem. He’s overtaken it. He’s fixed it. He’s worked on it. And I’m proud of him.”
Even in rare instances when the personal insults stopped, Mr. Trump made consistently false or misleading statements about various issues Americans care about. From claiming that mail-in ballots are fraudulent, to misleading statements about the Affordable Care Act, to suggesting that the sheriff of Portland had endorsed him, the president often made claims that were either mostly, or completely unfounded.
Amongst the flurry of noise and false statements, perhaps the most unsettling part of the debate was when Mr. Trump failed to directly disavow, and even encouraged, a far-right militia group. The President of the United States said, “Proud Boys — stand back and stand by,” referring to their violent, vigilante-like efforts to quell recent race riots throughout the country.
In the midst of a global pandemic that has killed over 200,000 Americans, the barrage of lies and chaotic rhetoric feels particularly enraging to many Americans. William Jervey, class of 21’, expressed anger: “Yeah, I think it’s extremely frustrating and when they ask him about COVID, Trump says, ‘I brought football back!’ And I feel like Joe just kept saying statistics…We want our people to stop dying. We want to open up… so to just hear them arguing like that when people are dying was not fun.”
“It’s tough to sit at home and watch three guys yell at each other and [convey] so little information,” said Drew Raciopolaca, class of 23’. He added, “There’s no civility and honor in campaigning and it doesn’t look good.”
That lack of civility, and the type of hateful discourse that is often encouraged by President Trump’s rhetoric is what most concerns Dr. Draper. “Much more important than policy is character. Character is more revealing. Don’t worry about policy. We have no idea what the issues will be when they are actually in office,” he said, referring to the highest political office in this land. “Who knew,” Dr. Draper continued, “that Trump would have to deal with Covid-19? What we most want to see, as Americans, is that question of character… because that gives us some clues into how they will handle unforeseen events.”
In that regard, Tuesday night’s debate left Americans wanting for more.