The new system of muting microphones during different sections of the debate in Nashville on Thursday proved to be a better system, making the speakers President Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Joe Biden more cohesive and getting their arguments across to viewers.
Photo Credit: New York Times
The first few minutes of the presidential debates are usually the most crucial, since that is when most people are tuned in, and having each candidate able to present themselves calmly and clearly benefited America more than the first debate.
The moderator, Kristen Welker, seemed to learn from the first presidential debate how to handle the two candidates and untangled the chaos into a more comprehensive event this time. Enforcing the system of 30 second to 10 second responses helped the debate move smoothly, even if she had to interject in a couple times and say, “we’re running out of time.”
Donald Trump behaved himself, for the most part, this time around, letting Biden have some of his time uninterrupted. Overall, making him oddly more likable and smarter seeming than before.
Biden, on the topic of the virus, hit the president hard, especially in the beginning of the debate after Welker updated the audience on how many individuals have died since the last debate saying “220,000 deaths.” Biden said, “ If you hear nothing else I say tonight, hear this. Anyone who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the United States.”
This was the beginning of many topics that would cause both candidates to clash ideas. Making the public see now more than before have different each candidate wants America to be. Continuing talking about health both sparred on health care. Biden introduced a never before health care plan called Bidencare, which is to expand on Obamacare and go into effect if Trump tries to repeal it.
Trump called this plan “socialized medicine” and claimed people would lose their private health care, although Biden stated they would not. He went on to say, “Bernie Sanders wants it. The Democrats want it. You’re going to have socialized medicine.” Biden responded “He’s very confused, he thinks he’s running against somebody else. I beat all those other people because I disagreed with them.”
Even though the public finally got the messages from both candidates, it’s unclear if the 90 minute debate really changed anyone’s opinion, especially when 50 million people have voted already.
