President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden went head-to-head over a variety of topics at the first presidential debate Sept. 29. Watched by nearly 73 million viewers, the debate could have given undecided and independent voters a clue as to their preferred candidate. The Panther collected analyses from President of Chapman Republicans Justin Buckner and President of Chapman Democrats Yusuf Baqai to dissect how Trump and Biden’s positions in the debate could affect the outcome of the election.

Law and order

Trump focused more on supporting the police, Baqai said, while Biden highlighted the need for justice for victims of police brutality. In Baqai’s eyes, that gave Biden the stronger argument on the topic of police reform, especially since Trump attacked the Democratic candidate for wanting to abolish the police.

“Obviously, Biden wasn’t trying to do (that),” Baqai said. “Biden is trying to re-allocate sources to other things, like people who can better handle mental issues in crime scenes.”

Buckner, meanwhile, prefaced his views on Trump’s law and order arguments by saying the president could have presented his thoughts in a less aggressive way. However, Buckner asserted that Trump made a strong point in his argument that the left, not the right, was causing the majority of violence within cities.

“Biden just frankly ignoring that antifa exists and that they’ve been causing violence in cities is really scary, and he’s not owning up to that at all,” Buckner said. 

Racial tensions

Baqai pointed to the most hotly discussed topic of the debate – Trump seemingly glossing over a question by Fox News moderator Chris Wallace if he’d condemn white supremacy – as something that scored Biden points, calling it a “total misstep by Trump.” A clearer statement on the issue could have counteracted what some Democrats believed about Trump’s nonchalance toward racial issues, Baqai said.

Buckner said Trump could’ve made his stance clearer, but again referenced the point made by Trump about left-wing organizations causing the majority of violence in the streets.

“When he was asked to condemn white supremacy, which he had done in the past, (Trump) said, ‘Sure’ and to me, that’s a, ‘Yes.’ It’s not a, ‘No,’ it’s a, ‘Yeah, I’ll do that,’” Buckner said. “He definitely could’ve handled it better by just saying, ‘Yes, all white supremacy is bad.’ If he starts with that, he can go straight to antifa and talk about the very radical left and what they’re doing wrong.”

COVID-19

Buckner criticized Biden’s plan for combating COVID-19, saying it wouldn’t make sense economically to shut down the country again until the virus had been eradicated. The Chapman Republicans president also pointed to Trump’s travel ban in the early stages of the pandemic. He felt it gave the president a more convincing argument over Biden, as it was endorsed by Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Baqai, however, said Biden made good points within the debate that Trump needed to take more responsibility for the spread of the virus instead of pointing fingers. The Democratic nominee was more transparent than Trump with his plan for healthcare – something detailed thoroughly on Biden’s campaign website, while Trump’s simply provides bullet points, Baqai noted.

“Obviously, Trump didn’t have a healthcare plan and that was pretty apparent from the debate ... That’s something that’s going to be very impactful, because obviously during a pandemic, people need health insurance,” Baqai said.

Debate impressions

Baqai and Buckner – while disagreeing on most every other facet within the debate – agreed the discourse between the candidates was complete chaos. 

“To be honest, the debate was a (expletive) show that really didn’t benefit either side at the very end,” Buckner said. “After the first 10 minutes of the debate, it was just two old men yelling at each other. It definitely wasn’t a good look.”

The two agreed Trump didn’t present himself in the best way. Buckner thought Trump should have let Biden speak and then proceeded to break down the Democratic candidate’s arguments after the fact, rather than jumping in to constantly interrupt. Baqai said Trump’s aggressiveness rubbed him the wrong way, and added that Biden also cut off Wallace from finishing his questions.

In a virtual event Oct. 2 featuring a panel of Chapman professors titled “Key Issues Impacting the 2020 Election,” political science professor and presidency scholar Lori Cox Han questioned the need for future presidential debates.

“They’re really nothing more than political theater,” Han said. “We had not seen any debate like we saw on Tuesday, and I do think Tuesday’s debate made my point for me about how we should rethink this entire format.”