Election cycles are always a dramatic saga. However, being two months out from election day, voters have already been given enough headaches to last a lifetime.
Due to a horrendous debate performance and concerns about his age, Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race just weeks before the Democratic National Convention (DNC). This left the Democratic party scrambling for a replacement from a pool of equally likely contenders. In a relatively quick turn of events, Biden’s Vice President and former California Senator Kamala Harris, replaced Biden’s name on the Democratic ticket for November.
On the other side of the aisle, former President Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts in a hush money trial from 2016. Trump is still the Republican Party’s candidate, putting many members of the Republican party in a moral dilemma of supporting the American justice system or a now-convicted felon.
Both the Trump and Biden Administration had previously agreed to bypass the Commision on Presidential Debates (CPD) due to disagreements on formatting. Thus, all eyes fell to ABC’s 2024 Presidential Debate on Sept. 10. This has been the first and only scheduled, formal meeting between Trump and Harris until election day (my best guess is there will be at least one more, but we’ll see).
The rules enforced by ABC for this debate included: no live audience, muted microphones and no opening statements. This was to minimize arguments between the candidates and increase the moderator’s role in regulating the conversation. In turn, voters were able to get a clear picture of the candidates position on hot policy topics. Among other subtopics, the economy, immigration and foreign policy were at the forefront of this debate.
The debate opened on economy, to which Harris affirmed her tax credit policies toward low-income families and start-up businesses. During an internship with the U.S. Senate last year, I was assigned to a bill regarding child tax credits in post-pandemic America. It was really cool to see the policy I had spent so much time on be a topic covered in a presidential debate.
Trump promptly resorted back to his pre-pandemic “record setting” economy, and proceeded to jab at Harris saying, “She doesn’t have a plan. It’s like Run, Spot, Run.” The economy is Trump’s strong suit, and in a missed opportunity he seemed to play defensive to Harris on the issue. Harris ducked an opening question on inflation — a huge issue — and the two clashed over whether Trump’s push for dramatically higher tariffs on imports is a tax increase on U.S. consumers.
Immigration got heated as Trump repeatedly battered Harris on the border and the millions of undocumented immigrants that have entered the U.S. during her time in office. However, Trump really got ahead of himself here and dropped a bomb citing an unverified report of Haitian immigrants eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio. Like many Trump remarks before, this came out as the meme of the debate, exploding on social media.
The last topic I’ll touch on is foreign policy. Mainly centered around the Ukraine and Russia conflict, Harris landed some solid blows. Trump refused to say whether he wanted Ukraine to win the war, and rather wants the conflict to resolve as quickly as possible. Not necessarily a horrible response, but with Trump’s history with Russian President Vladimir Putin and constant criticism of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, it raises some questions about what that resolution would look like.
Harris then jabbed at Trump’s reputation among world leaders saying they “laugh” at him and think he’s a “disgrace.” Trump took the bait and angrily brought up the authoritarian leader of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, as someone who likes him. Top Capitol Hill Republicans have repeatedly described Orbán as a dangerous leader. There was mention of the Israel-Hamas conflict as well, but both candidates seemed to quickly brush over it.
In possibly the only debate between these two, I have to give Harris the win. She was able to bait Trump and put him on the defensive for nearly the whole 90 minute period. Obviously, debate wins and losses don’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, but they do give voters an opportunity to align some values with candidates.
I’m no professional, but I do think this election will be close. Really close. It will be interesting to see how the CBS sponsored Vice-Presidential debate goes on Oct. 1 between JD Vance and Tim Walz. I think we’ll get a better view of each office’s goals for the term and expand on topics covered by their respective candidates.
Noah Shaw