Last night (Sept. 29) was the first debate between the 2020 presidential candidates former Vice President Joe Biden and current sitting President Donald Trump. Between constant bickering and personal jabs, a few political policies managed to shine through. The two faced off over topics such as the Supreme Court, racial justice, COVID-19, and the economy. Moderator Fox News host Chris Wallace could hardly get Trump to stop talking over Biden. Trump spewed off many falsehoods and Biden stumbled over some numbers. It’s critical to fact-check anything the candidates say before casting your ballot. Here are the highlights from the first 2020 presidential debate.
The most alarming moment of the night was when Trump was simply asked to denounce white supremacy. The President refused to condemn white nationalists and instead remarked, “stand back and stand by.” The order was seen by the racist group Proud Boys as a call to action that many fear may unleash racial violence. When Biden was allowed to speak, he said that Trump tries to generate racist hatred. The last few years have shown this to be true.
Neither candidate has plans to defund the police. Trump accused Biden of not having any support from law enforcement and said the Sheriff of Portland supported him. Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Reese, who oversees Portland, took to Twitter to make it clear that has “never supported Donald Trump and will never support him.”
Trump said that forest management is the key to prevent future massive fires across the country as he skimmed past the question about whether or not he believes in the science that shows we’re in a climate crisis. Whether the president believes it or not, the climate crisis is here and he doesn’t have a plan in place to give us the ‘clean water’ he kept going on about. Of course, forest maintenance does mitigate forest fires but climate change has made the environment of many forests in the Western United States more flammable.