First Presidential Debate Highlights (Trump VS Biden)

First
Presidential Debate Highlights (Trump VS Biden)

US President Donald Trump and former Vice President
Joe Biden met face to face to challenge each other in the first presidential
debate on late Tuesday ET. In less than a minute during the 90-minute debate,
both candidates had interrupted each other on almost every segment brought up
by moderator Chris Wallace. Both the Republican leader (Trump) and Democrats
leader (Biden) respected no barriers as they criticized each other in many
aspects, including families.

The first segment brought up by Wallace was about
the Supreme Court, where conservative Judge Amy Coney Barret was nominated by
Trump to fill the vacancy amid the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Biden
claimed that American people should have the right to have a say and that the
selection of another judge should wait until after the presidential election.
Before Biden finished his answer on the Supreme Court, Trump interrupted and
both candidates escalated to spar over other matters. Tensions rose when
Wallace jumped in, while admonishing Trump to let Biden finish his statement.
However, as the interruption from both sides continued, Biden said to Trump:
“Would you shut up, man?”.   

Wallace then moved on to the second question of the
debate, where he began asking Trump about health care. Trump was asked to
explain why a comprehensive plan had not been introduced to replace the
Affordable Care Act implemented by former President Barack Obama. However,
instead of answering Wallace question, Trump interrupted to dispute the
questions raised. Their cross-talk led Trump to say that he is apparently
debating with Wallace instead of Biden. Biden then began criticizing the Trump
administration handling of the coronavirus, claiming that the administration
only started to inform the public of the pandemic’s severity when the stock
market was hammered. Biden also accused Trump of not acknowledging that he is
aware of the pandemic danger back in February, blaming Trump for the death of
hundreds of thousands of Americans.

After the discussion on the coronavirus, both
candidates moved on to talk about their qualifications to navigate the world’s
strongest economy through the pandemic. Trump highlighted his business-friendly
tax holidays and stock market gains; while Biden brought up the strong labor
market during his role as vice president under the Obama administration. Trump
later said that a strong stock market will automatically bring in more jobs;
Whereas, under the Biden’s presidency, his decision to terminate Trump’s tax
cuts will only chased out companies from the country. Debating on that, Biden
said that he is able to create the same amount of jobs if the economy is
recovering accordingly.

Towards the end of the debate, Wallace turned to
the 2020 election’s integrity, asking both candidates how confident Americans
should be towards a fair election. Biden started off by urging citizens to
vote, whether in person or by mail. Citing from Trump administration officials,
Biden assured that there are no chances that mail-in ballots are a source of
manipulation or cheating. However, Trump reiterated without evidence, that an
expected flood of mail-in ballots amid the pandemic would lead to massive fraud
in the election. Just last week, Trump refused to commit to a peaceful
transition of power if he lost the election. Biden went on to criticized Trump
for scaring Americans into thinking that the election will not be legitimate.

The outcome of the debate was less informative as
the market expects, with both candidates exchanging criticism instead of
properly answering the questions raised by the moderator. With only around
two-months time before the US Presidential Election on November 3, investors
will continue to monitor the polls and upcoming debates, with the second round
scheduled on October 15.