Rhetoric, lies and personal attacks: The Presidential Debate | Election Watch

Election Watch | The first presidential debate of 2024 between Joe Biden and Donald Trump took place today (June 27th) in Atlanta, Georgia, a key swing state of the election, and as expected, it was rather underwhelming on policy and dominated by rhetoric on both sides. Though fact-checkers will be at work in picking out all the lies and mischaracterizations that were said, it was apparent that both sides (and Trump in particular), had no issues with hyperbole and exaggerations. It had been known for a long time that the debates aren’t about changing minds, but because the vast majority of people already know who they will vote for, neither side would have their minds changed.

Report by Abhinav Nambeesan | Edited by Ajitesh Vishwanath

Research & Publications

Key Issues: Inflation, Abortion, Immigration, Ukraine & Gaza, and Environment.  

In Biden’s opening statement, he pointed to his working-class background, and said that as President, he has supported and will support the working class, accusing Trump of being the “rich man’s candidate,” and he said that he wished to bring the prices of “kitchen table items” down like food and gas. Trump claimed that he had “the best economy in the world,” said inflation was low during his term, and reaffirmed his promise that he would put a universal tariff of 10% on all goods entering the country.

On the question of the national debt and Trump’s 2017 tax cuts that he wished to extend, Biden said that the tax cut almost entirely benefited the wealthy and corporations and that he wanted to impose higher taxes on the rich. Trump said that the tax cut had been very helpful to the American public due to job creation, and then pivoted back to criticizing Biden’s handling of Covid.

The highly contentious topic of abortion was covered. On the question of whether his government would block access to the over-the-counter medicine that induces abortions, Trump said that he wouldn’t and that the Supreme Court’s decision to let states decide the matter of abortion was the right one, and also claimed that Democrats wished to legalize late-term and even post-birth abortions, which Biden dismissed as completely untrue. Biden said that Trump and the rest of the Republicans in Congress would pass a national abortion ban, and he said that politicians should not be involved in the abortion question, as the matter should only be between a woman and her doctor.

On the topic of immigration, which Trump has been constantly hammering on since 2015, Biden points at the bipartisan immigration Bill that failed in Congress due to lack of support by all Republicans, says that he has decreased crossings of the Mexican-American border, and says that he wants to recruit more Border Patrol officers and asylum officers. Trump meanwhile says that Biden has thrown open the borders of the country, and claimed that terrorists and murderers from all around the world were flooding into the country, blaming Biden for “thousands” of deaths at the hands of immigrants, a claim which has not been verified. He also says that illegal immigrants are being accommodated at hotels, they commit violent crimes, and when asked if his administration would deport every single illegal immigrant in the country, his answers were incomplete, but more or less consisted of the phrase: “deport all of those criminals”.

Fact Check by the Associated Press: Here

Foreign policy was a big topic of debate. On the topic of the Russia-Ukraine War, Trump has claimed that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine under his presidency, saying that the withdrawal from Afghanistan made Putin think that Biden was weak, and prompted him to invade. He did say that Putin’s terms for peace in Ukraine- that Ukraine give up a lot of territory and never join NATO- were unacceptable to him, and says that he would get a peace agreement if he won the election (Note: Quite recently, Trump’s aides had proposed the most elaborate Russia-Ukraine peace document yet, wherein the US would halt all military aid to Kyiv until it sues peace with Moscow). Biden pointed to Trump’s cozy relationship with Putin, saying that Trump would let Putin “do whatever he wants” with Europe and that if Trump becomes President, Russia would be able to take all of Ukraine and advance deeper into Europe. Biden accused Trump of wanting to pull out of NATO, (which Trump has flirted with many times), and that Putin taking Ukraine is the biggest threat to global peace. Trump accused European countries of “not paying their fair share” to NATO, a sentiment that he held while President as well.

The Israel-Hamas crisis has caused Biden’s approval ratings to take a nosedive, and on that topic, he reaffirmed his support for Israel and said that his proposal for a ceasefire was supported by all but Hamas and that it cannot be allowed to continue to exist. Trump actually did not speak much on the issue at all, but when asked if he would support the existence of an independent Palestinian state, he replied “We’ll have to see.”

On the topic of the 6th January 2021 storming of the US Capitol, which was motivated by an attempt by Trump supporters to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 election results, Trump downplayed the event by saying that most people don’t think Jan 6 was a violation of constitutional norms, and blamed the Democratic leadership in Congress for lax security and not doing anything to stop the rioters. When asked about his statements where he said he would go after his political opponents, Trump said that his “retribution” would bring great success for the country, and accused Biden of being a criminal too. Later, Trump did agree that political violence of any kind is unacceptable and said that if the election is “fair, legal and free,” he would accept the results of the 2024 election- which many would undoubtedly point out leaves the door open for claims of fraud by him, as he did in 2020.

The issue of climate change was brought up, and Trump claimed that under his administration, the environment was doing better than Biden, and said he wanted “clear air” and “clear water.” This is contradicted by the fact that his administration massively expanded oil drilling and relaxed environmental standards, and Biden also pointed out that Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Accords. Biden  said that he would cut pollution down to half by 2035, and reaffirmed his commitment to improving the environment and tackling climate change while pointing out that Trump “didn’t do anything for the environment.”

Overall, the debate was rather lackluster, and both candidates made several gaffes, with Trump appearing erratic and lying quite a lot, and Biden fluffing his lines several times. Supporters of both sides are unlikely to have thought much more of the other than before this debate, and it shall be interesting to see how the next few months of the election play out, and how this debate may affect things.