As the election draws closer and closer, voters are still questioning the candidates. Why is it that- months after President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the presidential race- America has only seen one debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and Former President Donald Trump? The ABC News debate revealed nothing other than the fact that Kamala is not fighting her own battle- it is being fought for her. With clear prejudice towards former President Trump, this debate proved one thing about our country: politics have lost all meaning.
When observing previous presidential races, such as the 2008 race between Former President Barack Obama and former Sen. John McCain of Arizona, they held a total of three presidential debates, both agreeing on the general CPD framework to host them. During each debate, Obama and McCain were highly respectful towards each other, and the moderators were fair towards both candidates. The camera stays focused on the candidate speaking, giving each the fair amount of time they deserve, not distracting from the points they make. While watching these debates, I experienced true and just politics- a perfect example of what American politics should be.
Watching the ABC News debate between Trump and Harris was a completely different experience. Starting out, Harris refused to hold a debate on Fox News, or any other debate platform other than ABC News: a platform known for liberal bias. Despite Trump predicting his poor treatment on this platform, he agreed. America was yearning for a debate, and there could be no more stalling- he was practically backed into a corner.
This debate had potential- yet it was flushed down the drain by biased moderators. ABC News selected David Muir and Linsey Davis as the moderators for the debate, two well-known reporters in the media world. Many watching the debate detected the clear favor for Vice President Harris and the democratic party right off the bat. The repeated fact-checks, cut-offs, and the moderator’s aggressive approach towards Trump were some of the frequent problems transpiring during the debate.
The most prevalent problem was Muir, who would repeatedly quarrel with Trump, asking laborious questions, while leading Kamala with questions she could easily provide an answer to, even giving her a pass on more difficult ones at times. Glenn Greenwald, an American journalist, pointed this out stating, “David Muir is criticizing and attacking Trump more than Kamala is. Kamala can relax because the ABC ‘moderators’ are handling the debate for her.”
Although the majority of the blame lies on Muir, ABC has been highly criticized and lost much of its credibility. “Trump could have put the election away and didn’t. But she is so awful she still couldn’t win with both moderators so obviously, terribly biased. Neither of them won, but ABC/Disney lost half the country,” Hugh Hewitt- a syndicated radio host- stated after the debate. Even if Muir was the one directly responsible for the unfairness during the debate, ABC was responsible for selecting him as a moderator in the first place.
In the total 90 minutes of the debate, Trump was fact-checked five times while Harris was not corrected a single time. Buck Sexton, a conservative radio host, spoke fervently on this issue. “The ABC moderators are fact checking- incorrectly!- and in such a shockingly obviously one-sided way, that Trump enduring the ambush as well as he has is a win,” he stated. “This debate has been a total sham, questions are all attacks on Trump, it’s 3 on 1. Outrageous.”
Moderators and ABC aside, the actual debate revealed qualities about the two candidates. Although Trump’s responses were not always perfect- at least he gave direct answers that reflected his policies- policies that are well-known. Despite this, he was still called out profusely for any indirect answers, while almost every response Kamala gave was indirect and not questioned once. “So when Trump doesn’t directly answer the question, ABC points it out. Kamala will NOT directly answer a single question and they let her off the hook,” Tomi Lahren, Outkick host, indicated. Despite all the time Kamala had to explain her policies and what she would do to improve our country, I- along with many others- did not learn anything new about her stances due to her abundance of indirect responses that were not clarified.
Despite the bias prevalent in the debate, the big question remains: Who is the best option for our country? Who will take our country out of the gutter, where we have been rotting for the past four years? Kamala can give all the “solutions” she wants, direct or indirect, but the question remains clear: What has Kamala and the Biden Administration been doing for the past four years? Why have they not focused on rampant issues? Excuses can be given- ‘Kamala wasn’t the president’, ‘It was Trump’s fault to begin with’; however, who was in the White House when prices skyrocketed? Who was in the White House when the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East broke out? Who was in the White House when crime rates reached an all-time high? The answer is simple: Kamala Harris and Joe Biden. Former President Trump, despite a rocky debate which can unquestionably be attributed to platform bias, made this point perfectly in an unforgettable closing statement:
“So, she just started by saying she’s going to do this, she’s going to do that, she’s going to do all these wonderful things. Why hasn’t she done it? She’s been there for 3 1/2 years. They’ve had 3 1/2 years to fix the border. They’ve had 3 1/2 years to create jobs and all the things we talked about. Why hasn’t she done it? She should leave right now, go down to that beautiful white house, go to the capitol, get everyone together and do the things you want to do. But you haven’t done it. And you won’t do it. Because you believe in things that the American people don’t believe in. You believe in things like we’re not going to frack. We’re not going to take fossil fuel. We’re not going to do, things that are going to make this country strong, whether you like it or not. Germany tried that and within one year they were back to building normal energy plants. We’re not ready for it. We can’t sacrifice our country for the sake of bad vision. But I just ask one simple question. Why didn’t she do it? We’re a failing nation. We’re a nation that’s in serious decline.”
As voters, especially young voters, we need to focus on the actual facts and policies of our candidates. It is essential to put aside our political biases, and the stereotypes that go hand in hand with them. In order to truly understand what will come of our country if both candidates were to lead it, there needs to be less focus on what the media wants us to believe. So far, Trump has expressed the most precise policies for our country. People need to put aside things such as his personality and the stereotypes and really think of him as a leader and how prosperous our country was when he was the one making decisions.
I don’t see Kamala taking our country out of the gutter. She is not fighting her own battle, relying on the media to win the election for her; and personally, I do not want a president who can’t stand for themselves. Her whole campaign has been focused on her appearance concerning the media- when it comes to running a country, a country that is at one of its worst points in history- I do not think she is our solution.
Sources:
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/issues
https://kamalaharris.com/issues/
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/harris-trump-presidential-debate-transcript/story?id=113560542
https://www.foxnews.com/media/trump-says-abc-debate-moderators-favored-kamala-harris-three-one
Corrine Selby • Oct 4, 2024 at 7:36 pm
Thoughtful article! Glad you were given the opportunity to write it.