Two Candidates, Two Contrasting Worlds, One Very Important Election

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By Nikki Slusher

Most of you are tired of hearing about this year’s election. Some of you could use a Xanax prescription between now and November 3rd. All of us are emotionally, physically, and mentally exhausted, and more than ready for this debauchery to finally end. But with election day less than three weeks away, it is important to continue writing on the striking contrast between our presidential candidates in hopes that someone, somewhere will go vote to bring dignity back to this country. With 18.4 million people having already voted this week the interest in the 2020 election is already proving to be record-breaking.

Thursday evening’s dueling time-slotted town hall debates were eye-opening for numerous reasons. Rather than a sequel of the first debate, Biden’s ABC town hall allowed the former Vice President to speak and answer questions from Pennsylvania voters without interruption. He took this time to give a detailed plan of his policy ideas. When asked by Cedric Humphrey, a young Black man, “What do you have to say to young Black voters who see voting for you as further participation in a system that continually fails to protect them?” Biden responded that he wants to put Black Americans “in a position to gain wealth” by increasing funding to schools to ensure teachers stay. Additionally, he wants to allocate $70 billion to historically Black colleges and universities to provide them with stronger foundational support.

On the issue of defunding the police, the former VP made it clear he will not be “defunding the police.” Instead, he discussed different ideas to arm police departments with new tools and prevent any diminishment to law enforcement. He also stated he is a proponent for community policing efforts – meaning police working with the community not groups of militias who plot to overthrow the government and kidnap elected officials. He briefly touched on his environmental policy, noting that he would not ban fracking but would work to create more energy jobs to eventually transition these workers into. The final highlight of the event was when Biden emphasized his goal: re-unifying a deeply divided country. “If I get elected, you know, I’m going to be – I’m running as a proud Democrat, but I’m going to be the American president,” Biden said. Following up with a powerful ending, “I’m going to take care of those against me as well as those who voted for me. For real. That’s what presidents do. We’ve got to heal this nation.”

Contrarily, President Trump’s NBC town hall in Miami felt all too familiar. Moderated by Savannah Guthrie, the president seemed to forget he was there to answer questions from Florida voters and kicked off the evening by debating Guthrie. He claimed he didn’t have pneumonia but that his lungs are now “a little bit different” and are “perhaps infected,” but was unable to confirm because he “didn’t do too much asking.” Continuing to dodge questions on his COVID tests, Trump said “I don’t know. I don’t remember. I test all the time.” When asked four times specifically if he had been tested prior to the first debate, where he shared the stage with Joe Biden, his memory still wasn’t working. “Possibly I did, possibly I didn’t,” President Trump replied.

Very early on it seemed that the president was combative, and it lasted throughout the entire town hall. Multiple times Trump told Guthrie “you always do this” and “what’s not your question?” He also stated that he felt he was being asked a more severe line of questioning that Biden had during his Oct. 5th debate on the network. A peak moment of his frustration with Guthrie’s questions, President Trump dismissed her by responding with, “You’re so cute.”

Donald Trump was significantly irritated when Guthrie brought up his failure to condemn white supremacists on stage during the first presidential debate. Although he did condemn them days later, Guthrie pushed as to why he seemed “hesitant to do so.” Clearly agitated he responded, “Hesitant? Here we go again.” After a short tantrum, the president denounced white supremacy once more. But the president not only refused to denounce QAnon, he continued to praise the extremist far-right conspiracy theory as being “very strongly against pedophilia.”

Despite the FBI having declared QAnon, and other similar movements, to be potential domestic terror threats, Trump consistently has refused to denounce the conspiracy. “I know nothing about QAnon,” Trump said. “I know very little. You told me, but what you told me does not necessarily make it fact. I hate to say that. I know nothing about it. I do know they are very much against pedophilia; they fight it very hard. But I know nothing about it.” He also completely avoided confirming the New York Times article on his tax records, revealing that the president is actually $421 million in debt – which is coming up to be due in the next few years. Trump went on to compare that amount to the size of a “peanut” adding that it’s “not a big deal.”

Guthrie pressed the question, “Are you confirming that, yes, you do owe some $400 million?” Trump answered, “What I’m saying is it’s a tiny percentage of my net worth.” When the evening finally got to some questions from the audience, Trump bashed Obamacare and kept repeating he repealed the individual mandate, but provided nothing else on his healthcare plan, except that he wants to completely repeal the ACA with something better; still giving no details on its replacement.

He also enjoyed a few flirtatious moments with women audience members. Besides it’s not like our First Lady Melania Trump was watching. In fact, according to the final Nielson TV ratings Biden’s town hall had more viewers than the presidents. The network ratings service showed the former VP’s ABC town hall had 14.1 million viewers, while a combined 13.5 million watched Trump’s on NBC, MSNBC, and CNBC. These results only include one-streaming device used so it’s likely many more watched both programs.

Biden kept a persistent message of concern for others, something we have not seen from our current president. Trump on the other hand spent the day rallying in Macon, Georgia. Only a few days after Tommy Lee and Bruce Springsteen said in separate interviews that they will leave the country if Trump is re-elected, the president told supporters an hour into rambling that he would “have to leave the country” if he loses to Biden.

“I shouldn’t joke because you know what? Running against the worst candidate in the history of presidential politics puts pressure on me. Could you imagine if I lose? My whole life, what am I going to do? I’m going to say, ‘I lost to the worst candidate in the history of politics.’ I’m not going to feel so good. Maybe I’ll have to leave the country? I don’t know,” the president said. Meanwhile, the worst candidate in the history of politics is currently trailing Biden by double digits in a majority of national and battleground state polls. Trump is also potentially facing multiple prosecutions if he fails to be re-elected to a second term. He is desperate to do so, and last month the FBI warned that Russia is actively working to disparage Joe Biden to help advance the president in the election next month.

Federal authorities have opened an investigation to examine whether a Russian influence operation is behind emails, pictures, texts, and other contents of a computer hard drive that the New York Post received from President Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani. The Post says that the computer data was given to Giuliani by the owner of a computer repair shop in Delaware. According to the newspaper, the laptop was allegedly left for service a year ago but was never picked up. The authenticity of the contents, and if they were hacked or forged, is still unknown despite Fox News’ claim.

Fourteen more days folks. Don’t forget to person, man, woman, vote Biden on November 3rd.

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