Across campus, Bates students gathered for the Sept. 10 presidential debate. In one room, packed with over 100 students, the Politics Department hosted a lively watch party that showcased the wide range of reactions students had to the various verbal jabs thrown by each opponent.
The event started with comments from John Baughman, professor of politics, who suggested that this debate might bear more weight on voting than previous debates because it was further away from Election Day than usual. He noted that because this election is close, the influence could be higher. He finished by reminding students that debates are a show of strength and confidence for each party, referencing how, after mounting pressure, President Joe Biden dropped out of the race after his widely criticized debate performance in June.
Following Baughman, Professor of Rhetoric Stephanie Kelly-Romano kept comments short and suggested that students watch the debate without social media so they could form their own opinions uninfluenced by “memes.”
Professor of Politics Stephen Engel closed the introduction with some questions to keep in mind: How will new debate rules affect gender dynamics on stage? Will the addition of muted mics and requirements that candidates stand behind their podiums for the duration of the debate create a different debate atmosphere than what we saw in 2016 when former President Donald Trump debated presidential nominee Hillary Clinton? How will Vice President Kamala Harris talk about the Jan. 6, 2021 attacks on the Capitol? And finally, is it the job of the moderator to fact check candidates?
During the debate, the room was uncharacteristically quiet as Harris spoke. When it was Trump’s turn, reactions varied widely—some exclaimed in disbelief, laughed or took videos of the crowd, while others sat stony silence or muttered comments to friends.
Regardless of personal ideology, here are four takeaways from the presidential debate:
Harris gave specifics on policy
Long accused of not having a policy platform, Harris pulled out the details of her economic platform at the start of the debate. She characterized her vision as an “opportunity economy” with two key policies, a $6,000 tax credit for young families as well as a $50,000 tax deduction to start up small businesses. She did so while contrasting herself with Trump who she said “has no plan for you because he is more interested in defending himself than he is in looking out for you.”
Trump leans on fear, racism and hate
Rather than spending his time pointing out unpopular policy from the Biden administration or attacking Harris as a candidate, Trump inundated his answers with falsehoods steeped in anti-immigrant and anti-trans rhetoric. At one point he claimed that as president, Harris would “do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison,” a reference to an ACLU questionnaire she answered as a senator. Whereas Harris projected a message of hope and forward momentum, Trump’s messaging was darker, referencing a potential “World War III” and the “end of our country.”
The moderators fact checked Trump but let him speak over Harris
Prior to the debate, the Trump and Harris campaigns duked it out on whether the debate would feature automatically muted mics. Perhaps surprisingly, the Trump camp supported muting the mics whereas Harris’ team seemed to believe unmuted mics would prove detrimental to his performance in the debate. The effectiveness of the policy was only partially effective with Trump still repeatedly interrupting Harris and the moderators. A minute by minute breakdown of the speaking from each candidate shows that Trump did in fact speak for almost six minutes more than Harris throughout the span of the debate.
Harris flipped gender dynamics
In the 2016 presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, many analysts acknowledged the gendered aspects of Trump’s debating style, calling Clinton a “nasty woman” and prowling behind her as she answered questions on the national debate stage. This year’s debate saw a different outcome. Harris came onto the debate stage strong, striding over to Trump’s side of the room, shaking his hand, introducing herself and saying “let’s have a good debate.” It was a show of force as the two presidential nominees met one another for the first time. Throughout the rest of the debate, we saw Harris navigating debate questions while baiting Trump with small personal attacks and sarcastic comments. It appeared that these attacks were felt deeply by Trump, and throughout the debate his face showed increasing annoyance and emotion.
