Debate Audience Wins as Trump and Biden Mind the Mute Button

By Charles Dervarics

Voters claimed at least a small victory Thursday night when the major party presidential candidates had to accept a tool familiar to anyone working in remote video meetings during the pandemic – the all-important mute button.

Both President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden had to follow this new rule, which significantly reduced interruptions during their final debate in Nashville. The president showed occasional frustration at having to wait for an open microphone, but the new guideline kept shouting to a minimum and gave viewers a chance to hear the candidates’ views on key issues.

During the 90-minute debate moderated by NBC’s Kristen Welker, the two candidates sparred over every issue from COVID-19 and race relations to China, North Korea, immigration and climate change.

On COVID-19, Trump laid blame primarily on China and said that “we’re rounding the corner” on the virus with a vaccine announcement likely within weeks. “We can’t close up our nation or we won’t have a nation,” he said. Biden countered that the president’s performance has fallen far short with 220,000 Americans dead from the disease. “Anyone responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the United States,” he said.

The former vice president also said he planned to implement “Bidencare,” with Affordable Care Act improvements such as lower premiums and drug prices and the ability of low-income individuals to opt into Medicaid. Trump criticized this plan, saying it would lead to socialized medicine and a loss of private insurance for 180 million Americans.

An extended segment on race relations saw the candidates approach the issue from different directions. Trump touted his administration’s passage of criminal justice reform and more funding for historically Black colleges, saying the Obama-Biden administration failed on these and other issues. “I ran because of you,” he said. “If I thought you did a good job, I would’ve never run.”

For his part, Biden said he regretted past support for minimum sentencing laws and promised to give states $20 billion to eliminate these standards and create drug courts so offenders go to treatment rather than prison. “We should fundamentally change the system, and that’s what I’m going to do.”

Some of the most heated moments came when Trump challenged Biden over alleged misdeeds by his son in gaining international business and whether the former vice president benefitted from deals in China and Ukraine. Biden denied any wrongdoing and the debate turned to Trump’s own international business dealings, bank accounts and unseen tax returns. At one point, Biden turned to the camera and noted that the election is “not about his family or my family. It’s about your family, and your family’s hurting badly.”

With the debates now complete, both candidates head into the final 11 days of campaigning. Nearly 50 million Americans already have cast early votes, with Election Day set for Nov. 3.

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View from the Left: Talk with a Biden Supporter in Rural Pennsylvania

Jennifer Clark, of Meyersdale, Penn., did not vote in the 2016 presidential election, but now supports former Vice President Joe Biden.

“It’s more so anti-Trump,” Clark says of her favored candidate. “Anti the man. I as I’ve gotten older, I can very much see both sides. For years I was a huge listener of right-wing talk radio. It drove my deceased husband crazy. I really believe that I’m pretty well-informed on both sides. I’m not a slave to MSNBC. I used to watch Fox News.

“Some key core values of the Republican party I don’t jell with. Those deep-seated abortion things. The Supreme Court is terrifying me right now.” Meyersdale voters are more concerned about economic issues than abortion, Clark believes.

“Even before he was elected,” Clark was troubled about “the way he talks about women. I’ve been through some of that. The way a white rich man in power thinks he can speak that way to anybody.”

Clark is “a little bit concerned” about Biden’s age. “I respect what he’s saying, what he stands for. But when Kamala got on board, I was really like, yes, this could be a positive change.”

She doesn’t believe Hilary Clinton “was the way to go” in 2016. Clark considers Kamala Harris sufficiently center-left “to bring people together,” and was encouraged to find a substantial number of members on a Facebook group page for Democratic women in Somerset County, where Meyersdale is located.

“I love talking politics to people who are like, Trumpsters,” she says, adding,“I’ve heard so many crazy conspiracy theories” about the coronavirus pandemic, and the president’s response. “Even the mask-wearing, and it makes me so mad because my kids go to school.”

Clark’s 15-year-old daughter returned to school Sep. 1, and often argues politics. She and her classmates must wear masks at school, but Clark often runs into her fellow parents, who do not.

Clark fears what the post-pandemic economy would be under Trump. “What are you going to do about that, Mr. Trump?” she says, noting that most Meyersdale residents do not play the stock market. She feels it’s time for Meyersdale voters still connected to the stagnant coal economy to find new lines of work.

President Obama and Vice President Biden “jumpstarted” the economy, Clark believes, “and (Trump) just comes along riding on the shirttails of that.”

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Talking to Trump and Biden Supporters in Small-Town Pennsylvania

By Todd Lassa

MEYERSDALE, Penn. -- “Make American Great Again,” “Keep America Great,” “Trump Digs Coal” and “Pro-Life, Pro-Trump” signs prevail in and near this small town in Southern Somerset County, just north of the Maryland border in the important swing-state. It is conceivable that some of these signs have been up since before November 2016.

Just after Labor Day weekend, campaign signs for Joe Biden began to appear on lawns in this one-time coal town of about 2,000 residents. Driving on the Mason-Dixon Highway leading into town, we spotted a Biden sign on a lawn just north of a lawn featuring a Trump sign. Could The Hustings, in the interest of civil discourse, talk two neighbors into a socially distanced friendly discussion together?

Not this time. A widow who lives at the Trump-signed home says she put up the sign for her late husband, a much more fervent supporter of the president, and she doesn’t like to talk politics. Neither does her Biden-supporting neighbor, who says she has two signs in case the first one is stolen.

In Meyersdale, The Hustings found a Trump supporter on her front porch on Main Street, in front of her large Trump campaign sign, on a street where at least half of homes feature pro-Trump banners. After striking out with the single Main Street home with a Biden sign, we found a Biden supporter a couple of blocks away who says she loves to talk politics.

Our Trump supporter is Terri Walker, a retired employee of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Walker voted for President Trump in 2016 and says that while she grew up in a Democratic household (which she says still prevails in Meyersdale), registered as a Republican about 30 years ago due to her support for President Ronald Reagan.

Our Biden supporter is Jennifer Clark, a costume designer who returns to her job in Maryland October 15 when the Cumberland Theater reopens. Clark is recently widowed. Her husband voted for Hilary Clinton in 2016, though she sat out that presidential election, after voting for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. She has a 15-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son.

The Hustings spoke to Walker and Clark just prior to the first presidential debate. Their comments, in the right and left columns, respectively, are edited for clarity and length.

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