Presidential Debate round two

Thursday night Americans were treated to a much more civil debate than the “dumpster fire” that was the first one.

Although one could make the argument that the debates don’t matter with a record of over 50 million people already having voted, the debates do provide the rare undecided voter who might be on the fence, a chance to see which candidate is worthy of their vote.

The debate also provided a platform for misleading claims and disinformation to be publicly vocalized.

President Donald Trump continued with his attacks on former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, spewing falsehoods about both his military service and his relationship with foriegn adversaries.

First Trump claimed Hunter Biden did not have a job when he was appointed to the Burisma board in 2014, that is inherently false. According to CNN fact checker Daniel Dale, Hunter was a “a lawyer at a firm, an adjunct prof at Georgetown U, chairman of the board of World Food Program USA, and CEO of investment firm Rosemont Seneca Advisors.” 

Trump also stated he has “done more for African Americans than any president since Abraham Lincoln.” That is inherently false, former President Lyndon B. Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibited discrimination in public places and provided for the integration of schools and other facilities.

Biden wasn’t without his share of falsehoods. He claimed that he never said he would “ban fracking,” although he did say that multiple times on the campaign trail. He has since gone back on his stance on the matter sayig he would not ban fracking rather he would want to find new forms of energy. But claiming he never said he would ban fracking is a falsehood.

Trump also claimed there is a vaccine “ready” to go, that is not true, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer are all still in the clinical trials phase and are not ready to be mass distributed. He also claimed we are “rounding the corner” on the COVID-19 pandemic, on the same day as the debate Oklahoma saw a record number of 1,684 new COVID-19 cases and COVID-19 related hospitalizations in the state are at an all time high of 956.

Despite the serial lying, the debate was without interruptions and personal attacks much to the credit of moderator Kristen Welker who asked hard hitting questions to both candidates and kept both of them in line as far as going over time and interrupting one another went.