This year we have experienced an unusual political change: two presidential debates involving different candidates within four months. One of these debates was between President Joe Biden and Former President Donald Trump and the other was between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. The reason behind this is because of the unique political change we saw this past month: Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential election and endorsed Vice President Harris who was then chosen as the Democratic presidential nominee. Before this change, on June 27th, there was a presidential debate between the two original candidates, Trump and Biden. This debate had memes, articles, and podcasts all satirizing it and dissecting some of the absurd comments each candidate had made. The more recent debate between Harris and Trump occurred on Sept. 10th and the professionalism between the candidates improved greatly, but it still had an unsettling feeling when comparing it to past debates.
Trump has been a part of the last three presidential debates: 2016, 2020, and 2024 (x2), and within this time, the debates have become unserious, over-competitive, and aggressive. This may have become more noticeable since the 2020 election because it has been a constant eight-year rivalry between Biden and Trump. This built-up tension, hatred, and competitive nature all contribute to the change in the debate environment over the years.
When trying to cover the 2024 Trump v Biden debate, there are many moments to address, so I’ll just share some of the most intriguing moments.
Throughout the debate, each candidate would verbally attack the other and they wouldn’t always answer the questions accurately, or give a response. This debate was a hot mess. To start, the two candidates couldn’t even greet each other politely, creating a noticeable unprofessional nature within this debate. Not only was each candidate attacking one another constantly, but they were sidetracked from the debate question and talked about a theoretical golf match and who could win. Social media loved to tease this conversation. Another piece of “debate” that the public enjoyed was the mid-debate comment from Trump, “Let’s not act like children”, Biden then came back with, “You are a child”. These are two of many moments throughout the debate where both candidates decided to take the low road and attack each other rather than answer the questions being asked. This resulted in a debate the public was not politically satisfied with which put America at unease.
Voters need to not look too far into the past for an example of what a more civilized debate looks like. If you take a peek back at the 2008 presidential debate between John McCain and Barack Obama, you see many differences between the two debates. After watching this debate, one would be proud to call themselves an American. McCain and Obama held a professional standpoint the entire debate: answering questions to their full potential while keeping a quiet opinion about the opposing candidate, something that wasn’t shown in 2024. A small but noticeable detail in the 2008 debate was the greeting. McCain and Obama greeted each other kindly with pride as they hugged. An important factor showing professionalism happened in 2008 during town hall: McCain made a mature comment about Obama. Although this wasn’t in a debate, it was in a situation similar to one that still represented respect. Someone started disrespecting Obama, and McCain took the microphone and said, “Obama is a decent family man and a citizen that I just happen to disagree with on fundamental issues.” Although they are opponents, they can recognize that they both have good intentions, this is shocking to new voters because nothing like this has happened in recent years. McCain handled this situation maturely, leaving America feeling proud and at ease with their political future.
Over time it feels as if the debates have turned into flaming the other candidate, their past, and occasionally personal problems. As we saw, the 2008 debate seemed to be an accurate representation of who America would want to showcase. Their conversations were mature, debate questions were always answered to the best of their ability, they held professional ground, and didn’t attack the opposing candidate. Whereas in the past few debates, candidates constantly were down each other’s throats about personal issues, past performances, and plans. Specifically, in the second 2024 debate between Trump and Kamala, they each voiced that they didn’t approve of each other’s political doings. Since Kamala is our current Vice President and a part of Biden’s team, Trump voiced, “She doesn’t have a plan, she copied Biden’s plan and it’s like four sentences”. Similarly, Kamala continuously pointed out things that Trump handled poorly during his 2016 term as president, or during his campaign process. She mentioned his bringing up fictional characters, windmills causing cancer and the fact that people would leave his rallies early. Both of their fiery comments created an unsettling environment and made America re-evaluate what a debate should sound like. Although this debate was easier for an American to watch than the previous 2024 election, it was still disappointing to think about the negative changes that the debates have faced. When Americans sit down to watch the debate they don’t expect to listen to bickering the entire time, they expect to learn who and what they are voting for. In recent years, this has not been the case.
The current debate nature is not one person’s fault, the aggressive environment has formed with time and hopefully, in the future, we can go back to the professional stage during the debate. It has been intriguing to see all of the comparisons on social media since I was just born for the 2008 debate. The changes I have seen are noticeable to me, so I can only imagine how adult voters view this issue. As a country we have helped form the rivalry between the parties and candidates, if we veer away from doing this in the future there is hope for the 2028 Presidential Debate. If our country chooses to keep this rivalry up, and not change the dynamic, our country will split in half into two overly-competitive parties.
