In a presidential debate characterized by unprofessionalism, anger, and talking over the opponent (whether that be the other presidential candidate or Chris Wallace), one thing became clear: each candidate is willing to do anything, and say anything, to win. Trump jumped down Biden’s throat every chance he got, and actually shot himself in the foot by not preying on Biden’s weakness: his cognitive decline. If Trump let him speak, Biden would have revealed himself to be unfit for office. Trump was brash, insulted Biden’s family, and had a new, more assertive aura about him that was not seen in the 2016 debates with Hillary. Biden jumbled both his words and thoughts on several occasions, but was also quite hot-headed, asking the President to “shut up, man.” And both candidates, not just Trump, made false arguments, points, and accusations. Here are a few notable fallacies by Biden that the liberal media may have chosen to overlook.
On Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, Biden claimed, “she thinks that the Affordable Care Act is not constitutional.” This is misleading. On record, she has never claimed it is unconstitutional, though she has been critical of it. The arguments of the case will be heard by the Supreme Court on November 10, and the Trump administration wants the high court to rule it as unconstitutional, but Barrett as of now has not agreed with that. This kind of accusation characterized Biden’s false statements on the night: less egregious than some of Trump’s claims and small, but incredibly meaningful. These types of differences, while small on their own, inform and influence bigger issues and conversations held during the debate. This false claim about an aspect of a heated topic, healthcare, could unfairly sway the viewers’ thoughts on the matter, and give them an incorrect idea of Trump’s nominee and the fate of the Affordable Care Act. In turn, this could sway a neutral viewer to see Trump less favorably because they believe his nominee has said something she has not. Furthermore, what is dangerous about Biden (besides his potential presidency being a threat to the fate of capitalist America) is that he is not as known for his lying, so he can get away with it more. Trump is brash, exaggerates, and angers people; the American people know this, and while it is problematic as he is the president, they take his word less seriously, or at least with a grain of salt. Biden, on the other hand, is known for his apparent senility, and inability to form coherent sentences. People don’t expect him to be in control enough of the situation to manipulate it; but manipulate it he does, dropping small lies here and there that add up to affect the course of the debate as a whole. Let’s look at some other examples of this.
Biden claimed “The fact of the matter is violent crime went down 17%, 15%, in our administration.” No, that is in fact not the fact of the matter, as according to Statista crime fell from 431 violent crimes per 100,000 population to 387 violent crimes per 100,000, a decrease of only around 10%. Again, not a terribly egregious lie, and potentially one that could be chalked up to a classic Biden gaffe (17 does look an awful lot like 10 if you squint your eyes hard enough) but it is still quite a notable twisting of the facts. 17% vs 10% is, considering the number of violent crimes in 2009 when Biden and Obama took office, around 30 new violent crimes overall, quite a large and misleading gap.
Biden falsely claimed “There was a peaceful protest in front of the White House. What did [Trump] do? He came out of his bunker, had the military do tear gas.” This is downplaying what really happened. The night before, law enforcement dispersed the protesters, rioters set fire to St. John’s historic church and battled with Secret Service agents outside the perimeter of the White House. Trump was briefly taken to a White House bunker during the peaceful protests, and the law enforcement, not the military, were the ones to use tear gas to remove the protestors. A few days earlier, Trump had been taken to a bunker as a precaution as some of these protests had turned violent, with some protestors throwing rocks and pulling on police barricades.
Overall, it is easy to overlook Biden’s claims: in the face of some of the admittedly boldfaced lies Trump told, Biden’s false claims may seem timid and smaller in number. But they are still important, and received very little coverage compared to Trump’s. What Biden says becomes truth to many of his supporters, just as Trump’s word to his supporters. If Biden wants to move the needle in any way on political transparency and fix the way politicians manipulate the American population on both sides of the aisle, he needs to change just as much as Trump.
As a note to all readers of The Cornell Review, Election Day is on November 3rd, 2020. If you have not yet registered to vote, please follow the instructions in this link to do so. Voting is one of many ways to participate in our democratic republic.
