The first presidential debate, in a series of three, was different from how America’s population may have envisioned it would be. President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden faced off in the debate, which included unexpected turns such as interruptions and rude comments from both parties.

The first debate occurred on Sept. 29 and caused a mix of emotions from the 73 million viewers. Even though it had its good moments, almost from the get-go, the debate turned into utter chaos. At one point Trump attacked Biden’s son Hunter when he brought up his past cocaine addiction, which had nothing to do with the debate topic.

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The moderator of the debate also had a tough time making sure the debate went as smoothly as possible, especially when it got to the point that Biden had to exclaim, “Will you shut up man.”
This rudeness from both parties encompassed the debate even more than the issues that were debated. Throughout the debate, Trump accounted for 128 interruptions, while Biden interjected a few dozen times. Sophomore Ahan Patani said, “During almost the entirety of the debate, candidates President Donald Trump and Former Vice President Joe Biden hauled personal insults at each other and rudely interrupted each other’s remarks.”

The main topics that were discussed at this debate were COVID-19, the economy, and other major current event issues such as racism. When it came down to racism, Biden had opportunities to mention Trump and his alleged racism such as his refusal to criticize the concept of white supremacy and its inherently racist traits. Freshman Jai Ahuja said, “I thought white supremacy was practically accepted by everyone as being wrong, so it was strange how Trump couldn’t even say that white supremacy should be condemned.”

If this had been any other presidential debate, the behavior from both parties would have been deemed unacceptable. Sophomore Humza Sehbai said, “This was the worst debate that I have ever watched because it seemed unprofessional and that both candidates didn’t have strong political platforms or weren’t confident in themselves, so they instead attacked each other about issues that weren’t even political.”

The presidential debate was a disaster. It was highly talked about because of its unexpected events, especially because the presidential race is so close in terms of projected votes received by both candidates. Things said in the debate were thought to be important by viewers, but in the end, the rude comments outweighed the important topics.