On September 29th the first Presidential Debate between candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump took place, and if you haven’t heard… it was a complete disaster. The candidates where asked about the economy, the pandemic, systemic racism, past records, and voting through mail. Over all the yelling, arguing, and intervention from the moderator, it was hard to get any information from either side.

Throughout the whole debate the candidates kept clashing back and forth, interrupting each other’s responses and being completely unprofessional. At one point Biden tells Trump to “Shut up, man,” and reminds him how unprofessional he’s being.  Biden also made several false accusations about Trump’s presidency and his vice presidency. In one instance Biden stated there was 15% less violence during his presidency which is false, because the violence crime rate dropped under Trump. He also stated 10 million lost their employee sponsored insurance during this pandemic, however the study which he was relating to also said 3.5 million were able to regain insurance from another source. Biden fasely accused Trump of not wanting to send experts into China at the start of the pandemic as well. Lastly Biden wrongly claimed the United States has “a higher deficit with China now than we did before” in regards to trade. However the deficit is lower now than before.

Trump claimed he brought back Big Ten Football – which is false. A statement by an Unidentified Big Ten President to NBC New said, “President Trump had nothing to do with our decision to impact the deliberation.” Trump said he “brought back 700,000 (manufacturing)  jobs” which is once again incorrect, since August the U.S. has lost around 237k manufacturing jobs; even before the pandemic there was only 483k manufacturing jobs created by Trump. He also claimed the Portland Sheriff  “came out today, and he said, ‘I support President Trump’,” which is also false.  Later that night Mike Reese (Multnomah County AKA Portland Sheriff) tweeted “In tonight’s presidential debate the President said the ‘Portland Sheriff’ supports him. I have never supported Donald Trump and will never support him.” Trump went on to say that 30% – 40% of the ballots were lost, therefore he did not agree with the mail-in voting system. However according to NowThis there is no actual proof of “widespread U.S. voter fraud, period.” One of the main moments in the debate was whether or not Trump really paid 750 dollars in Federal Income Taxes – the original article from New York Times claims that in 2016 and 2017 Trump only paid 750 dollars in Federal Income. When asked by the moderator, Trump didn’t directly respond to the question.  He insisted he’s paid millions in taxes and denied all accusations.