Chunk 24: Debate spoiler alert!
I’ve come into possession of a transcript from this Tuesday night’s (Wednesday lunchtime our time) first US presidential debate. So if you don’t want to know what happens, look away now.
WALLACE: Good evening and welcome to Case Western University here in Cleveland, Ohio. I’m Chris Wallace, host of Fox News Sunday, and I’ll be serving as your moderator for tonight’s first of three presidential debates before the election on 3 November.
Our first question, by virtue of a coin toss, goes to you, Vice President Biden.
Looking back on your record, both in public and private, what makes you believe you are the American people’s best choice for president for the next four years?
BIDEN: Well, thank you, Chris, and thank you to Case Western University for hosting us.
On 20 January 2017, Donald Trump put his left hand on the bible, raised his right hand and declared a sacred oath, just like the 44 presidents who had preceded him. That, to the best of his ability, he would preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
Preserve, protect and defend.
Never, in the 244 years of our great republic, has one president failed more to live up to that promise. Preserve, protect and defend: Donald Trump is nought for three.
Preserve our way of life. Because of this president’s inaction and factual ignorance, over 200,000 of our fellow citizens – mums and dads, grandparents and children, teachers and healthcare workers – have died of the Coronavirus, and a further 7 million have been infected. 200,000 people. That’s more than the number of losses in America’s last five wars combined. And now, to add insult to injury, he’s launched an appeal in the Supreme Court to again try and overturn the Affordable Care Act, which would make suffering from Covid 19 a “preexisting condition” and deny millions of people health cover. That’s why he’s desperate to get his new Supreme Court justice confirmed so quickly. These people didn’t have to get sick, and if he had a conscience, each of their 200,000 deaths would haunt Donald Trump to his own grave.
Protect. Protect our economy. When President Obama and I were in office, we implemented the policies that led to the longest period of economic growth and job creation in America’s history. Donald Trump has been a wrecking ball to that economy. Today, more of our citizens are unemployed than at any time since the Great Depression. They’re struggling just to get by, pay for food, medicine and shelter. Just as an example, there are a record 8.4 million homeless people now living in New York. Perhaps they could stay in your apartment in Trump Tower? It’ll be vacant until you move back there in January.
And defend. Defend our freedoms. From a man who tear-gassed law-abiding citizens so he could walk outside for a photo op. Who believes that white supremacists are “good people”. Who befriends dictators and invites foreign interference into our elections, or spreads unsubstantiated myths about ballot fraud. And who, given his pathological need that everything be all about him, must be reminded that the first words of our great constitution are “We the people”, not “I, the president”.
WALLACE: President Trump, your response?
TRUMP: Errr … ahh …
BIDEN: Allow me, Chris. See, the ultimate irony is that Donald Trump ran for president in 2016 promising to “Make America Great Again”. But in the years since he’s been in office, he - supported by the equally complicit Republican Party - has destroyed everything that made America great to begin with. Honesty. Dignity. Civility. Decency. Respect. These are the values that everyday hardworking Americans understand, and that have always been at the heart of what this country stood for. But they have no place in Trump’s America, because you can’t list morality on the stock exchange. And sadly, now, in the aftermath of Trump, instead of making America great, it’s going to take all of our collective efforts just to make it through this time together. And it isn’t going to be easy. But let’s start here. Tonight, let’s take the first step toward a better future.
