Democratic Primary Debate: Best And Worst

I believe that Kamala Harris did the best job in answering the moderators’ questions and did so with specific evidence. Harris did a really good job in answering almost all of the questions directly as well as stating evidence that supports her positions. For example, moderator Lacey asked Harris, “Are you in favor of sending those drug company executives to jail?” Harris answered the question by directly saying that she was truly in favor of doing such a thing. Harris proceeded to say that such drug companies have made about 72 million dollars a year through the people that are being negatively impacted by the opioid epidemic. The fact that Harris firmly and directly states her position followed by evidence persuades me into thinking that she knows what she stands for and has no need to avoid questions. Another example of Harris directly answering a question is when moderator Burnett asks, “…if states prevail on restricting abortion, what's your plan to stop them?” Harris answered such a question by saying that her plan would involve the Department of Justice reviewing any law that violates the constitution to see if it is compliant with Roe v. Wade. I believe that Harris answered this question perfectly by sticking to the point and answering all parts of the question. Overall, I believe that Harris did the best job because she didn’t leave the audience wondering what her actual answer was and didn’t hesitate nor ignore parts of the questions. Harris’s direct and firmness shows the audience, as well as me, that she’s not scared of what her positions are and is capable of telling the public all the details and information they want to know.

I believe that candidate Joe Biden did the worst job in answering the moderators’ questions and lacked specific evidence to support his positions. When asked a question, Biden would work himself around the question to not answer it directly. I see this as a tactic to save himself from a question he wasn’t prepared to answer as well as a form of holding himself back from saying something that may make him lose votes. For example, at the beginning of the debate, moderator Cooper asked Biden, “…if it's not okay for a president's family to be involved in foreign businesses, why was it okay for your son when you were vice president? Vice President Biden?” Joe Biden did not answer this question directly and proceeded to state that he stands by his son’s statement and that such statement can speak for itself. This shows that Biden was clearly under fire for a specific experience he had as vice president but he decided to swerve around the question by stating that he supports his son and attempted to change the topic towards Trump. Biden did such a bad job at directly answering questions that moderator Cooper had to ask him to clarify his answer on two separate occasions. In various situations, Biden would lack proper evidence to support his positions on specific topics. For example, Biden was asked what he would do as president to check Putin’s power on the world stage. Biden began his response by saying that he spent a lot of time with Putin and Erdogan and continued his response by talking about Erdogan and NATO instead of answering the question regarding Putin. This is the only sentence where Biden mentions Putin and proceeds to answer a question he wasn’t asked. Biden continues his response by saying that if Trump is reelected, NATO will no longer exist and his underestimation of the intelligence community will put U.S. security as underrated. Overall, Biden would not answer any of the questions directly and would steer away from what was asked of him, and would begin talking about a topic that no one was discussing. This goes to show that he prefers to not share his positions and details making it seem as if he’s scared of public reaction.