Last night’s debate was just another example of President Trump’s inability to defend his record over the last four years as President and most especially admit that the 200,000 plus American lives that have been lost to COVID-19, could have been avoided, if his Administration had proactively responded earlier when he was notified of the imminent dangers of the disease. His lackluster leadership on even basic things like making face masks mandatory, ensuring that every American had access to face masks, and protecting the communities hardest hit by the disease are just some of the steps that the Congressional Black Caucus called for the Administration to prioritize but were ignored. It was only recently that President Trump touted the importance of wearing face masks, after the damage had been done.
The debate, which was supposed to give Black America a chance to hear from the President on his policy proposals on critical issues impacting our community such as COVID-19, closing the wealth gap, environmental justice, and police brutality, instead it turned into a debacle with President Trump unwilling to present any solutions. Again, President Trump chose to incite racial violence and division in our country by supporting White supremacist groups like Proud Boys. At a time when democratic backsliding is being experienced in different parts of the world, what we witnessed from the President was an embarrassment to the democratic principles we embody as a nation and encourage others to demonstrate. We need a leader who will unite our country during this time and not divide it.
When we ask ourselves “what do we have to lose?” last night’s debate gave us all of the answers that we need and more. The world is watching.
