Democratic nominee Joe Biden and President Donald Trump took the stage tonight for the first presidential debate of 2020. Topics included taxes, the coronavirus pandemic, race relations in America, climate change and the economy, among others, and was moderated by Fox News’ Chris Wallace. 

What You Need To Know

  • The first presidential debate of 2020 took place in Cleveland, Ohio last night

  • Topics included taxes, the coronavirus pandemic, the economy, and race relations

  • Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was in the live audience for the debate and told Inside the Issues it was complete “chaos"

  • Mathew Littman, a political strategist, said most Southern Californians were likely paying attention to the points made about climate change and their connection to the wildfires

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was in Cleveland, Ohio watching the debate live, telling Inside the Issues the President brought “chaos” to the debate stage.

“He thrives in chaos. He promotes chaos. He wants chaos because I think he realizes this election is slipping away,” said Garcetti. “I think the big takeaway was: This is somebody who wants to talk over us, instead of allowing the American people to hear from two candidates. I wish he’d given the respect to all of us as voters to hear what he had to say, but also to let Joe Biden say the plans that he had.”

Sean T. Walsh, a Republican strategist, said Trump spent most of the night interrupting both Biden and Wallace.

“I think part of that strategy was also not to get bogged down by the taxes and COVID or other issues by just talking through it and trying to get past the two-minute time limit,” said Walsh. “I don’t think that long term strategically helped him.”

Mathew Littman, a political strategist, said most Southern Californians were likely paying attention to the points made about climate change and their connection to the wildfires. 

“A lot of the fires are on federal land and Donald Trump has no plan to do anything on federal land. So, Joe Biden at least has plans regarding the climate. Donald Trump does not,” he said.

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Activist Ashlee Marie Preston said the issue of systemic racism has existed in this country for decades and it’s going to take collaboration to work to solve the problem.

"There seems to be this willingness for us to dump the problems, the systemic barriers to our ability to thrive, on one administration, when in reality these systems have always been in place and they’re not broken, they’re operating the way that they were designed to,” she said. “We heard Biden say, ‘What African Americans need,’ but ultimately no one knows what we need better than we do. It’s going to require not only the ability to listen to what the average voter is saying but you have to be able to show the work.”

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