Election: Speech and Debate Team hosts watch party for VP debate

One of the main topics of contention during the Vice Presidential debate on Wednesday night was the Green New Deal and where exactly Joe Biden’s campaign stands on fracking and natural gas. 

The Director of the University of Central Oklahoma Speech and Debate Team, Matthew Moore, headed up the program’s watch party. Moore probed questions with the viewers concerning the main topics discussed during the debate and the tone of the debate compared to the previous presidential debate. 

“The reason you see Biden and Harris backing away from fracking is because Ohio and Pennsylvania have recently created a lot of new jobs because of increased fracking,” Moore said. 

Both Biden and Kamala Harris had previously stated that they were in favor of banning fracking. Although the Biden and Trump campaign have different ideas when it comes to climate change, both try to frame their proposal in the same way. 

“Both candidates sell their version of a climate package by offering jobs,” Moore said. 

Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and her husband Douglas Emhoff wave at Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen Pence following the vice presidential debate Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020, at Kingsbury Hall on the campus of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

One of the hot topics of the night had more to do with a person rather than a policy. Harris’s record was debated by many in wake of her stance on marijuana. 

Harris put thousands of people of color in prison for marijuana as attorney general of California but is now in favor of decriminalizing marijuana at the federal level. Such a change would no longer make the distribution or use of marijuana a felony but would not make recreational use legal in all states/ That would still be determined state by state. 

Following the debate, both Harris and Pence seemed to feel as if their opponent had come out on top, but one thing that was consensual was the professionalism of this debate compared to the first presidential debate. 

“Unlike the first debate, both [candidates] were very calm and composed,” Moore said. 

UCO student, Jamal Maryland, said “This debate was done in a more civil manner.” 

The second presidential debate was set to take place this week, but due to Trump’s COVID-19 infection, the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates said the candidates should not be on stage together.

Trump refused to debate virtually. Therefore, the second presidential debate between President Trump and Joe Biden is off, according to the Associated Press. The third debate is still scheduled for the Third Presidential Debate on Oct. 22.

Share This