Kathmandu. The United States of America stands divided between candidates who have been more or less evasive on crucial issues during their individual campaigns. The US Presidential elections of 2020 has thus far resembled a car crash in slow motion, something nobody can stop watching.

The first debate, between President Donald Trump and the democratic nominee Joe Biden, was in a word chaotic. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and the scare in the White House with regards to the President’s health, the second debate on Thursday was cancelled and that led to separate town hall questionings for each of the candidates. The questions were received directly from the viewers and handed over to moderators in Miami, Florida for President Donald Trump, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for Joe Biden. The events were aired at exactly the same time on separate television channels. The scheduling conflict has been a matter of discontent for a lot of people all within itself. The upside to the town hall debate was the clear and separate discussions that could be held with the candidates without the tensions that presided over the first debate.

Biden was questioned on fracking, “packing” in the Supreme Court, vaccine for coronavirus, tax cuts and his policies for transgenders. Trump, on the other hand, had to face inquiries on his administration’s efforts of COVID-19 management, his taxes, Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination for the Supreme Court, and the transfer power. The Boston Globe cheekily commented on the idea that not even most informed voters and political pundits could be blamed for wanting to switch to Netflix instead of the town hall meetings. The same scheduling for the meetings could have turned into a point of frustration for voters who might have wanted to watch the responses in a constructive manner.

Points of Evasion: Court packing, the QAnon conspiracy and more

The point of reality for a lot of viewers may have been on Biden’s answer on packing the Supreme Court and Trump’s overall denouncement of the QAnon conspiracy theory.

Court packing is a term that denotes the expansion of the size of the Supreme Court from nine justices to more. It was famously proposed by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937 when he proposed to add six more judges to the highest court in the US. It was swiftly struck down by the Congress after criticisms erupted that this was being done not to increase the efficiency of the institution, but to pass his “New Deal.” Packing, ever since, then has been an issue that has directly been linked with the personal motivations and political gains of any President who has tried to endorse it. Biden made a major gaffe during his campaign when he commented that the voters “don’t deserve” to know about his stance on the matter.

He again refused to clarify his policy on packing during the meeting when he claimed that “If I answer the question directly, then all the focus will be on what’s Biden going to do if he wins instead of, ‘Is it appropriate what’s going on now?'” Noting the proceeding of the confirmation hearings for Barrett’s nomination, he attempted to explain that he might be opposed to the notion of packing but he would have to consider the issue in the light of the decision of the Congress. He has assured the public, however, that he will make his position known by election day.

On the other side, Trump completely denounced the QAnon conspiracy that deals with a group called QAnon, whicg believes in the existence of certain prominent Satanic power-hungry Democrats, celebrities and elites who are involved in human trafficking and pedophilia. Trump stated that, “What I do hear about [QAnon] is that they are very strongly against pedophilia, and I agree with that.” This has raised concerns amongst the population that the President not disavowing the conspiracy theory may lead to right-winged aggression during the voting process, and on Election day.

The adherents of QAnon are also growing and gaining popularity abroad. Jakob Guhl of London’s Institute of Strategic Dialogue (ISD) has said that, “QAnon functions like a meta-conspiracy theory,” and “Even though most QAnon content is shared in the US, it is gaining an international following.”

Trump also did not address the release of his taxes as he went on to say, “I’m treated very badly by the IRS. They treat me very, very badly. You have people in there from previous administrations. They treat me very badly. But we’re under audit. It’s very routine in many ways. But we’re under audit.” On the question of whether and when he had tested negative for COVID-19, he stated, ” don’t know, I don’t even remember. I test all the time. I can tell you this. After the debate, like, I guess, a day or so, I think it was Thursday evening, maybe even late Thursday evening, uh, I tested positive. That’s when I first found out.”

The meetings as may have been expected did not produce some ground breaking insight of the candidates’ future course in their policy directions. It has paved the way though for several media outlets to critique the general line of questioning. Fox news, for example pointed out that George Stephanopoulos, who was moderating Biden’s session completely evaded questioning the former Vice-President on the New York Post article that detailed Hunter Biden’s emails that links him with corruption charges regarding his dealings in Ukraine. Forbes had reported that Facebook and Twitter have been actively preventing the report from being shared, which may not help the cause of the democratic nominee.

What will happen, will happen

Regardless of what has been said during the separate meetings, there is a high probability that most voters would have already made up their minds, as the candidates did not really change their positions on many of their basic beliefs. Biden has so far been leading in the polls by a considerable margin, but it is necessary to acknowledge that so did Hilary Clinton in 2016 when she ran against the current President. The votes will be counted and decided on November 3.