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What Next | Daily News and Analysis

The Most Important Question in Tonight's Debate

What Next | Daily News and Analysis

Slate Podcasts

Daily News, News, News Commentary

4.32.4K Ratings

🗓️ 29 September 2020

⏱️ 18 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When you settle in to watch the Presidential debate tonight, maybe you’ll be listening to hear how Trump talks about the New York Times story regarding his tax returns. Maybe you’ll want to hear what Joe Biden has to say about the Supreme Court. 

But Rick Hasen, an election law expert at UC-Irvine, says he’ll be listening for something else: how the two candidates talk about the integrity of this election.

Guest: Rick Hasen, an election law expert at UC-Irvine and the author of “Election Meltdown: Dirty Tricks, Distrust, and the Threat to American Democracy.”

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Transcript

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0:00.0

When you settle in to watch the presidential debate tonight, the very first one-on-one

0:09.1

confrontation between President Trump and Joe Biden, maybe you're going to be listening for how

0:14.1

the candidates talk about Trump's newly released tax returns, or maybe you'll want to hear

0:19.4

what they have to say about the Supreme Court.

0:22.0

But Rick Hassan, an election law expert at UC Irvine, he's going to be listening for something

0:27.8

else. I'm especially interested in this debate because among the topics that Chris Wallace

0:34.5

announced he was going to ask about is the integrity of the election.

0:43.4

The topic that's at the forefront of my mind is that we have a safe and fair election,

0:50.2

one that the losers will accept as legitimate. And so I'll be listening to see what the candidates say about accepting election results and about peaceful transitions to power, especially after

0:55.9

President Trump's recent comments.

0:58.3

He's talked about this with Wallace before.

1:00.7

And Wallace keeps pressing him on it and being like, are you going to accept the transfer

1:05.0

of power?

1:06.1

You give a direct answer.

1:07.3

You will accept the election?

1:08.2

I have to see.

1:09.3

Look, I have to see.

1:10.9

No, I'm not going to just say yes. I'm not going to say no, and I didn't last time either.

1:14.8

It's hard to tell if Trump's wait and see answer is more of a troll or an actual warning.

1:21.1

But Rick knows where every weak spot is in the American election system.

1:25.7

And there are a lot of them.

1:29.4

He says, you've got to take what the president is saying on its face and plan accordingly. You've described yourself as an engineer,

...

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