Najam Discusses U.S. Presidential Debate on BBC Hindi
On October 22, 2020, Adil Najam, Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, appeared on BBC Hindi to discuss the second U.S. Presidential Debate.
During the segment, Najam, Vineet Khare – South Asia Correspondent for BBC – and Muqtedar Khan – Professor at the University of Delaware – looked at President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden’s debate performance and the likely impacts it will have on the election.
Najam commented that both candidates performed much better than they did in the first debate; however, he added that this is a low bar to meet since the first debate was “such an unmitigated disaster.” Najam went on to say that, while supporters for both candidates are deeply entrenched and it is unlikely that voters in neither group are going to be changing their opinions because of these debates, it is also true that Biden supporters will feel better since the debate allowed their candidate the opportunity to focus on policy issues and present his case in a way that the first debate had not.
Najam also added that, in many ways, this is election is “Trump vs. Trump.” On one side of the voting population are those support Trump viscerally, irrespective of performance or policy, and on the other side is not as much a “Biden camp” as voters who are viscerally against Trump and eager to vote him out irrespective of who the other candidate is.
A recording of the interview is available below.
Adil Najam is a global public policy expert who also served as the Vice Chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan. He is the Inaugural Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University and was the former Vice Chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). His research focuses on issues of global public policy, especially those related to global climate change, South Asia, Muslim countries, environment and development, and human development. Read more about him here.