Third Presidential Debate: Use of Storytelling, Emotions, and Framing with The 2ndAmendment

On Wednesday October 20 in Las Vegas Nevada, the third presidential debate of 2016 took place. The past two time Hillary and Donald, heated arguments dominated the conversations. This time was no different.

Moderator, Chris Wallace, started the candidates on some controversial topics, such as The Supreme Court and The Constitution.

Clinton had the stage first, saying she wants a supreme court that will stand up for women’s rights and the LBGT community, and stand against Citizen’s United.

Next, Trump took an opportunity to pivot away from matters, such as women’s rights, that make him look unpresidential, to talk about the 2nd Amendment.

“We need a Supreme Court that in my opinion is going to uphold the second amendment and all amendments, but the second amendment which is under absolute siege.”

This began the conversation (which was surprisingly tame).

Clinton rebutted saying,

“I understand and respect the tradition of gun ownership that goes back to the founding of our country, but I also believe that there can be and must be reasonable regulation.”

Each candidate made their stance, but how did they do it?

Clinton talked about gun control through storytelling and appealed to the emotions of her audience. Similar to the My Mom political ad on gun violence. She began her statement by saying, “I lived in Arkansas for 18 wonderful years.” This is very typical of a fairytale which often begins with A long time ago in a land far far away.

She also appeals to emotions later after Wallace mentions the Heller Decision. She says, “Well, I was upset because unfortunately, dozens of toddlers injure themselves, even kill people with guns because unfortunately, not everyone who has loaded guns in their homes takes appropriate precautions.” Here Clinton identifies her anger that will resonate with others who felt upset about the court’s decision. She then allows for others to understand her emotion with the information on toddlers.

What do you think? How do you think that Trump’s argument stood up to Clinton’s?

Click here to see a full transcript of the debate.

Click here to watch the debate.

Political Campaign Advertisements: Framing of Hillary Clinton in regards to Gun Control

Although the 2016 presidential campaign differs from traditional campaigns, one thing remains constant, the effect political ads have on voter decisions.

Just like artists frame their pieces, campaigns aim to frame candidates. Rhetorical framing happens when an object, situation, or person has been described in a way that leads the audience to believe a certain way. In this campaign, Trump frames Clinton as untrustworthy, hypocritical, untransformative, and weak. While she tries to frame herself as nurturing, knowledgeable, relatable, and strong.

Nurturing, Protective Mother

Hillary Clinton informs her audience of her stance through the use of positive, story-telling ads. In one ad title My Mom, the daughter of a victim of the Sandy Hook Shooting describes the loss of her mother, the principle of the school. It starts with wedding pictures and the daughter telling the story of planning her wedding with her mother. Scenes of ambulance lights and a news article covering the shooting appear on screen. Next the daughter says,

“No one is fighting harder to reform our gun laws than Hillary Clinton”

The narration continues with the daughter stating that Clinton “reminds me of my mother”.

In this ad, Clinton uses testimonial to reach her target audience of younger, college educated women. Hillary frames herself as a loving caring motherly figure. This ad extols Hillary virtues through the use of narrative and story-telling.

Hypocrite Hillary

While Clinton frames herself as protective and nurturing in her gun control political ads, Trump attacks her practices during his speeches.

Donald Trump: "Hillary wants to essentially abolish the Second Amendment." pic.twitter.com/jEppTyaUbS

— POLITICO (@politico) August 9, 2016

Because harsh backlash happened after Trump’s comment, “2nd Amendment people” should “take care” of Hillary, the NRA, The National Rifle Association, decided that they should intervene and distribute an attack ad instead of doing something more extreme (which could have been implied with Trump’s controversial quote).

In this particular ad, the NRA focuses on framing Hillary as a “hypocrite”. The ad starts with black SUVs escorted by police vehicles pulling up to a private jet. Hillary steps out of the SUV and armed guard walk her to the plane. The ad says that Hillary “tours on private jets protected by guards for thirty years, but she doesn’t believe in your right to keep a gun at home for self defense”. Because Trump did not attach his approval, this ad has the ability to attack Clinton as hard as it wants. PACs do not abide by the same rules as candidates. In fact, most attack ads which occur during a normal political campaign are paid for and distributed by PACs.

What does framing mean for the election?

With citizens already heading to the polls for early voting to elect the next president, it is important to understand how framing effects their decisions. For those who watch NRA’s ad, they could see Hillary as a hypocrite or untrustworthy. For those who watched the My Mom ad, they could see Hillary as someone who will nurture The United States of America back to health after the gun violence occurring across the country.

Now shake hands and be friends

It seems for once that our major parties agree on one issue. What would that issue be? Gun control.

While many of the details of the 2nd Amendment rhetoric differ, even our polar opposite political parties agree that guns in the wrong hands can be detrimental. On Tuesday October 4th, Vice Presidential candidates Mike Pence and Tim Kaine took the stage for their first debate in the 2016 election.

Initializing the controversial question concerning the issues The United States is facing with law enforcement and race relations. Elaine Quijano brings up the Dallas Police Shooting. She said, “Do we ask too much of police officers in this country, and how specifically do you address the chief’s [David Brown] concerns [with mental health funding and putting off blame on cops]?”

Kaine addressed the chief’s concerns by discussing the issue of background checks.

“I’m a gun owner. I’m a strong 2nd amendment supporter, but I got a lot of scar tissue because when I was governor of Virginia there was a horrible shooting at Virginia Tech and we learned that through that painful situation that gaps in the background record check system should’ve been closed and it could have prevented that crime. So we’re going to work to do things like close background record checks and if we do, we won’t have the tragedies like we did. One of those killed at Virginia Tech was named Liviu Librescu. He was a 70 plus year old Romanian holocaust survivor. He had survived the holocaust, then he survived the Soviet Union take over of his country, but then he was a visiting professor at Virginia Tech and he couldn’t survive the scourge of gun violence. We can support the 2nd amendment and do things like background record checks and make it safer and that will make police safer too.”

The attention was focused on the issue of allowing individual’s with mental health concerns the ability to bare arms. He does this through the use of enthymemes. Not once in his narrative did Kaine mention that the shooter, Seung Hui Cho, had a history of mental illness. Instead he allowed the audience to make the connections.

After a lavish story of growing up with a father who served as a police officer, Mike Pence made a statement that showed his agreement with Kaine. He said, “at the risk of agreeing with you.” If one goes to Donald Drumpf’s campaign website, s/he will find a list of Drumpf’s 2nd amendment and gun control policies. Listed among them is this:

According to a Pew Research survey in July 2015, 85% of the public – including large majorities of both Republicans (79%) and Democrats (88%) – favored making private gun sales and sales at gun shows subject to background checks. There was also bipartisan support for laws to prevent people with mental illness from purchasing guns. [Pew Research, Jan. 5, 2016]

So it seems that for once, Both Democrats and Republicans see eye to eye on the issue of mental health and gun control. It will be interesting to see if this issue will be brought up in upcoming debates this year.