Swing and a miss: Trump and Biden spent more time talking about golf than child care

Late into Thursday’s debate, the presidential candidates got a chance to discuss a topic that almost never makes top billing but affects millions: child care. 

What would they do to make child care more affordable? 

The question was quickly eclipsed by a dizzying ricochet of insults between former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, who instead argued about who ranked higher on presidential listicles. 

“They voted — he’s the worst president,” Trump said. “Look it up, go online,” Biden countered, saying it was Trump, in fact, “who’s the worst president in American history.”

If the ranking was presidents and their stance on child care, neither came out at the top of anyone’s list. 

Only Biden briefly touched on the subject, noting that Trump did “virtually nothing on child care.” 

“We should significantly increase the child care tax credit. We should significantly increase the availability of women and men or single parents to be able to go back to work, and we should encourage businesses to have child care,” Biden said, outlining the elements of a child care plan he attempted to pass through Congress in 2021 and 2022, but that ultimately failed. 

Total time: 22 seconds. 

A couple of minutes later, the two candidates were much more comfortable going back and forth about golf, their golf swings and who would win out. 

Total time: 56 seconds. 

Child care is an economic issue of enormous consequence for voters after years of rising costs have impacted parents’ — and especially moms’ — ability to stay in the workforce. In 2023, child care cost families nearly $12,000 on average and, in most states, child care surpasses the cost of in-state college tuition.

Biden has spoken widely about his interest in improving the affordability of child care but hasn’t been able to pass legislation that would get it done. Trump, for his part, has spoken very little on the subject, despite it being a priority for his daughter, Ivanka Trump, during his presidential term. 

The inclusion of child care in the debate came after advocacy from Moms First, an organization that pushes for child care and other family policies, which circulated a petition asking CNN to ask about child care. Moms First CEO Reshma Saujani delivered more than 13,000 signatures to CNN from parents across the country this week. 

“Moms, parents, caregivers: Don’t let anyone gaslight you into thinking you child care problems are yours and yours alone to solve. This is a systemic issue that needs a systemic response,” Saujani said on Instagram Thursday night. “We just need a petition to make them actually answer the child care question.”