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US President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden collided on Thursday 12 days before the election. In what many saw as a great opportunity for the president to recover the distance lost in the polls, he was more measured in a more restricted debate format, and despite the political and personal attacks, his challenger seemed to resist.
The imposition of rules to avoid the verbal abuse of the first debate worked and -as a result- the Donald trump more solid, which at times cornered Joe biden reiterating that he cannot promise now what he has not done in 47 years in politics.
The 74-year-old White House tenant, lagging in the polls for Nov. 3, and the 77-year-old former vice president argued without interruption, shouting or insults in a very different tone from last month’s chaotic televised duel. Meeting moderator Kristen Welker, the White House correspondent for NBC News, had a button to silence the contestants, which had not happened in the first, chaotic encounter.
Trump insisted on his role as stranger in a deeper debate, and put Biden on the ropes by denying that the current administration built the cages where Central American minors who crossed the border were imprisoned and later separated from their parents.
“They built the cages. They said that I put them. And then a photo came out in a newspaper, and they said, look at the cages, President Trump built them. And then it became known that they were built in 2014. It was him, “said the president.
The plan, devised to contain the growing arrival of undocumented immigrants, the majority families from Central America, involved the separation of nearly 2,700 children from their parents. This week it emerged that the parents of 545 of those children could not yet be located.
Trump defended the policy of “zero tolerance” to irregular immigration and claimed that children had been brought to the southern border by “coyotes” and “bad people.”
“I will be president of the United States, not vice president,” Biden said, vowing that in his first 100 days in office he will send a law to Congress to facilitate citizenship for more than 11 million undocumented people, including those children.
Managing the pandemic
Criticism of Trump for his management of the covid-19 pandemic was Biden’s heaviest weapon, which predicted a “dark winter” for a country that mourns more than 220,000 deaths and where millions have lost their jobs.
“Anyone who is responsible for so many deaths should not remain President of the United States”, he claimed.
“We are fighting it very energetically,” Trump replied, stating that the vaccine “is on the way” and will be announced “in weeks”, despite what his own specialists predict.
Trump, who arrived on stage without a mask in Nashville, Tennessee, three weeks after being even hospitalized for the coronavirus, spoke of his own recovery, once again claiming to be “immune.”
“He says we are learning to live with it. People are learning to die from it, ”Biden replied.
Hunter Biden’s Shadow
As expected, Trump asked Biden for “explanations” about the corruption allegations related to the activities of his son Hunter in China and Ukraine, when the Democratic candidate was vice president of Barack Obama (2009-2017).
Biden rejected any wrongdoing. “I have never received a penny from abroad in my entire life,” he said. “Nothing was unethical.”
And, already on the offensive, he questioned Trump about having a bank account in China and the non-publication of his tax returns in the United States, after the leak of tax data showing that he paid a maximum of $ 750 in federal taxes to rent during the year you ran for president.
Trump responded that he has many bank accounts and that they are all registered. “I am a businessman doing business,” he said, noting that the account dated from 2013 and was closed in 2015.
Messages to Latinos
Shortly before the debate, Trump and Biden exchanged messages addressed to the 32 million Latinos eligible to vote, in segments broadcast by the Spanish-language network Telemundo.
“No one has done more for Hispanics,” said the president. In addition, he highlighted his closeness to the “Venezuelan community” in Florida, a key state to win the elections.
Biden said that Trump “is deporting thousands of Cubans and Venezuelans” to “dictatorial regimes.” “I will grant Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to Venezuelans,” he promised.
Ultimately, the debate illustrated two antagonistic worldviews also on climate change or health coverage, in the last face-to-face between the two candidates before the November 3 elections.
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