Trump vs. Biden: A tense debate marked by disqualifications

After weeks of harsh criticism from both sides, President Donald Trump and his Democratic contender, Joe Biden, met Tuesday night in the long-awaited first debate that took place in Cleveland, Ohio. The meeting was marked by chaos, as the president constantly interrupted the former vice president, causing a disorder criticized by analysts.

The first topic chosen by Fox host Chris Wallace was the Supreme Court and the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to fill the vacancy left by the late Liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Trump defended his candidate, while Biden argued that it should be the next President who fills the vacancy. As expected, he took the opportunity to defend Obamacare, one of the issues that will be heard by the Court a week after the November 3 elections. “The reality is that everything he has said up to here is a lie. Everybody knows it, ”Biden said, when discussing the health plan.

The second topic chosen was the coronavirus. The President defended his response to the pandemic and accused the media of not giving him enough credit for what he has done.

Biden, for his part, argued that the president cannot be trusted when it comes to the coronavirus. “We are in favor of a vaccine, but I don’t trust him at all. I know you don’t trust scientists, ”said the Democratic candidate speaking directly to the camera.

Then they went on to economic reactivation. The president defended his economic policies and the reopening of the country. “He (Biden) wants to close the country and I want to keep it open,” Trump said.

Moderator Chris Wallace tried to ask, amid the disruptions, whether Trump paid $ 750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017, as The New York Times reported earlier this week. The president finally responded and said he paid “millions of dollars.”

The heated debate that got messy to the point that they went from one topic to another and in which Trump became the center of attention. “I’ve done more in 47 months than you have in 47 years,” he told Biden.

As expected, the racial issue was present in the discussion. The president, speaking to his base, once again emphasized the concept of “law and order”, which he has maintained throughout the crisis of racial protests. Biden pointed out that there is a systemic injustice towards blacks, which is their electoral base.

As expected, Trump attacked Biden for his son Hunter’s business deals, telling him that he had made billions from jobs related to China and Ukraine. “China ate your lunch, Joe. And it’s no wonder – your kid comes in and takes out billions of dollars, and makes millions of dollars, ”Trump said.

The President entered the debate with a disadvantage in the polls, as he is estimated to be eight percentage points behind Biden. Regardless of this disadvantage, he behaved aggressively. “At times, he seemed more like a speaker than a participant, distracting and interrupting both Wallace and Biden by asking and answering questions and accusing both of being in cahoots,” the Times said. Sometimes the mess was such that Biden said, “Folks, do you have any idea what this clown is doing?”

Biden seemed unperturbed and even called Trump a racist and “Putin’s puppy.” In the end, the Democratic candidate called for mass voting, while Trump raised the specter of “electoral fraud.”

Following the Cleveland debate, Biden will campaign by train this Wednesday in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania in an attempt to put pressure on the President in two states he won in 2016. Trump will travel to Minnesota, a state he lost by a few votes in 2016.