[ad_1]
The first debate of the presidential elections in the United States took place this Tuesday night. Democrat Joe Biden and incumbent Donald Trump came face to face after several months of campaign events across the country.
The discussion was messy and there was a lot of shouting, but the event touched on some of the crucial issues for Americans who will go to the polls on November 3.
The following are several of the key moments of the duel televised from the city of Cleveland, Ohio, and which lasted 90 minutes without commercial breaks.
Analysts consider that “there were no winners” and point out that despite President Trump’s efforts to denigrate Biden’s mental acuity before the debate, the Democratic candidate performed better than expected and managed to frustrate the Republican’s followers.
Also read: Trump and Biden exchanged attacks before the expected first presidential debate
Sharp tongues
Political analysts had expected the Republican president to go on the attack, but the 77-year-old former vice president was the one who ended up uttering some of the harshest insults of the night, calling Trump a “clown” and a “liar.”
“Everything he’s saying so far is just a lie. I’m not here to scream his lies,” Biden said.
At another point, amid constant interruptions from the president, which angered even moderator Chris Wallace, Biden replied, “It’s difficult to talk to this clown, sorry, this person.”
And then he blurted out, “Are you going to shut up, man?” A phrase that was immediately capitalized on by Biden’s campaign on $ 30 T-shirts for sale.
The Democratic candidate for the White House said that Trump was “the worst president the United States has ever had.”
But the 74-year-old real estate mogul turned president also threw some darts at him, berating Biden for criticizing his response to the coronavirus and for telling him that he needed to get “much smarter” to prevent more deaths.
“You graduated with the lowest or almost lowest grades in your class. Never use the word smart with me. Never use that word with me. There’s nothing smart about you, Joe,” Trump replied.
And those taxes?
The explosive New York Times report published two days ago, which indicated that Trump paid almost no federal income taxes in either 2016 or 2017, obviously emerged.
When Wallace asked Trump to say directly whether he had paid more than $ 750 in income taxes in those years, not other taxes, he initially shied away from responding and, when pressed, said he had paid “millions of dollars” .
“Show us your tax returns,” said Biden, who released his own 2019 statement before the debate, showing that he and his wife had paid nearly $ 300,000.
“You’ll see them,” Trump replied, without saying when.
Dragging the children
Much has been said and written about Biden’s son Hunter’s business in Ukraine and China. Trump has tried many times to present it as evidence of misconduct by the former vice president.
“China made fun of you, Joe. And no wonder your son goes and takes out billions of dollars,” Trump said.
Biden flipped the subject, suggesting he could “talk all night” about Trump’s family and “ethics.” Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, works as her father’s senior adviser, and her husband Jared Kushner is a senior White House counsel.
“My family lost a fortune to come and help with the government,” Trump said.
Later in the debate, Trump spoke again about Hunter Biden, claiming he had been “dishonorably discharged” from the military for drug use.
Biden exploded, saying, “My son, like a lot of people you know in your house, had a drug problem. He got over it. He solved it.”
And he mentioned his son Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015, to respond to Trump’s comments about the military as “losers” and “fools.”
“He wasn’t a loser. He was a patriot,” Biden said.
White supremacists
Wallace asked both candidates to comment on the racial tensions that have convulsed the United States in recent months, following a series of deaths of black citizens at the hands of the police.
When the moderator asked Trump if he would condemn “white supremacists” and ask them to stand down, Trump said he was “willing to do that.”
But he added: “Proud Boys, back off and wait. But I’ll tell you what, I’ll tell you what, someone has to do something with Antifa,” referring to the far-left movement.
Proud Boys, a far-right group, appeared to adopt the phrase, with a well-known social media account posting a logo that read “Back off, hold on.”
Accept the electoral result
When the chaotic debate came to an end, Wallace asked the two contenders if they would commit to respecting the election results.
Trump has not explicitly ensured a peaceful transfer of power should he lose.
“We may not know for months,” Trump said of the election results. “This is not going to end well,” added the Republican president, who has been saying for weeks, without evidence, that the vote by mail could skew the result.
“I urge my supporters to go to the polls and watch very carefully,” he said.
Biden promised to honor the results “after all the ballots are counted.”
“That will be the end. And if it’s me, that’s fine. If it’s not me, I’ll support the result,” he promised.
Also read: Trump and Biden, this was the first presidential debate of the United States
[ad_2]
