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US President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden fought over how to tame the raging coronavirus in the final 2020 debate, largely shelving the grudge that overshadowed their earlier showdown in favor of a more substantive exchange that highlighted their approaches very different from the main one. domestic and foreign challenges facing the nation.
With less than two weeks left until the election, Trump tried to present himself as the same outsider who first pitched voters four years ago, repeatedly saying he was not a politician. Biden, meanwhile, argued that Trump was an incompetent leader of a country facing multiple crises and tried to connect what he saw as the president’s failures with the everyday lives of Americans.
The night in Nashville focused on a battle for the president’s handling of the pandemic, which has killed more than 225,000 Americans and cost millions of jobs.
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Jim Bourg / AP
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, and the former vice president of the Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, converse at the same time during the final presidential debate at Belmont University.
COVID-19 DEBATE: ‘GO OUT’ OR ‘DARK WINTER’?
Trump declared that the virus will disappear, while Biden warned that the nation was heading towards “a dark winter.” Polls suggest it is the defining campaign issue for voters, with Biden declaring, “Anyone responsible for so many deaths should no longer be President of the United States of America.”
Trump defended his management of the nation’s deadliest health crisis in a century, dismissing Biden’s warning that the nation had a terrible stretch ahead of it due to spikes in infections. And he promised that a vaccine would be ready in weeks.
“It will go away,” Trump said, sticking with his optimistic assessment of the pandemic. “We are rounding out the turn. We are turning the corner. It goes ”.
The president said the worst problems are in states with Democratic governors, an argument that is no longer as true as before.
Biden vowed that his administration would yield to scientists fighting the pandemic and said Trump’s divisive focus on suffering states hampers the nation’s response.
“I don’t see this the way he does: blue states and red states,” Biden said. “They are all of the United States. And look at all the states that are having a peak in coronavirus, they are the red states. ”
Morry Gash / AP
President Donald Trump answers a question as former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden listens during the second and final presidential debate.
With Trump lagging behind and needing to change the trajectory of the campaign, the debate could prove pivotal, although more than 47 million votes have already been cast and there are fewer undecided voters than at this point in previous election years.
Their first debate was defined by angry interruptions, but Friday’s debate (NZT) was mostly softer in tone until near the end, when Trump resumed his tactic of meddling loudly.
In a campaign defined by ugly personal attacks, the night featured a surprising amount of substantive political debate, as the two abruptly broke up over the environment, foreign policy, immigration, and racial justice.
When Trump repeatedly asked Biden if he would “shut down the oil industry,” the Democratic standard-bearer said that he would “transition the oil industry, yes,” and replace it with renewable energy “over time.” ‘
Trump, in making a direct appeal to voters in energy producing states like Texas and the vital battlefield of Pennsylvania, seized upon the comment as “a great statement.”
Jim Bourg / AP
The Nashville debate offered them a final national stage to delineate markedly different visions of America.
TRUMP: ‘I KNOW MORE ABOUT THE WIND THAN YOU’
As the debate spread to climate change, Trump explained his decision to pull the United States out of the Paris climate agreement negotiated in 2015, declaring that it was an “ unfair ” pact that would have cost the country billions of dollars and hurt the United States. the companies.
Trump repeatedly claimed that Biden’s plan to address climate change and invest in green industries was developed by “AOC plus three,” referring to New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Biden chuckled for much of Trump’s response, saying, “I don’t know where it comes from.”
“I know more about the wind than you. It is extremely expensive. Kill all the birds, ” Trump told Biden, who laughed at the response.
On race, Biden criticized Trump’s previous refusals to condemn white supremacists and his attacks on the Black Lives Matter movement, declaring that the president “fuels every racist fire.”
“You know who I am. You know who he is. You know his character. You know my character,” Biden said. Rivals’ reputation for “honor and telling the truth” is clear, he said.
Trump responded by pointing to his efforts at criminal justice reform, criticizing Biden’s support for a 1990s crime bill that many feel are disproportionately incarcerated black men. Looking at the crowd, he declared himself “the least racist person in this room.”
Jim Bourg
A stopwatch is seen as Trump speaks during the final presidential debate. Both candidates were silenced during two-minute opening remarks on each topic.
BIDEN: ‘WHAT ARE YOU HIDING?’
On foreign policy, Biden accused Trump of dealing with a “bully” while holding summits with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. And closer to home, the former vice president joined the Trump administration’s policy of separating children from their parents trying to cross the southern border illegally.
Biden said the United States has learned from a New York Times they report that Trump only paid $ 750 a year in federal taxes while maintaining a “secret bank account” in China. The former vice president then noted that he has released all of his tax returns dating back 22 years and challenged the president to release his statements, saying, “What are you hiding?”
Trump said he closed his old account in China and claimed his accountants told him he “ prepaid tens of millions of dollars ” in taxes. However, as he has done for the past four years, after promising to release his taxes, he declined to say when he could.
Trump said that when it comes to healthcare, he would like to “end” the Obama-era Affordable Care Act, even in the midst of a pandemic, and propose “beautiful new health care” that protects coverage. of -existing conditions. Biden said the president has been talking about making such a move for a long time, but “never came up with a plan.”
He also denounced Trump’s claim that Biden wanted to socialize medicine, creating light between himself and the more liberal members of his party, whom he defeated in the Democratic primary.
“He thinks he is running against someone else,” the former vice president said. “He’s running against Joe Biden. I hit all those other people because I didn’t agree with them. ”
Mark Humphrey / AP
Supporters of President Trump cheer outside Belmont University during the second presidential debate.
In a visual reminder of the pandemic that has rewritten the norms of American society and fundamentally changed the campaign, sheets of Plexiglas were installed on stage Wednesday between the two men. But in the hours before the debate, they were withdrawn.
The debate, moderated by NBC Kristen Welker, it was a last chance for each man to present his case to a television audience of tens of millions of voters.
And questions arose beforehand about how Trump, whose intimidating performance in the first debate was seen by attendees as a mistake that turned off viewers, would act in the middle of a stretch of the campaign in which he has angrily targeted media outlets. communication and deeply unleashed personal attacks on Biden and his adult son.
When he feels cornered, Trump often lashes out, making himself as negative as possible. In an astonishing moment during the 2016 campaign, in an effort to deviate from the release of the Access Hollywood tape in which he is heard bragging about groping women, Trump held a press conference just before a debate with Hillary Clinton during the which appeared with women. that he had accused Bill Clinton of sexual assault. He then invited them to watch as members of the audience.
Mark Humphrey / AP
People demonstrate in front of Belmont University, where the second debate was held.
In a similar move, the Trump campaign held another surprise pre-debate press conference, this time with Tony Bobulinski, a man who said he was Hunter Biden’s former business partner and made unsubstantiated allegations that the vice president’s son consulted. with his father on matters related to China. business deals.
Trump made similar, albeit vague, allegations from the scene of the debate and exchanges about Hunter Biden did not dominate the night, as both campaign attendees thought it could happen. Biden declared the discussion about family entanglements a “hoax” and accused Trump of not wanting to talk about the underlying issues.
Turning to the camera and to the millions of viewers at home, he said: “This is not about your family and mine. It’s about your family, and your family is suffering a lot. “
