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US President Donald Trump speaks during the third and final presidential debate with Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, October 22, 2020. REUTERS / Jim Bourg / Pool
NASHVILLE – US President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden offered very contrasting views on the coronavirus pandemic still raging in Thursday’s final presidential debate, seeking to persuade the few remaining undecided voters. 12 days before the elections on November 3.
Trump, a Republican, adopted a more moderate tone than during the chaotic first presidential debate in September, when he repeatedly interrupted Biden. But Thursday’s standoff still featured many personal attacks between two men who show little respect for each other, and Trump kept fact-checkers busy by launching unfounded corruption allegations at Biden and his family.
The televised meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, represented one of the last opportunities for Trump to reshape a campaign dominated by a pandemic that has killed more than 221,000 people in the United States. Trump has lagged Biden in opinion polls for months, although the contest is fiercer in some states that are likely to decide the election.
“Anyone who is responsible for so many deaths should not remain president of the United States of America,” Biden said.
Trump defended his approach to the outbreak, saying the country could not afford to close deals again, even amid new waves.
“We are learning to live with it,” said Trump, who has played down the virus for months. “We have no choice.”
“Learn to live with it?” Biden replied. “Come on. We’re dying with it.”
Trump claimed that a vaccine was potentially “weeks away”. Most experts, including administration officials, have said that a vaccine is unlikely to be widely available until mid-2021.
Several U.S. states, including the state of Ohio, which has not taken place in the election, reported record single-day increases in COVID-19 infections on Thursday, evidence that the pandemic is accelerating again.
Trump, whose instinct is still to run as an outsider, portrayed Biden as a career politician whose record of nearly 50 years was insubstantial. But Biden returned time and again to Trump’s nearly four years as president, pointing to the economic damage the virus has done to people’s lives.
After an initial segment on the pandemic, Thursday’s showdown focused on quick exchanges over whether any of the candidates had inappropriate foreign entanglements.
Trump repeated his accusations that Biden and his son Hunter participated in unethical practices in China and Ukraine. No evidence has been verified to support the allegations, and Biden called them false and discredited.
Trump’s effort to uncover dirt on Hunter Biden’s business ties in Ukraine led to the president’s impeachment. The president and his children have been accused of conflicts of interest of their own since he entered the White House in 2017, most related to the family’s international hotel and real estate businesses.
‘Malarkey’
Biden defended his family and said unequivocally that he had never earned “a single penny” from a foreign country, before turning to accuse Trump of trying to distract Americans.
“There’s a reason he’s bringing up all this nonsense,” Biden said, looking directly at the camera. “It’s not about your family and mine. It’s about your family, and your family is suffering a lot. “
He accused Trump of avoiding paying taxes, citing a New York Times investigation that reported that Trump’s tax returns show that he paid almost no federal income taxes for more than 20 years.
“Publish your tax returns or stop talking about corruption,” Biden said.
Trump, who has broken decades of precedent by refusing to release his tax returns, said he had paid “millions.” He again said that he would release his statements only once a long-standing audit was completed.
The candidates clashed over health care, Chinese politics and, after months of protests against racism, race relations, with Biden calling Trump “one of the most racist presidents” in history.
“He pours fuel into every racist fire,” Biden said. “This guy has a dog whistle as big as a foghorn.”
Trump responded by criticizing Biden’s authorship of a 1994 crime bill that increased the incarceration of minority defendants and claimed that he had done more for Black Americans than any president with the “possible” exception of Abraham Lincoln in the 1860s.
Disagree on health care
Biden criticized Trump’s effort to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate the Affordable Care Act of 2010, the sweeping health care reform passed when Biden was vice president in the administration of President Barack Obama.
“People deserve affordable health care, period,” Biden said, noting that the law prevented insurance companies from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.
Trump said he wanted to replace the ACA with something “much better” that offered the same protections, even though the administration has yet to come up with a comprehensive health plan despite promises to do so for years.
During a segment on climate change, Biden said his environmental plan would “transition the oil industry” in favor of renewable energy sources, prompting Trump to attack.
“It’s going to destroy the oil industry,” Trump said. “Will you remember that, Texas? Will you remember that, Pennsylvania?
Relatively few voters have yet to make up their minds, and Trump’s window to influence the outcome may be closing. A record 47 million Americans have already cast their votes, dwarfing the early voting total for the 2016 election.
The controversial first debate, when the two men exchanged insults, was watched by at least 73 million viewers. Trump rejected another planned debate last week after he switched to a virtual format following his COVID-19 diagnosis.
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