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No one expected the two US presidential candidates, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, to exchange courtesies in the first debate of the November 3 election. But what happened last night in Cleveland, Ohio, was worse than any commentator had anticipated.
The first hour of the debate, moderated by Fox News host Chris Wallace, was marked by constant insults and interruptions, with Donald Trump constantly talking about Joe Biden.
“It’s almost impossible to answer something with this clown,” said Joe Biden, on one of the occasions when he was most exasperated. Before that, the Democratic candidate had already rolled his eyes and shot “Are you going to shut up, man?”, when Trump, once again, spoke about him by answering a question. At one point, Chris Wallace raised his voice and almost screamed, repeatedly asking Donald Trump to let the opponent speak. The incumbent president has shown that the aggressive style that led him to the Republican nomination and victory over Hillary Clinton four years ago is the same one he will show off in this election cycle.
However, CNN commentators, who broadcast the debate, found the positions taken by the president, namely the statements made about white militias and supremacists, disturbing and even dangerous.
When Chris Wallace asked Donald Trump if he condemned the actions of white and supremacist militiamen, the president began by saying yes but ended up doubting and then affirming what was interpreted in the opposite direction.
“Proud Guys, stay away and wait,” he said, statements that this far-right group immediately celebrated on social media, adorning their logos with the president’s words.
The issue of protests over police violence was one of the most contentious in the debate, with Trump accusing Biden of wanting to abolish the police and Biden calling the president “racist.”
In addition, all the important issues of the elections were addressed: the vacancy in the Supreme Court and the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett, the 205,000 dead from the covid-19 pandemic, the economic recession and the controversy surrounding the postal vote.
Trump was even forced to respond to news from The New York Times, according to which he has paid just $ 750 a year in federal income taxes since the beginning of his presidency. Earlier, the newspaper wrote, from the analysis of the tax returns to which it had access, the president had paid zero in previous years, for declaring substantial losses in his business.
None of this is true, Trump questioned. “I paid millions in taxes,” the president replied, at Chris Wallace’s insistence. From his podium, Biden has repeatedly asked Trump to show his tax returns. As he has done for the past four years, the president has argued that he cannot do so because the statements are being audited, but that one day everyone will “see.”
“He is the worst president the United States has ever had”
With a particularly offensive stance, Donald Trump repeated the formula of his rallies, reaching all the key points of the re-election platform. He said again that he did more in four years than any other president in history and especially “more than Biden in 47 years.” He also questioned the possibility of a transition after November 3: according to Trump, he will only lose to Biden if there is fraud. That is what he focused on when he considered that voting by mail, which will skyrocket in these elections, is “a disaster.”
Despite voting by mail himself, Trump called this process “a shame” because there are millions of ballots to automatically send to voters. The president, warning that the electoral results may not be known “for months”, guaranteed that ballots with a vote in his favor would be found in the trash and that there are others to sell or throw into the rivers.
Biden responded to this catastrophic scenario, saying that the military has been voting by mail since the end of the civil war and that the system works well. In addition, he recalled, there are several states, including Republicans, that have sent elections without problems. Addressing the camera and telling Biden’s voters to make sure that if he wins, Trump will be forced to leave the White House. A scenario in which the incumbent president refuses to leave is not possible, he guaranteed.
“Under this president, we become weaker, sicker, poorer, more divided, and more violent,” Biden said.
“He is the worst president the United States has ever had,” said the Democrat.
The Supreme, the covid and the environment
Trump defended his right to appoint another judge for the seat vacated by Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, saying he has “enough time” to do so even after the Nov. 3 election. Biden, of course, argued otherwise, saying that the American electorate must decide who will fill that vacancy.
It is a fundamental question, especially since Trump said he will count on the Supreme Court to “look at the bulletins” in case of suspected manipulation. He did not elaborate on what he meant by that, but we know that it was this court that determined George W. Bush’s victory over Al Gore in 2000, stopping the stories.
Regarding the covid-19 pandemic, which has already killed nearly 206,000 people in the United States, Trump rated it highly and compared it to what he called “the terrible job” carried out by Joe Biden during the H1N1 pandemic. in 2009.
Biden, then Barack Obama’s vice president, responded that 14,000 people died, not 205,000. He accused Trump of hiding the seriousness of the situation and continuing today without having a plan. The two argued vehemently over the vaccine, which Trump promised “for the next few weeks” and which Biden responded, citing the administration’s own clinical directors, that it will only be distributed en masse in mid-2021.
One (almost surprising) statement by Biden was that, speaking of his plan to combat climate change and create a green economy, he said he “does not support” the Green New Deal, the plan of the progressive wing of Democrats. Instead, Biden spoke of his plan, which focuses on decarbonizing the economy by creating “thousands of good, high-paying jobs.” He also promised to bring the United States back to the Paris Agreement.
And now?
Without intervals, this hour and a half of debate was considered disastrous by commentators and voters, due to the acidity of the confrontation and the insults. Trump attacked Biden’s son Hunter, calling him drugged and corrupt, and Biden, who was exalted in his son’s defense, had several moments when he called the president a “liar.”
Some background questions were left unanswered or unanswered. For example, what is the president’s plan to replace the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) and what exactly does Biden stand for when it comes to increasing Supreme Court seats and “filling” the ranks of the system? judicial like Trump himself? boasted of doing.
There are two more debates, one on October 15 and one on October 22, and the question of what is Joe Biden’s possible position on “bullying” that Donald Trump is already familiar with is pertinent. If he responds in the same way, the candidate runs the risk of being accused of lowering the level to the mud. If you don’t respond, you will appear weak.
“You are in control of determining what this country will become,” Biden said, once again speaking to the electorate. Or if it will be another four years of these lies ”.
Trump, who is behind in the polls and seems to dance with the prospect of violence if he loses, said something that can be terribly prescient: “This is not going to end well.”
