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NASHVILLE (REUTERS) – US President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden offered very contrasting views on the coronavirus pandemic, which is still raging, in the final presidential debate on Thursday (October 22) , seeking to persuade the few undecided voters left 12 days before November 3. choice.
Trump, a Republican, took a more moderate tone than during the chaotic first presidential debate in September, which was quickly derailed by his constant interruptions.
But Thursday’s showdown still featured many personal attacks between two men who show little respect for each other, and Trump kept fact-checkers busy by launching baseless corruption allegations at Biden and his family.
The televised gathering 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 and devastated the economy.
Opinion polls show Trump is behind Biden, although the race is tighter 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.
“We are about to enter a dark winter. A dark winter. And he has no clear plan.”
Trump defended his approach to the outbreak, saying the country could not afford to close deals again, even amid new surges.
“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?” Mr. Biden answered. “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.
Opinion polls show that a majority of Americans disapprove of the president’s response to the virus.
Several U.S. states, including Ohio, the electoral transition state, reported record single-day increases in Covid-19 infections on Thursday, evidence that the pandemic is accelerating again.
Trump, whose instinct remains to run as an outsider, described Biden as a career politician whose nearly 50-year track record 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.
He also blamed Trump for avoiding responsibility for the pandemic.
“I take full responsibility,” Trump responded. “It’s not my fault he came here, it’s China’s fault.”
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 to Ukraine led to the president’s impeachment.
Trump and his children have been accused of having their own conflicts of interest since entering the White House in 2017, most related to the family’s international hotel and real estate businesses.
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 his family and mine. It’s about his family, and his family is suffering a lot.”
He also accused Trump of avoiding his taxes, citing a New York Times investigation that reported that Trump’s tax returns show 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. Biden called Trump “one of the most racist presidents” in history.
“Pour wood on every racist fire,” he 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.
Biden criticized Trump’s effort to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Affordable Care Act, the radical health care reform passed when Biden was vice president of President Barack Obama’s administration.
“People deserve affordable health care, period,” he 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 propose 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 is going to destroy the oil industry,” he 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.
On Thursday, the committee overseeing the debate removed the Plexiglass barriers separating the candidates after Trump provided evidence that he had tested negative for Covid-19, a source familiar with the matter said.
The commission also muted the candidates’ microphones to allow each to make two-minute statements on each new topic before turning them back on, in an effort to avoid the chaos of the first debate.
The temperature of the approximately 200 attendees was checked before entering the venue, and all were required to wear a medical mask at all times.
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