Contempt, death and taxes at first debate
CLEVELAND — Two topics were inescapable at the first debate between President Donald Trump and former vice president Joe Biden: death and taxes.
And there was much to learn, if you could get past the mutual bickering and Trump’s relentless interruptions, at times halting his chatter as Biden paused, then resuming as soon as Biden tried to continue.
“It’s hard to get any word in with this clown,” Biden said midway through Tuesday’s
90-minute debate, a sneering, snarling clash between rivals who made no effort to conceal their contempt for each other.
“People understand. It’s 47 years, you’ve done nothing,” Trump said again and again, complaining that the public would understand just how great his presidency has been if not for “the fake news . ... They give me bad press, because that’s the way it is,”
More than 206,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 since March, when the president was still insisting the outbreak was under control.
That crisis was at top of the agenda as the rivals met in Cleveland on Tuesday night, along with latebreaking revelations that Trump paid no federal income tax in most of the last 20 years and reported staggering losses from ventures that supposedly made him a billionaire. Trump did not dispute that he paid just $750 in federal income tax each of his first two years as president.
“Show us your tax returns,” Biden said.
“You’ll see it as soon as it’s finished,” said Trump, the first president in decades to not disclose his tax returns. “One year, I paid $27 million.”
Biden highlighted the contrast by releasing his own 2019 tax return hours before the clash in Cleveland, showing that he paid nearly $300,000 on income of just under $1 million.
Although they called each other “Joe” and “Donald,” it took little time for bickering to set in.
“I’m not here to call out his lies. Everybody knows he’s a liar,” Biden said early in the evening. Later, he said: “He’s Putin’s puppy.”
Trump interrupted frequently throughout the debate, raising Biden’s ire.
“Will you shut up, man. This is so unpresidential,” Biden blurted out 15 minutes into the debate.
Trump arrived in Cleveland trailing Biden in national polls but with fresh excitement among his base after Saturday’s nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, and the possibility of tilting the court rightward for a generation after the death of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Part of that fight is over fairness — should Trump get to fill the seat so close the election? — but there are huge issues at stake, including abortion, religious freedom and gun rights, that motivate Republicans.
“The election has already started. Tens of thousands of people have already voted,” Biden said.
“People already had their say,” Trump responded. “I’m not elected for three years. I’m elected for four years.”
Biden also wasted no time reminding voters about those stakes.
“Why is it on the ballot? It’s not on the ballot,” Trump insisted, trying to delink the confirmation fight from his reelection, at least for the television audience, even though the court nomination has animated many of his supporters.