The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Final encounter highlights policies
President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden met for the second and last time on a debate stage after a previously scheduled town hall debate was scrapped when the Republican incumbent contracted the coronavirus. For Trump, the matchup at Tennessee’s Belmont University on Thursday was perhaps the final opportunity to change the dynamics of a race dominated by his response to the pandemic and its economic fallout. For Biden, it was 90 minutes to solidify his position with less than two weeks before the election. Here are key takeaways:
COVID- 19TAKE
Trump’s defense of his handling of the coronavirus remains a drag on his campaign. The opening topic of the debate was predictable.
Asked to outline his plan for the future, Trump asserted his prior handling was without fault and predicted a rosy reversal to the pandemic.
“We’re rounding the turn, we’re rounding the corner,” Trump said. “It’s going away.”
Biden’s reply: “Anyone who’s responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the United States of America.”
ATTACKING OBAMACARE
Trump and Biden each sought to position himself as the defender of American’s health care, keenly aware that it ranked among the top issues for voters even before the coronavirus pandemic struck.
But Trump’s efforts to repeal the Obama- era Affordable Care Act proved to be a liability, as Biden hammered his efforts to strip coverage from tens of millions of Americans and his lack of a plan to cover those with preexisting conditions.
Biden, by contrast, fended off Trump’s attack that his plan to reinforce the Obamaera law with a “public option” amounted to a step toward socialized medicine by relying on his well- established public persona — and his vanquishing of Democratic primary rivals with more liberal health care policies.
TONING IT DOWN
Three weeks after drawing bipartisan criticism for his frequent interruptions, Trump adopted a more subdued tone.
Trump took to asking moderator Kristen Welker for the opportunity to follow up on Biden’s answers — “If I may?” — rather than jumping in. There still were digs.
“We can’t lock ourselves up in a basement like Joe does,” Trump said, reprising his spring and summer attacks on Biden staying at his residence rather than campaigning in- person amid the pandemic.
Biden smiled, laughed and shook his head. He mocked Trump for once suggesting bleach helped kill coronavirus.
The two men had a lengthy back- and- forth about their personal finances and family business entanglements.
INDIRECT PERSONAL ATTACKS
Aiming to alter the trajectory of the race, Trump returned to a tactic that he believes boosted him to the Oval Office four years ago — personal attacks on his opponent.
Trump leveled allegations against Biden and his son Hunter in an attempt to cast his rival and his family as corrupt.
“I don’t make money from China, you do. I don’t make money from Ukraine, you do,” Trump said.
Trump offered no proof for his assertions.
When Biden sought to change the subject from the Trump’s attacks on his family to issues more relatable to voters, Trump fired back with the charge that Biden’s canned line reflected him being “just a typical politician,” adding, “Come on, Joe, you can do better.”
Both candidates struggled to explain why they weren’t able to accomplish more while in office. Instead, they blamed Congress for its inaction.
CLIMATE
Trump and Biden faced off on global climate change in the first extensive discussion of the issue in a presidential debate in 20 years.
Biden sounded the alarm for the world to address a warming climate, as Trump took credit for pulling the U. S. out of a major international accord to do just that. Trump asserted he was trying to save American jobs, while taking credit for some of the cleanest air and water the nation has seen in generations.
Biden called for investment to create new environmentally friendly industries. “Our health and our jobs are at stake,” he said.
Biden also spoke of a transition from the oil industry, which Trump seized upon, asking voters in Texas and Pennsylvania if they were listening.
FOREIGNPOLICY
Biden got a chance to talk a little foreign policy. The former vice president loved the topic in the early months of the Democratic presidential primary, but the general election has been dominated by the pandemic and other national crises.
He used it to challenge Trump’s relationship with North Korea’s authoritarian leader Kim Jong Un. “His buddy, who’s a thug,” Biden said, arguing that Trump’s summit with Kim “legitimized” a U. S. adversary and potential nuclear threat.
Trump defended his “different kind of relationship ... a very good relationship” with Kim, prompting Biden to retort that nations “had a good relationship with Hitler before he, in fact, invaded the rest of Europe.”