Nominees accused each other of corruption
“I have not taken a penny from any foreign source in my life. Not a single penny,” Biden said, before turning the accusation about foreign business entanglements on Trump. He said 22 years of his tax returns were available for those who want to scrutinize his finances. “Release your tax returns or stop talking about corruption,” he told the president.
In advance of the debate, many Republican allies and advisers of the president were saying he needed to appear calm and presidential (after his recent “crazy uncle” appearances at the first debate and his Town Hall), and zoom in like a laser on economic issues that persuadable voters outside his base care about. “None of his advisers expressed any great confidence he would do that,” deadpanned an Axios writer summarizing the insider talk.
Trump did seem to have taken the advice to avoid interruptions, and appeared mostly calmer — scowling and sometimes taking an annoyed tone but never flying off the handle. Biden smiled more while the moderator spoke, but did get worked up at points — peppering his remarks with his trademark “c’mon!” like he was seasoning a soup.
President Trump clearly wanted to bring the complicated allegations about Biden’s son Hunter that he and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani have been pushing for more than a year to the forefront of the race. The allegations have been revived by reporting by the New York Post (based on the allegedly stolen contents of an alleged computer allegedly owned by Hunter Biden) in recent days that other media outlets have found questionable, but Trump and his campaign suggest it’s a smoking gun that should have Biden put in jail.
On a campaign media call before the debate, one of Trump’s advisers refused to discuss any topic other than Hunter Biden with reporters. Trump brought to the debate as his guest Tony Bobulinski, a former business partner of Hunter Biden’s who has endorsed the validity of some emails at the heart of the New York Post reporting, and who was at the press conference Trump referenced. Trump has been crying wolf about Hunter Biden for more than a year — he wants the townsfolk finally come running in the week before the election.
The two men bickered back and forth about it — accusing each other of corruption, with reference to Trump’s own foreign businesses and his hotels where foreign governments book stays while lobbying the government — but not a lot of clarity was brought to the question, other than Biden’s firm denials. Biden obviously wanted to keep the focus on COVID, an area where a strong majority of Americans think Trump’s mismanagement has been significant.
“220,000 dead,” Biden said in his first words of the debate. “If you hear nothing else I say tonight, hear this ... anybody who’s responsible for that many American deaths should not remain president.”
Trump said that in the face of a “worldwide problem,” he had done well. “It will go away, and as I say, we’re rounding the turn.” 1,208 Americans died of COVID-19 on Wednesday, and more than 64,000 new cases were diagnosed. Trump said a vaccine would be available in “weeks,” but said he could not guarantee it when questioned by moderator NBC News correspondent Kristen Welker. “We have to recover. We can’t close up our nation or we’re not going to have a nation,” Trump said.
Biden was asked about the possibility of more shutdowns, and Americans who fear the effect on the economy. “I’m going to shut down the virus, not the country,” Biden said.
Aproducer at the debate had a mute button to employ against the candidates if they attempted to interrupt each other, after Trump’s frequent interruptions of Biden (and Biden’s less frequent but interruptions of Trump in response) created a chaotic mess of a first debate.
The election is less than two weeks away, and more than 47 million people have already voted. Even in the best circumstances, it’s not clear that many minds are changed by debates, and in 2020s odd and crisisplagued campaign, only a tiny percentage of voters tell pollsters they remain undecided. But for Trump, who trails in polls, it remained his last obvious chance to call voters over to his side.
Trump said Biden would introduce socialized medicine because of the influence of his party and his running mate Kamala Harris. Biden countered that he wanted only a public option for those without insurance. “The idea that Donald Trump is lecturing me on social security and medicare?
C’mon,” Biden said.
“The stock market will crash if you are elected,” Trump said.
“The idea that the stock market is booming is the only measure for him,” Biden responded. “Where I come from, the people of Scranton don’t live on the stock market.”
Trump may have scored points in their exchange on clean energy. While the president scoffed at the cost of environmental controls and dismissed energy sources such as windmills, he accused Biden of being against the oil industy and planning to ban fracking. When Biden flatly denied a plan to ban fracking, Trump had another question. “Would you close down the oil industry?”
“I’d transition from the oil indsutry, yes,” Biden said.
“Oh, transition from the oil industry. That’s a big statement,” Trump said excitedly, clearly picturing clipping the response for ads in states where the oil insudtry employs a lot of people.
Perhaps the most stark exchange came over the recent news that more than 500 children who were separated from their parents at the border in 2017 by the Trump administration remain orphaned because their deported parents cannot be found by government lawyers. Trump first tried to discuss the “cages” that had existed under Obama, and other prior administration immigration policies. When pushed on the question, Trump tried to suggest some of the children may have been brought in by “coyote” smugglers.
“They didn’t come with coyotes, they came with their parents. They were ripped from their parent’s arms,” Biden said. “It’s a violation of everything we stand for as a country.”
Trump talked of visiting the children in custody. “They are so well taken care of, the facilities are so clean,” he said.