Debate offers sharp contrast on issues
President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden fought over how to tame the coronavirus during the campaign’s closing debate, largely shelving the rancor that overshadowed their previous face-off in favor of a more substantive exchange that high
lighted their vastly different approaches to the major domestic and foreign challenges facing the nation.
The Republican president declared the virus will “go away.” Biden countered that the nation was heading toward “a dark winter.”
“Anyonewho is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the United States of America,” Biden said.
Trump said the U.S. has done more to combat the virus thanany othernation and “we can’t lockourselvesup in a basement like Joe has.”
Trump said the blame for the virus should be directed at China, which misled health officials and allowed its people to travel across the globe to spread the infection.
Biden’s approach to deal with the virus is to consider extended lockdowns, which have proven ineffective all over the world, and a wearing masks “all the time.” Trump countered that lockdowns cause more harm, citing increases in poverty, domestic violence, alcoholism and suicide in addition to the economic damage.
With less than two weeks until the election, Trump portrayed himself as the same outsider he first pitched to voters four years ago, repeatedly saying he wasn’t a politician, often referring to Biden’s 47 years in politics with little to show for it.
Biden, meanwhile, argued that Trump was an incompetent leader of a country facing multiple crises and tried to connect what he saw as the president’s failures to the everyday lives of Americans, especially when it comes to the pandemic.
The president, who promised a vaccine within weeks, said the worst problems a reinstates with Democratic governors. Trump also said U.S. cases are rising because the nation leads the world in testing. Biden, meanwhile, vowed that his administration would defer to scientists on battling the pandemic
and said that Trump’s divisive approach on suffering states hindered the nation’s response.
“I don’t look at this in terms of theway he does — blue states and red states,” Biden said. “They’re all the United States. And look at all the states that are having such a spike in the coronavirus — they’re the red states.”
After a first debate defined by angry interruptions, the Thursday event featured a mostly milder tone. And in a campaign defined by ugly personal attacks, the night featured a surprising amount of substantive policy debate as the two broke sharply on the environment, foreign policy, immigration and racial justice.
When Trump repeatedly asked Biden if he would “close down the oil industry,” the Democratic standardbearer said he “would transition from the oil industry, yes,” and that he would replace it by renewable energy “over time.” Trump, making a direct appeal to voters in energy producing states like Texas and the vital battleground of Pennsylvania, seized upon the remark as “a big statement.”
Biden continued to make contradictory statements on fracking, a leading energy source in places like Pennsylvania andOhio. Although he is on tape dozens of times saying he will ban fracking, Biden claimed Thursday he is not against fracking, a process of injecting liquid at high pressure into subterranean rocks to force open existing fissures and extract oil
or gas.
Perhaps sensing that the comment could soon appear in Trump campaign ads, Biden did a little cleanup boarding his plane after the debate, declaring, “We’re not going to ban fossil fuels. We’ll get rid of the subsidies of fossil fuels but not going to get rid of fossil fuels for a long time.”
As the debate swept to climate change, Trump explained his decision to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord negotiated in 2015, declaring it was an unfair pact that would have cost the country trillions of dollars and hurt businesses, while giving a free pass to China, the world’s biggest polluter.
Trump repeatedly claimed Biden’s plan to tackle climate change and invest in green industries was developed by “AOC plus three,” referring toNewYork Rep. AlexandriaOcasio-Cortez. Biden chuckled during much of Trump’s answer and said, “I don’t know where he comes from.”
On race, Biden called out Trump’s attacks on theBlack Lives Matter movement, declaring that the president “pours fuel on every single racist fire.”
“You knowwho I am. You know who he is. You know his character. You know my character,” Biden said. The rivals’ reputations for “honor and for telling to truth” are clear, he said.
Trump countered by pointing out his efforts on criminal justice reform and blasting Biden’s support of a 1990s Crime Bill that many
feel disproportionately incarcerated Black men. Staring into the crowd, he declared himself“the least racist person in this room .”
Turning to foreign policy, Biden accused Trump of dealing with a “thug” while holding summits with the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un. Trump countered that the North Korean dictator has stopped testing long-range missiles since the meetings. And closer to home, the former vice president laced into the Trump administration’s policy of separating children from their parents trying to illegally cross the southernborder. Trump said the policy is more humane the program of placing children in cages under the Obama/Biden administration.
Biden said that America has learned fromaNew York Times report that Trump paid only $750 a year in federal taxeswhile holding “a secret bank account” inChina. The former vice president then noted he’s released all of his tax returns going back 22 years and challenged the president to release his returns, saying, “What are you hiding?”
Trump said he closed his formeraccount inChina long before he ran for president and claimed his accountants told him he “prepaid tens of millions of dollars” in taxes. The $750 cited by the newspaper was a filing fee, Trump said, adding he pays taxes in advance.
By mentioning China, Biden opened the door for
Trump to bring up growing concern about Joe Biden’s involvement with his son’s business dealings in China, Russia and Ukraine. Hunter Biden received millions of dollars from foreign interests and awhistleblower and former business associate of Hunter Biden now claims Joe Biden received some of themoney.
Biden declared the discussion about family entanglements “malarkey.”
He dismissed the accusationsasRussianmisinformation, although the whistleblower, Tony Bobulinski, said he will turn over evidence to theFBIand is also scheduled to testify before Congressional committees.
As the exchange between Trump and Biden became tense, Trump pointed to Biden and said, “He’s a corrupt politician.”
Trump said that when it comes to health care, he would like “to terminate” the Obama-era Affordable Care Act and come up “with a brand new beautiful health care,” that protects coverage for preexisting conditions. Biden said the president has been talking about making such a move for years but “he’s never come up with a plan.”
He also denounced Trump’s claim that Biden wanted to socialize medicine, creating daylight between himself and themore liberal members of his party whom he defeated in the Democratic primaries. Biden supports what he calls a “public option” for health coverage, which many believe is another way of ending private health insurance and pushing government-run health care.