By Aaron Miller-
President Trump and Joe Biden accused each other of improper conduct during their final and at times comical debate, as both presidential candidates did their best to discredit and expose each other before an international television audience.
Joe Biden improved on last time’s performance in his election debate against US President Donald Trump which was criticised widely by the world’s media for its chaotic display, which the president nevertheless won by scoring more solid points. He was not credited one bit by the media because of his rough handling of Biden, on top of the obvious fact the president is no friend of the media for multiple obvious reasons.
Last night debate was more evenly weighted, Biden this time better prepared and more in the fighting spirit, delivered with more poise and direction. The 90-minute debate, moderated by NBC’s Kristen Welker, was a lot more civil than their first encounter, Trump notably complemented Ms Welker during the debate by saying ”I like how you are handling this”.
The pair clashed on crucial topics like the pandemic, national security and race, but this time the debate was organised in a way to avoid the kind of interruptions that marred the last debate. Mr Biden was more confident than he was last time, displaying more self assurance, and laughing from time to time in response to comments made by the president.
Trump was on the offensive again, as he sought to discredit Bidden in every way possible. The president condemned the idea of encouraging future lockdowns, citing Newyork as a ghost town ever since the city was lockdown to beat the raging virus claiming lives in their millions. Trump sees the proposed cure of Covid-19 as worse than the virus, stressing the danger of killing the economy in a bid to control the virus. Biden said his goal was to kill the virus, not the economy.
Mr.Trump and Biden both made unproven allegations against each other in relation to benefits from foreign sources, in particular Russia. Trump accused Biden of ”raking” in plenty of money from Russia, specifically naming £3.5m as a figure the Democratic nominee got from Russia.
Biden unsurprisingly put the president on the spot concerning undisclosed tax payments, flaunting the fact he has released his tax payments for the past 22 years. ”You haven’t released a solitary tax return”, the former U.S vice president said. Trump responded by promising to disclose his tax records, but said he had prepaid tens of millions of dollars in advance. Just show us and stop playing around, Bidden said”, after a mutual pointing of fingers alleging huge financial benefits from China and Ukraine.
After rump highlighted the Mueller investigation, which he said went through his financial records and found nothing, he said made reference to a none publicised claim in which he said China had promised to give 10% to ”the big man”, facing Bidden, and saying ”you are the big man”.
Poll Lead
Mr Biden has a clear lead in the polls with just under 2 weeks to go until the presidential election, but very little separates them in the key states that could decide the elections. Over 47 million people have already cast their ballots in a voting surge driven by the pandemic.
Snap polls from CNN, Data Progress and US Politics reveal that most respondents said Mr Biden won the debate by a margin of more than 50% to about 40%.
Following that political brawl, debate organisers this time muted microphones during the candidates’ opening statements on each topic to minimise disruption.
But the 90-minute debate, moderated by NBC’s Kristen Welker, was the scene of plenty of personal attacks between the opponents, whose mutual dislike was palpabl.