Agency Report
Trump adopted a more restrained tone than he did during the chaotic first presidential debate.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden offered sharply contrasting views on the still-raging coronavirus pandemic at Thursday’s final presidential debate, seeking to persuade the few remaining undecided voters 12 days before the November 3 election.
Trump, a Republican, adopted a more restrained tone than he did during the chaotic first presidential debate in September, when he repeatedly interrupted Biden.
But Thursday’s clash still featured plenty of personal attacks between two men who evince little respect for each other, and Trump kept fact-checkers busy by levelling unfounded corruption accusations at Biden and his family.
The televised encounter in Nashville, Tennessee, represented one of Trump’s last remaining opportunities to reshape a campaign dominated by a pandemic that has killed more than 221,000 people in the United States.
Trump has trailed Biden in opinion polls for months, though the contest is tighter in some battleground states likely to decide the election.
“Anyone who’s responsible for that many deaths should not remain president of the United States of America,” Biden said.
Trump defended his approach to the pandemic and said the country could not afford to close businesses again, even amid fresh surges.
“We’re learning to live with it,” said Trump, who has played down the virus for months. “We have no choice.”
“Learning to live with it?” Biden retorted. “Come on. We’re dying with it.”
Trump asserted that a vaccine was potentially “weeks” away. Most experts, including administration officials, have said a vaccine is unlikely to be widely available until mid-2021.
Several U.S. states, including the election swing state of Ohio, reported record single-day increases in COVID-19 infections on Thursday, evidence the pandemic is accelerating anew.
Trump, whose instinct remains to run as an outsider, portrayed Biden as a career politician whose nearly 50-year record was ‘insubstantial’.
But Biden returned again and again to Trump’s nearly four years as president, pointing to the economic damage the virus has done to people’s lives.
After an opening segment on the pandemic, Thursday’s clash pivoted to rapid-fire exchanges over whether either candidate had improper foreign entanglements.
Trump repeated his accusations that Biden and his son, Hunter, engaged in unethical practices in China and Ukraine.
No evidence has been verified to support the allegations, and Biden called them false and discredited.
Trump’s effort to uncover dirt on Hunter Biden’s Ukraine business ties led to the president’s impeachment.
