Imran Yaqub Dhillon
New York
US President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden offered sharply contrasting views on the still-raging Coronavirus pandemic at Thursday’s final presidential debate. They sought to persuade the few remaining undecided voters 12 days before their Nov 3 contest.
Trump, a Republican, adopted a more restrained tone than he did during a chaotic first 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 leveling unfounded corruption accusations at Biden and his family.
The absence of disruptions yielded a more substantive debate over a range of topics including the economy, race, climate change, healthcare and immigration. But the coronavirus, which has killed more than 221,000 people in the United States, loomed over the proceedings as it has throughout the campaign.
“Anyone who’s responsible for that many deaths should not remain president of the United States of America,” Biden said.
Trump, who has put his stewardship of the economy at the center of his campaign, defended his approach to the outbreak and said the country could not afford to close businesses again despite 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 the virus was “going away,” several US states reported record single-day increases in Covid-19 infections on Thursday, evidence the pandemic is accelerating anew.
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.
Biden defended his family and said unequivocally that he had never made “a single penny” from a foreign country, before pivoting to accuse Trump of trying to distract Americans. He accused Trump of avoiding paying taxes, citing a New York Times investigation that reported Trump’s tax returns show he paid almost no federal income tax over more than 20 years.
“Release your tax returns or stop talking about corruption,” Biden said.
The candidates argued over foreign policy, immigration and – after months of anti-racism protests – race relations, with Biden saying Trump was “one of the most racist presidents” in history.
