First presidential debate devolves into chaos as Trump and Biden insult and interrupt one another
Trump constantly attacked Biden and interrupted him during his answers, and sparred with moderator Chris Wallace as early exchanges over health care tipped out of control.
The rivals quickly diverted into sharp exchange over health care in a diversion from their first question on Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Amy Coney Barrett.
“Donald, would you just be quiet for a minute,” Biden said, after the President monopolized the stage and kept interrupting him during his answers.
Biden hit back at Trump’s attempt to bulldoze the debate, saying he wouldn’t even try to fact check Trump’s volley of untruths. “Everything he is saying right here is a lie.”
He finally broke, saying, “Will you shut up, man?”
The debate has been divided into six topics: “The Trump and Biden Records,” “The Supreme Court,” “Covid-19,” “The Economy,” “Race and Violence in our Cities” and “The Integrity of the Election,” according to the Commission on Presidential Debates.
Messy start
Trump entered the debate looking to change the race as he trailed Biden, but instead played up to his most base instincts by going on the attack from the opening.
The President entered this first of three presidential debates in a far more vulnerable position than in his 2016 match-ups with Hillary Clinton, when he had no presidential record to defend and attempted to rattle the former secretary of state with frequent interruptions and by reeling off one-liners, including the quip in one debate that if he had been in the White House “you’d be in jail.” Many voters have already made up their minds about Trump, giving him poor marks for his handling of both the pandemic and the tension over race relations and police violence this year.
He returned to that 2016 playbook on Tuesday.
As expected, Trump repeatedly insulted Biden during the first 30 minutes of the debate, cutting him off at one point when he used the word smart.
“Don’t ever use the word smart with me,” Trump said. “There’s nothing smart about you, Joe.”
Trump’s performance was a microcosm of his entire life and career: Break all the rules and seek to dominate every room and personal interaction with bulldozing personality.
Biden, a far more conventional politician, appeared flustered at the start and struggled to make his own points with Trump interrupting. He eventually found a moment to counterattack, blasting Trump for trying to get rid of Obamacare.
“He doesn’t have a plan. The fact is this man doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Biden said.
Trump’s strategies to take down the former vice president — including his unproven charges of corruption about Biden’s son Hunter, which he plans to raise on Tuesday — have so far been less effective than those he unfurled on Clinton. The President also may have miscalculated by setting a low bar for Biden Tuesday night as he repeatedly questioned the former vice president’s mental acuity and called him “dumb as a rock.”
Biden rips Trump for his handling of the coronavirus
When the conversation shifted to the pandemic, Biden excoriated the President’s handling of the coronavirus, noting that more than 200,000 people have died and some 40,000 people are still contracting Covid-19 each day.
“The President has no plan. He hasn’t laid out anything,” Biden said.
Trump disputed Biden’s comparisons with the number of cases in other countries and promised that a vaccine and life-saving treatments were right around the corner.
“It’s China’s fault. It never should have happened,” Trump said.
“We’ve done a great job,” Trump added, accusing the “fake news” of distorting his record on the virus.
Turning to Biden, he charged: “You would have lost far more people.”
Biden told Trump to get out of his bunker, and “get out of the sand trap and your golf course” to bring Democrats and Republicans together to do what needs to be done to save lives.
Trump tried to deflect the criticisms that he rarely wears a mask and has drawn thousands of people to his rallies with no social distancing, by claiming that Biden could never draw the crowds that he does. He also repeatedly accused Biden of wanting to keep the country shut down at the cost of businesses all over the country.
“This guy will close down the whole country and destroy this whole country,” Trump said as Biden laughed off the suggestion.
Trump on the defensive over taxes
During an exchange over the new revelations about Trump’s tax returns in The New York Times — which showed the President has paid no federal income taxes in 10 of the last 15 years — Biden noted that Trump paid less in taxes than most school teachers, but he fumbled a chance to drill the President on his tax liabilities and questionable business record, given that Trump evaded taxes largely by writing off his losses.
“You’re the worst president America has ever had,” Biden said.
Trump disputed the New York Times report by claiming that he has paid millions in taxes, but he also defended his approach of paying as little as possible in taxes as an aspect of his sharp business acumen.
Biden used The New York Times report to try to dismantle Trump’s claim to be a champion of the middle and working classes in Midwestern swing states. The former vice president argued that Trump’s actions in the White House have mainly benefited himself and his uber-rich allies.
In a preemptive strike to use the tax return issue to his advantage, the Biden campaign released the former vice president’s 2019 tax returns earlier Tuesday, which showed he paid nearly $300,000 in federal income tax last year.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
