Presidential debate 2020: Biden asks Trump ‘will you shut up man?!’

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Joe Biden asked Donald Trump to shut up and called him a clown during their contentious first presidential debate Tuesday night, slapping him down as the president repeatedly interrupted his answers.

‘Would you shut up, man?,’ a visibly exasperated Biden said about 20 minutes into the debate after Trump interrupted him again as he tried to talk about the Supreme Court.

And, about 15 minutes later during a discussion on the COVID pandemic, he told Trump again: ‘Would you just shush for a minute?’ 

The president tried to command the stage from out of the box, interrupting his rival repeatedly to make his point, counter Biden, and push himself into the conversation.

It happened so many times that moderate Chris Wallace stepped in, asking the president to let Biden finish his answer and chided 

‘I’m the moderator of this debate and I would like you to let me ask my question and then you can answer,’ Wallace said told Trump.

‘Go ahead then,’ Trump said and then later adding to Wallace: ‘I guess I’m debating you, not him. No surprise.’ 

The 90-minute show down between the presidential contenders proved early on that it would a be a knock-out, drag-down match.  

‘You’ll get to see it.’ Trump shrugs off controversy over his taxes, saying he paid ‘millions’ as Biden says he ‘pays less tax than a schoolteacher’

Trump wouldn’t say when he will finally make his personal taxes public as he has long promised, but claimed he paid ‘millions of dollars in taxes’.  

Wallace had to bring up questions over Trump’s taxes after a New York Times released a report this week with sources claiming the president only paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he ran for president and first year he served in office. 

‘I paid $38 million one year, I paid $27 million one year. I went –’ the president said, but was interrupted again by Biden.

‘Show us your tax returns,’ the former vice president insisted.

‘You’ll see it as soon as it’s finished. You’ll see it,’ Trump said.

‘Oh,’ Biden sarcastically conceded. 

Biden quickly used that as a point of attack, saying Trump ‘does take advantage of the tax code’ and ‘pays less tax than a schoolteacher.’

Trump shrugged off the attack, saying that all business leaders do the same ‘unless they are stupid.’ 

He suggested that he was able to lessen his tax burden by using legal measures he claims were passed by the Obama administration.

‘Let me just tell you, it was the tax laws,’ Trump said, admitting: ‘I don’t want to pay tax.’

‘Before I came here I was a private developer, I was a private businesspeople,’ he continued. ‘Like every other private person, unless their stupid, they go through the laws and that’s what it is.’

Then pointing to Biden on the opposite side of the stage, Trump added, ‘He passed a tax bill that gave us all these privileges for depreciation and for a tax credits – we built a building and we get tax credits.’

Just hours before taking the stage in the battleground rust belt state Tuesday, Biden and his vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris released their tax returns. 

Biden calls Trump a ‘racist’ when the two men debated race relations

Trump was defending his decision to end racial sensitivity training for federal workers when his Democratic rival hit him with the ‘racist’ label.

The president said the training was resulting in ‘very sick ideas’ and teaching people ‘to hate our country.’

‘If you look at the people, we were paying people hundreds of thousands of dollars to teach very bad ideas and frankly, very sick ideas. It really, they were teaching people to hate our country. And I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to allow that to happen. We have to go back to the core values of this country,’ Trump said.

‘Nobody is doing that. He’s racist,’ Biden said. 

He defended the training programs.

‘The fact is there is racial insensitivity. People have to be made aware of what other people feel like. What insults them, what is it demeaning to them. It’s important to people. Now, many people don’t want to hurt other people’s feelings, but it makes a big difference,’ he said.

And then he pivoted it to emphasize his blue-collar roots and hinted Trump is a snob.

Biden said: ‘It makes a gigantic difference in the way a child is able to grow up and have a sense of self-esteem. It’s a little bit like how this guy and his friends look down on so many people and look down their nose on people like Irish Catholics like me who grew up in Scranton.   

‘They looked down on people who don’t have money, they looked down on people who are of a different faith.’

Race relations, like other debate topics, resulted in a furious back-and-forth, shouting over each other conversation between the presidential contenders.

As the two men bickered on race, Biden invoked the death of George Floyd, the African American man killed by a white police officer in Minnesota and the Black Lives Matter protests that sprung up in the wake. Trump invoked his ‘law and order’ presidency.

The president has accused Biden on multiple occasions of wanting to defund the police, which Biden has said he would not do.

During the debate, the Democratic nominee said most police officers are ‘good’ but the bad ones need to be rooted out.

‘The vast majority of police officers are good, they risk their lives every day to take care of us, but there are some bad apples and when they occur, when they find them they have to be sorted out,’ Biden said.

‘Cops aren’t happy to see what happened to George Floyd. These cops aren’t happy to see what happened to Breonna Taylor. Most don’t like it, but we have to have a system where people are held accountable. And by the way, violence and response is never appropriate. Never appropriate. Peaceful protest is. Violence is never appropriate,’ he said of protests.

Trump hit back: ‘What is peaceful protest? When they run through the middle of the town and burn down stores and kill people all over the place? That is not peaceful protest.’

The president also has complained Biden hasn’t said he’s for ‘law and order,’ a phrase Trump has used to define his presidency.

‘They don’t want to talk about law and order. Are you in favor of law and order?,’ he asked Biden.

‘I’m in favor of law,’ Biden said.

But he attacked Trump’s approach of handling racial unrest across America.

‘The point is that is why he keeps trying to rile everything up. He doesn’t want to calm things down. Instead of going in and talking to people and saying let’s get everybody together, figure out how to deal with this, what does he do? He just throws gasoline on the fire constantly. Every single solitary time,’ he said.

Moderator Chris Wallace if he would condemn white supremacists and militia groups

‘I would say almost everything I see is from the left wing, not from the right wing,’ Trump said.

‘What are you saying?,’ Wallace asked.

‘I’m willing to do anything, I want to see peace,’ Trump said.

‘Then do it, sir,’ Wallace challenged.

‘What do you want to call them? Give me a name, give me a name,’ Trump said.

‘White supremacist and white ring militias,’ Wallace said.

But Trump turned to attack Antifa, an unorganized group opposed to extreme right-wing political groups like fascists.

‘Stand back and stand by, but I tell you what, somebody has got to do something about antifa and the left because this is not a right wing problem, this is a left-wing problem,’ he said.

‘It is what it is’ Biden blasts Trump over his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic

Trump and Biden fought over the coronavirus crisis by accusing each other of killing more people had the other been in office.

‘He panicked or he just looked at the stock market, one of the two, because guess what, a lot of people died and a lot more are going to die unless he gets a lot smarter, a lot quicker,’ Biden said onstage. 

At another point Trump shouted it would have been Biden who’d have killed more – calling his response to swine flu pandemic in 2009 a ‘disaster.’ 

Biden, who was serving as vice president at the time, hit back that 14,000 died not 200,000. ‘We didn’t shut down the economy. This is his economy that he shut down,’ Biden added.

‘If we would’ve listened to you, the country would’ve been left wide open, millions of people would’ve died. Not 200,000. And one person is too much. It’s China’s fault. It should’ve never happened,’ the president said. 

Biden shot back that the president ‘waited and waited’ to act when the virus reached America’s shores and ‘still doesn’t have a plan.’ 

Biden told Trump to ‘get out of your bunker and get out of the sand trap’ and go in his golf cart to the Oval Office to come up with a bipartisan plan to save people. 

‘You’re the worst president America has ever had,’ Biden said.  

Trump snarled a response, declaring that ‘I’ll tell you Joe, you could never have done the job that we did. You don’t have it in your blood.’

‘I know how to do the job,’ was the solemn response from Biden, who served eight years as Barack Obama’s vice president.  

Biden whacked Trump for coddling China in the early weeks of the pandemic, saying that the president didn’t push hard enough to letter American health experts in.  

‘He did not even ask Xi to do that. He told us what a great job Xi was doing, he told us we owe him a debt of gratitude for being so transparent with us,’ Biden said.   

The ex-veep mocked Trump for saying the coronavirus would disappear ‘like a miracle.’  

‘And maybe you can inject some bleach in your arm and that would take care of it,’ Biden also offered. 

‘That was said sarcastically,’ Trump shot back.   

While discussing the importance of masks to protect against the virus, Trump defended himself for not wearing one all the time, before poking fun at Biden for wearing ‘the biggest mask he’s ever seen’.  

Biden also pointed out Trump retorted ‘it is what it is’, as more than 200,000 Americans have died from the deadly virus. 

Biden’s son Hunter and late son Beau are brought into the debate 

Biden has evoked his son Beau Biden to criticize Trump for reportedly calling members of the American military who lost their lives “losers” and “suckers.”

Raising his voice, Biden described his son as a hero. Beau Biden died of cancer in 2015.

Trump responded by pivoting to a familiar attack, on Biden’s other son, Hunter.

The president said, “I don’t know Beau. I know Hunter,” and accused Hunter Biden of having collected millions of dollars from oversees interests, including China, while working as a consultant during his father’s tenure as vice president. It echoed attacks the president made earlier in the debate in Cleveland, but have little basis in fact.

Trump also opened a new line of attack when he said Hunter Biden was dishonorably discharged from the military for cocaine use. Biden responded that his son wasn’t dishonorably discharged.

He addressed viewers directly and said that, like a lot of Americans, Hunter had a drug problem but was “working on it” and had “fixed it.”

Biden added “I’m proud of my son.”

Earlier in the night, Trump hook a shot at Hunter, saying: ‘And no wonder your son goes in and he takes out billions of dollars to manage. He makes millions of dollars.’ 

It was a reference to business Hunter Biden did with his firm Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC.

Trump brought up a Senate Republican report that claimed Hunter got $3.5 million from the wealthy wife of the former Mayor of Moscow. Hunter Biden’s lawyer has denied the characterization.

‘What did he do to deserve it?’ Trump asked.

‘My son did nothing wrong in Burisa,’ said Biden – after Trump expanded his attack to Hunter Biden’s lucrative seat on the board of a Ukrainian energy firm.

It resulted in still more angry cross talk.

‘He doesn’t want to let me answer because he knows I have the truth,’ Biden said.

‘It’s hard to get any word in with this clown – excuse me, this person,’ Biden said after delivering the insult.

‘His family we could talk about all night,’ Biden said, but it was difficult to see how he followed through as Trump talked over him.

Then, Biden faced the camera and delivered one of several lines he appeared to have prepared to deliver. ‘This is not about my family or his family. It’s about your family,’ he told viewers.

‘He doesn’t want to talk about what you need … The American people. That’s what we’re talking about here.’ 

Battle over Supreme Court nominee  

Trump defended his effort to swiftly fill a U.S. Supreme Court seat, saying ‘elections have consequences’ and he had the right despite Democratic objections.

‘I will tell you very simply we won the election, elections have consequences. We have the Senate and we have the White House and we have a phenomenal nominee respected by all,’ Trump said in defense of his nominee, conservative Judge Amy Coney Barrett.

‘… I think that she (Barrett) will be outstanding. She will be as good as anybody who has ever served on that court. We won the election and therefore we had the right to choose her.’ 

Biden, talking over frequent interruptions from Trump, said the seat of the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg should be filled after the Nov. 3 election, when it was clear who the president would be.

‘We should wait, we should wait and see what the outcome of this election is,’ Biden said, adding a more conservative Supreme Court would endanger the Affordable Care Act known as Obamacare.  

Healthcare

Pressed to reveal his health plan, Trump spoke about a Supreme Court ruling that struck down Obamacare’s mandate that people buy insurance: ‘Excuse me – I got rid of the individual mandate,’ Trump said.

Wallace told him it was not a plan.

‘That is absolutely a big thing,’ Trump responded.

When Trump and Biden kept going at it, Wallace implored: ‘Mr. President I’m the moderator of this debate and I would like you to let me ask my question.’

Biden was determined not to be caught with only a knife in a gunfight.

‘You picked the wrong guy at the wrong night at the wrong time,’ he told Trump.

Trump accused him of risking left wing wrath by distancing himself from Sanders.

‘You just lost the left,’ Trump told him.

The angry attacks carried over into the coronavirus.

‘And by the way maybe inject some bleach into your arm, that’ll take care of it,’ Biden said, mocking Trump’s comments about injecting disinfectant to cure the virus.

Trump said is was said ‘sarcastically’ – a claim he did not make at the time.

Petty spats over who is smarter

The two men bickered about their intelligence. Trump has called himself a ‘very stable genius’ and bragged about how well he’s done on a cognitive test, challenging Biden to take one.

And when Biden said he need to get ‘a lot smarter’ or more people would die from COVID, Trump was quick to pounce.

‘Did you use the word ‘Smart?’ He said he went to Delaware State,’ he snapped of Biden. Trump went to the University of Pennsylvania. ‘He graduated the lowest or almost the lowest in your class. Don’t ever use the word ‘Smart’ with me.’

Biden hit back.

‘Oh, give me a break,’ he said.

Trump replied: ‘There’s nothing smart about you. 47 years, you’ve done nothing.’ 

Trump was supported in Cleveland by first lady Melania Trump, who wore a $3340 Dolce & Gabbana black pinstriped pantsuit.

President Trump had all his adult children and several of their significant others with him when he landed in Cleveland, including Ivanka Trump, Lara Trump, Eric Trump, Tiffany Trump, Donald Trump Jr and Kimberly Guilfoyle.

On the staff side, National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, campaign manager Bill Stepien, Rep. Jim Jordan and adviser Hope Hicks also accompanied the Trumps on Air Force One.

Some of the Trump’s guests to the debate accompanied him, including Alice Johnson, the woman he pardoned from her life-in-prison drug conviction. Other guests included UFC fighter Colby Covington and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.  

In the lead up to the debate, Biden has characterized the race as a clash between Scranton, the working-class city where he was born, and Park Avenue, where Trump made his name.

Documents show the president, who says he is a billionaire, paid no income tax in 11 of the 18 years studied, according to a report by The Times. He was able to minimize his tax bill by reporting heavy losses across his business empire, including at his golf courses.  

That’s despite receiving $427.4 million through 2018 from his reality television program and other endorsement deals. The president could also face mounting financial pressure in the years ahead. The tax records show he’s carrying a total of $421 million in loans and debt that are primarily due within four years. 

Trump, in response, said he has paid millions in taxes but has released no documentation to back up his claims. 

The president’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court is also expected to be a major debate topic as are his charges mail-in balloting will lead to a ‘rigged’ election. Numerous studies have proven that is not the case.  

Meanwhile, Melania Trump and Jill Biden will come face-to-face for the first time this election year at the debate.

The two women have been at the same events in the past, including Trump’s 2017 inauguration and the December 2018 funeral for George H.W. Bush, where the Bidens sat a row behind the Trumps.

But Tuesday marks the first election meeting for the two women, who have taken different approaches to the campaign trail this year. 

Biden, who has years of experience as a political spouse, has been an active campaigner for her husband, keeping her own travel schedule, conducting interviews, and making the case for his election. She and Joe Biden will launch a train tour through Ohio and Pennsylvania on Wednesday. 

Melania Trump, who was a political neophyte in the 2016 campaign, made the case for her husband’s re-election bid at the Republican National Convention in August but hasn’t appeared at a campaign event for him since then.  

The 90-minute debate will into six segments, selected by Fox News’ Chris Wallace, who is moderating.  They include: the pandemic, the economy, the Supreme Court, election integrity, the candidates’ records, and ‘race and violence in our cities.’ 

The candidates will not shake hands when they take the stage at 9 pm ET on Tuesday night because of the coronavirus pandemic. Instead they will stand at podiums that are socially distanced from one another while Wallace sits at a desk in front of them.

There will be no opening statements and the first question will go to Trump. 

There will be a ‘small’ audience in the room, all of whom will be tested for COVID, according to Peter Ayre, senior adviser to the Commission on Presidential Debates. 

Chairs are lined up but signs have been placed on two of every three chairs that read: ‘Thank you for not sitting here in observance of social distancing.’

Each campaign was given 20 tickets to hand out to guests. There will be about 100 people total watching. 

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson urged protesters to remain peaceful but said he will not issue a curfew for the city. 

‘Cleveland has been a peaceful city lately so let’s keep it that way and show the people the way Cleveland is,’ Jackson said.  

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine sent 300 members from the Ohio National Guard to Cleveland. 

A security perimeter was set up around the Samson Pavilion, the building where the debate will be held. There are numerous road closures in place for the debate sponsored by Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic.

The two candidates have taken different approaches to their preparations.

Biden has been hunkered down in Wilmington with briefing books and mock debate sessions.

Trump, meanwhile, has done less than two hours prep time, CNN reported, including a short Q&A session on Sunday where advisers used flash cards to try and stump the president. Trump also played golf on Sunday morning.

Polls show Biden leading Trump nationally and in a number of key battleground states ahead of the debate, which is their first face-to-face meeting this year.

‘I am looking very forward to the debate,’ Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday. 

It is the first of three scheduled presidential debates. Vice President Mike Pence and California Sen. Kamala Harris, Biden’s running mate, will debate in October. 

Trump suggested in a tweet on Sunday that Biden will be on performance-enhancing drugs during the debate, which could be a prediction of how he’ll try and rattle Biden during their face off.

Biden and his aides had rehearsed for any possible attacks from the commander-in-chief and the Democratic nominee has said he hopes he won’t get thrown off by any Trump allegations.  

The president has insisted repeatedly – and without proof – that Biden took performance enhancement drugs ahead of the Democratic debates. He’s challenged him to take a drug test ahead of their debate here while offering to take one himself.

‘Joe Biden just announced that he will not agree to a Drug Test. Gee, I wonder why?,’ Trump tweeted Monday morning.

And the president said during a press conference at the White House on Sunday that he wasn’t joking.

‘No, I’m not joking. I mean, I’m willing to take a drug test. I think he should too,’ he said. 

On Sunday, when asked by reporters if he would take a drug test, Biden replied:  ‘No, I have no comment.

And his campaign put out a statement saying if Trump ‘thinks his best case is made in urine, he can have it.’