President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden brawled over the economy, the coronavirus pandemic and the Supreme Court vacancy on Tuesday in one of the most chaotic, insult-laden presidential debates in modern history.
True to form, Trump came to the debate prepared to repeatedly attack his Democratic opponent, frequently interrupting and forcing moderator Chris Wallace to note that both candidates agreed to let their counterparts speak. Both Trump and Biden, meanwhile, leveled an unending string of personal attacks on each other’s character and judgment.
“I’ve done more in 47 months – I’ve done more than you’ve done in 47 years” Trump asserted in a typical accusation against Biden.
Trump claimed that “China ate your lunch, Joe” on trade; he questioned Biden’s intelligence and attacked his son, Hunter Biden, and described the longtime centrist Democrat as a “socialist” more than once. Biden described the president as a “clown,” told him to “shut up,” described him as “Putin’s puppy,” and called him the “worst president” in American history.
“Under this president, we’ve become weaker, sicker, poorer, more divided and more violent,” Biden said. In an exchange that exemplified how the debate unfolded, Wallace pressed Trump on whether he was willing to condemn white supremacists and militia groups and to urge them to stand down from adding to the violence and social upheaval that has swept the streets of cities like Portland, Oregon, and Kenosha, Wisconsin.