Presidential Debate 2020: A fierce final duel between Trump and Biden

Republican Donald Trump and Democratic Joe Biden, have faced in a final presidential debate held in Belmont University, Tennessee.

US President Donald Trump and his opponent Joe Biden discussed a range of important and hot topics in their final presidential debate. It was for both of them the opportunity to convince voters, especially in swing states.

COVID-19, economy, racism, foreign policy, immigration and climate change were some of the topics debated between both candidates in a much calmer and civil tone than during the previous debate in September. Each had two minutes to answer the questions asked by Kristen Welker, the debate moderator and their microphones were muted while the other was speaking. 

Throughout the debate, Biden and Trump gave contrasting points of views and although the tone was restrained, this time the attacks were still there with the president throwing scathing remarks at his opponent and making unfounded statements.

The discussion started with the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed 220 000 Americans, an inevitable and crucial subject for this presidential debate. Reuters and Ipsos polls have shown that a majority of the American population were unsatisfied with the President’s handling of the pandemic in 2020. Even though reports in several US states show an increase in cases, he claimed that the situation was getting better and that “people will have to learn to live with it” , which was widely criticized by Biden “He says we’re, you know, learning to live with it. People are learning to die with it.[…] Anyone who’s responsible for that many deaths should not remain president of the United States of America,”

As they were aksed about Russia and Iran interferences in the election, Joe Biden said these countries would pay a price if he was elected. But the discussion rapidly turned into confrontations with Donald Trump claiming “there’s been nobody tougher than me on Russia” and accusing Biden of having received improper money from this country “You were recieving money from Russia and you probably still are”

The Democratic opponent responded “I have not taken a penny from any foreign source in my life […] We have learned that this president paid 50 times the tax in China, has a secret bank account with China, does business in China and is talking about me taking money ?” He also accused Trump of avoiding taxes, in reference to a New York Times investigation which showed he paid almost no taxes for more than 20 years. “Release your tax returns or stop talking about corruption,” he said.

Trump then accused his opponent and his son, Hunter, of having been engaged in unethical practices in Ukraine and having drawn a large salary from a Ukrainian firm. Biden defended himself by saying that after investigations were conducted, no proof was found that he was linked to anything unethical and brought up that the president was impeached for wrongly dealing with Ukraine to try to find damaging information about Biden and his family.

Another fundamental topic of this debate and presidential election was the issue of racism. Joe Biden accused Donald Trump of being “one of the most racist presidents we’ve had in modern history” and pouring “fuel on every racist fire […] starting off his campaign coming down the escalator saying he was gonna get rid of those “mexican rapists” ” On the contrary the president claimed he was the least racist person in the room and he had done more for black people than any other US president since Abraham Lincoln. He said Joe Biden had four years during his vice-presidency to fight racism and criticized Biden’s authorship of a 1994 crime bill that increased
incarceration of minority defendants. “You’re all talk and no action, Joe”

According to Reuters and Ipsos polls, between the 20th and 22nd October, Joe Biden and Donald Trump had eight percentage of difference in the advantage of the Democratic candidate. However no one can yet predict who will win this presidential election as the difference in polls has narrowed recently and some voters remain undecided at the moment.