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Mute buttons, Lincoln and a watch: Six takeaways from the Trump-Biden debate

Published 10/22/2020, 08:57 PM
Updated 10/23/2020, 12:05 AM
© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: 2020 presidential campaign debate in Cleveland

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: 2020 presidential campaign debate in Cleveland

By Andy Sullivan

(Reuters) - Trailing in opinion polls with the Nov. 3 election just 12 days away, President Donald Trump was under pressure during Thursday's final debate to revive his flagging campaign against Democratic rival Joe Biden.

Here are six takeaways from the debate:

A MORE CIVILIZED EVENING

After the first Trump-Biden debate in September devolved into a chaotic shouting match, moderators said they would mute each candidate's microphone to allow the other to speak without interruption for two minutes at the outset of each 15-minute debate segment.

The mute button did not much come into play, and even during the remaining free debate segments, the candidates maintained a more civil demeanor than at their last meeting.

Trump seemed to be on his best behavior early in the evening - even to moderator Kristen Welker, a member of the White House press corps he frequently denigrates. "So far, I respect very much the way you're handling this," he said.

But as the debate wore on, Trump was reverting to form - talking over Welker and mocking Biden while he spoke.

BETTER THAN ABRAHAM LINCOLN?

Trump's refusal to condemn white supremacist groups in the first debate amounted to perhaps his biggest unforced error.

He avoided that pitfall on Thursday during an exchange over race relations, during which he touted his criminal-justice reform law, which effectively rolled back some aspects of the tough-on-crime legislation sponsored by Biden in the 1990s that resulted in long prison sentences for millions of Black people.

But Trump's remarks also featured his signature hyperbole. "With the exception of Abraham Lincoln, possible exception ... nobody's done what I've done" for Black Americans, he said.

He also said he decided to run for president because he did not like the performance of the country's first Black president. "I ran because of Barack Obama. He did a poor job. If I thought he did a good job, I never would have run."

Biden responded with mockery: "Abraham Lincoln here is one of the most racist presidents we've had in modern history. He pours fuel on every single racist fire."

TALKING TO THE CAMERA

Biden tried several times to break away from the melee and address voters directly.

After a long exchange about the two candidates' personal finances, Biden turned to the camera and said: "It's not about his family and my family. It's about your family. And your family's hurting badly," he said.

During a discussion on healthcare, he said: "How many of you are home rolling around in bed at night wondering what in God's name are you going to do if you get sick?"

ELECTION HACKING, THE IRS AND TAX RETURNS

Trump sought to portray Biden as being corruptly involved with his son Hunter's business dealings in Ukraine and China, but he struggled to shape accusations that have circulated in conservative media into a coherent case.

No evidence has emerged to link Biden to any improper behavior, and the only result has been Trump's impeachment last year by the House of Representatives for pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Biden.

Biden flatly denied any impropriety on his part, and contrasted his willingness to release his tax returns with Trump's refusal to do so. "What are you hiding?" he asked. "Release your tax returns, or stop talking about corruption."

Trump was left to air old grievances about the Internal Revenue Service, former Special Counsel Robert Mueller and others who he thought were treating him unfairly. "I get treated very badly by the IRS, very unfairly," he said.

WHAT TIME IS IT?

Biden briefly glanced at his wristwatch late in the debate, after Welker referenced the small amount of time remaining. In the real world that might not be seen as an unusual act, but it evoked comparisons among political junkies with Republican President George H.W. Bush glancing at his watch during a 1992 debate with Bill Clinton and H. Ross Perot. That was seen as a major faux pas at the time.

THE PANDEMIC

Shortly after the last debate, Trump contracted COVID-19 and spent three days in a hospital. The pandemic, which has killed more than 222,000 people in the United States, remains the top issue for voters and Biden has repeatedly accused Trump of mismanaging the crisis.

"I caught it, I learned a lot. Great doctors, great hospitals," Trump said.

Trump appeared to make news by promising that a vaccine for the virus would be ready "within weeks," before backpedaling. "It's not a guarantee," he clarified. He promised that the country was "rounding the corner," even as several U.S. states reported record one-day increases.

Biden waved his black face mask as a prop, an implicit rebuke of a president who has famously been reluctant to wear one. "If we just wore masks, we could save 100,000 lives," he said.

© Reuters. U.S. President Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Biden participate in second debate in Nashville, tennessee

Members of the Trump family did not wear masks at the last debate. For this one, they did.

Latest comments

Clinton, Hillary, Obama and Biden are major and biggest cover-up in history, using leftism to make themselves unimaginably rich, and at the expenses of weakening America, job lost, broken families and loads of innocent human being killed and slaughtered in the world in the mask of globalization !
Trump, a guy from outside the system has been threatening those corruption and interest groups entangled inside the system, The corruption rectangle and those attached are making the greatest struggling to take down Trump and our ex-New York Mayer!
WH might finally prove the m*il and onli** voting is faulty and prosecute few more people!
There would only be three possible scenarios of the election results:(1) Biden win, but then be arrested for treason crime, Trump take the presidency, and the other three of the corruption rectangle : Clinton, Hillary and Obama also be put in prison, (2) Biden play along but lose the election somehow in exchange for not being put in prison, with the rest of the corruption rectangle being included in the exchange condition or not wait to be known, (3) Trump simply win because American are clever enough to know what is good for America and then all those in the corruption rectangle got into prison, because these people have been destroying and weakening American for decades!
There would only be three possible scenarios of the election results:(1) Biden win, but then be arrested for treason crime, Trump take the presidency, and the other three of the corruption rectangle : Clinton, Hillary and Obama also be put in prison, (2) Biden play along but lose the election somehow in exchange for not being put in prison, with the rest of the corruption rectangle being included in the exchange condition or not wait to be known, (3) Trump simply win because American are clever enough to know what is good for America and then all those in the corruption rectangle got into prison, because these people have been destroying and weakening American for decades! White House also proved the mail or online voting is fault and prosecute some more people involved!
many more white ussy voters will vote for trump. trump wins. no debate on that
Biden= higher taxes for everyone
incorrect. he said that after he realized he looked bad
u are simply wrong
,you are so mistaken dems aren't going to stop higher taxes at the 400K crowd.Socialist need to tax everyone heavily in order to feed their agenda. Harris is advocating a monthly $2000 for everyone over the age of 18.This is just one example . Who pays??? Every member of the working class
Its not even overbuet and this joke of a reporting has takeawaysBill Hoerter you are soooooo right!
C'mon Man... You know who the Big Guy is..Tired of corupt politicians.Term limits for Congressman 10 years and 12 years for Senators. Supreme Court Justices limited to 25 years and must give 5 year notice for retirement.
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