At final debate, Biden and Trump discuss contrasting realities and plans

Vibha Rao

26th Oct, 2020

US President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden came face to face for their last and final debate before Election Day. The candidates, who bantered at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, competed on themes that incorporated the pandemic, economy, climate change, China, corruption, and even the "caging" of children of migrants crossing the border from Mexico.

President Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden at the final Presidential Debate. (Source/Credit: Morry Gash)

In the final two weeks before Election Day, President Donald Trump is placing an awfully big bet on the premise that casting his opponent a role as an insider has the same value it did four years ago. He consistently heaved the 'politician' charge at Democratic candidate Joe Biden in their final debate Thursday night. Biden's whole mission is a celebration of ideas of old-school politics.

The response to the pandemic and how each candidate would lead the country out of it was discussed at length, with Mr. Biden warning that the nation was heading towards a 'Dark Winter’.

"Anyone who is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president," Mr Biden said, according to a report in The Hindu. “As president, he would encourage everyone to wear masks, introduce rapid testing, institute national standards for schools and businesses to open up, and give them financial assistance to spend on safety measures,” he said.

"All he does is talk about shutdowns," Mr Trump said. "No, we're not going to shut down and we have to open our schools," said Donald Trump, according to The Hindu. He also added that the shutdown had caused depression, loss of jobs, and suicides. Alcohol and drug abuse had also gone up according to Trump.

To Mr Trump's, "we're learning to live with it", Mr. Biden replied, "We're learning to die with it", referring to the pandemic, according to The Hindu.

"We should be talking about your families, but that's the last thing he wants to talk about," Biden said from the debate stage at Belmont University. It was, as Trump noticed, the pivot of a practiced politician away from personal invective and toward the public needs, as reported by The Hindu.

"I ran because of you," an agitated Trump said. "I'm looking at you because you're a politician".

Mr Trump repeatedly tried bringing the conversation to unsustained claims of Mr Biden's family getting money from abroad. Through the last few days, the Trump campaign and his allies have sought to bring attention to the foreign dealings of Mr Biden's son, according to The Hindu.

Mr Biden questioned Trump as to why he still hadn't released his tax returns as he had said he would and brought up his 'secret' bank account in China. "It's not about his family and my family, it's about your family. And your family's hurting badly," Mr Biden said at one point in the debate, referring to the audience, according to The Hindu.

Towards the end, the debate focused a significant measure of time on the two candidates' climate policies. Mr Trump asked Mr Biden if he would 'close down the oil industry' Mr Biden stated, "over time, over time" he would "transition" and would stop giving oil federal subsidies. Mr Biden clarified after the debate that he wanted to end federal subsidies to oil companies and not get rid of fossil fuels, the Washington Post reported.

At the end of the debate, when asked what they would say at their hypothetical inaugural address to those who did not vote in favour of them. Mr Trump used his chance to say that Biden would cause an economic depression if elected, and also spoke about his monetary record. Mr Biden said he would tell people he was there to represent all of them and would give them hope, as reported by The Hindu.

Sources: (The Hindu, BBC News, Washington report.)

Edited by: Shreya Gupta and Aditya Das