Chaotic first debate: Taunts overpower Trump, Biden visions

first debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden deteriorated into bitter taunts and near chaos Tuesday night as Trump repeatedly interrupted his opponent with angry — and personal — jabs that sometimes overshadowed sharply different visions each man has for a nation facing historic crises.

In most tumultuous presidential debate in recent memory , Trump refused to condemn white supremacists who have supported him, telling one such group kwn as Proud Boys to “stand back, stand by.” re were also heated clashes over president's handling of pandemic, integrity of election results, deeply personal attacks about Biden's family and how Supreme Court will shape future of nation’s health care.

But it was belligerent tone that was persistent, somehow fitting for what has been an extraordinarily ugly campaign. two men frequently talked over each or with Trump interrupting, nearly shouting, so often that Biden eventually snapped at him, “Will you shut up, man?”

“ fact is that everything he’s saying so far is simply a lie,” Biden said. “I’m t here to call out his lies. Everybody kws he’s a liar.”

presidential race has been remarkably stable for weeks, despite historic crises that have battered country this year, including a pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 Americans and a reckoning over race and police brutality. With just five weeks until Election Day and voting already underway in some key states, Biden has maintained a lead in national polls and in many battlegrounds.

It's unclear wher debate will do much to change those dynamics.

Over and over, Trump tried to control conversation, interrupting Biden and repeatedly talking over moderator, Chris Wallace of Fox News. president tried to deflect tough lines of questioning — wher on his taxes or pandemic — to deliver broadsides against Biden.

president drew a lecture from Wallace, who pleaded with both men to stop talking over each or. Biden tried to push back against Trump, sometimes looking right at camera to directly address viewers rar than president and snapping, “It’s hard to get a word in with this clown.”

Again refusing to commit to horing results of election, Trump spread falsehoods about mail voting. Without evidence, he suggested that process — surging in popularity during pandemic — was ripe for fraud and incorrectly claimed impropriety at a Pennsylvania voting site.

But despite his efforts to dominate discussion, Trump was frequently put on defensive and tried to sidestep when he was asked if he was willing to condemn white supremacists and paramilitary groups.

“What do you want to call m? Give me a name. Give me a name,” Trump said, before Biden mentioned far right, violent group kwn as Proud Boys. Trump n pointedly did t condemn group, instead saying: “Proud Boys, stand back, stand by. But I’ll tell you what, somebody’s got to do something about antifa and left because this is t a right-wing problem. This is a left-wing problem."

Biden attacked Trump's handling of pandemic, saying that president “waited and waited" to act when 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 sand trap” and go in his golf cart to Oval Office to come up with a bipartisan plan to save people.

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

“I kw how to do job,” was solemn response from Biden, who served eight years as Barack Obama's vice president.

pandemic’s effects were in plain sight, with candidates’ lecterns d far apart, all guests in small crowd tested and traditional opening handshake scrapped. While neir candidate wore a mask to take st, ir families did sport face coverings.

Trump struggled to define his ideas for replacing Affordable Care Act on health care in debate’s early moments and defended his mination of Amy Coney Barrett, declaring, “I was t elected for three years, I’m elected for four years.”

“We won election. Elections have consequences. We have Senate. We have White House and we have a phemenal minee, respected by all.”

Trump criticized Biden over former vice president's refusal to comment on wher he would try to expand Supreme Court in retaliation if Barrett is confirmed to replace late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. That idea has gained momentum on party's left flank but Biden tried to put distance between himself and liberal wing, declining to endorse Green New Deal and rejecting assertion that he was under control of radicals by declaring “I am Democratic Party w.”

scattershot debate bounced from topic to topic, with Trump again refusing to embrace science of climate change while Biden accused Trump of walking away from American promise of equity for all and making a race-based appeal.

“This is a president who has used everything as a dog whistle to try to generate racist hatred, racist division,” Biden said.

Recent months have seen major protests after deaths of Black people at hands of police. Biden said country faces a problem with systemic racism and that while vast majority of police officers are “decent, horable men and women” re are “bad apples” and people have to be held accountable.

Trump in turn claimed that Biden’s work on a federal crime bill treated African American population “about as bad as anybody in this country.” president pivoted to his hardline focus on those protesting racial injustice and accused Biden of being afraid to use words “law and order,” out of fear of alienating left.

“Violence in response is never appropriate, “Biden said. “Never appropriate. Peaceful protest is.”

attacks turned deeply personal when Trump returned to a campaign attack line by declaring that Biden's son, Hunter, had inappropriately benefitted from his far's connections while working in Ukraine. Biden rarely looked at Trump during night but turned to face president when he defended his sons, including his son Beau, an Army veteran who died of cancer in 2015, after commander-in-chief's reported insults of those who served in military.

A new report from two Republican-led Senate committees alleged that Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine at same time his far was vice president raised conflict-of-interest concerns for Obama administration, but report did t link Joe Biden to any wrongdoing or misconduct. Trump was impeached for pushing Kiev to investigate Biden family.

debate was arguably Trump's best chance to try to reframe campaign as a choice between candidates and t a referendum over his handling of virus that has killed more people in America than any or nation. Americans, according to polling, have soured on his leadership in crisis, and president has struggled to land consistent attacks on Biden.

In hours before debate, Biden released his 2019 tax returns just days after blockbuster revelations about Trump’s long-hidden tax history, including that he paid only $750 a year in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017 and thing in many or years. Bidens paid nearly $300,000 in taxes in 2019.

Trump, in debate, insisted he paid millions in taxes — but refused to say how much he paid in federal income taxes — and insisted he had taken advant of legal tax incentives, ar angry exchange that led to Biden declaring that Trump was “worst president” nation has ever had.