Published 11:00 IST, September 30th 2020
'Shut-up' to 'Clown' & 'Racist' to 'Worst President': 5 knockout Trump-Biden debate jibes
The first Presidential debate between the United States President Donald Trump and Democratic Presidential hopeful Former VP Joe Biden took place on Tuesday
- World News
- 5 min read
The first presidential debate between the United States President Donald Trump and Democratic Presidential hopeful Former VP Joe Biden took place on Tuesday, September 29 at Cleveland, Ohio. The faceoff between the opponents quickly devolved into chaos with ruthless rounds of personal attacks, with each interrupting the other, though moderator Chris Wallace said Trump was more disruptive.
The topics Wallace discussed with the candidates are Trump and Biden's records, the Supreme Court, COVID-19, the economy, violence in US cities, race and the integrity of the election.
The two candidates traded barbs about the coronavirus response, the economy, health care, among other topics while making in references to each’s job performance and even dragging each other's families into the fight during the debate.
Here is how the Debate unfolded
Debate moderator Chris Wallace explained the debate’s ground rules and introduced the candidates, following which he put forth the first questions to both the candidates about Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. Wallace asked 'Why are you right and the other wrong regarding her nomination and where do you think a Justice Barrett would take the court?'
Responding to the question Trump said he’s the President and he has the authority to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court. Biden, meanwhile, brought the Democrats’ strategy to the stage regarding Barrett’s nomination. Biden said to focus on the Affordable Care Act and made the argument that it will be in peril under a conservative court.
Just minutes after the debate commenced Trump attempted to cut off the debate’s moderator, to which Wallace said “I am the moderator of this debate and I would like to ask my question.” Each candidate was allowed to speak for 2 minutes to answer the moderator's question.
Here are the 5 unmissable jibes from the first debate
1. Trump, Biden feud over health care
Attacking Trump over health care policies, Biden said "Trump has no plan for health care. He sends out wishful thinking. He has executive orders that have no power. He hasn’t lowered drug costs for anybody.” Adding further he said the fact is this man doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Within 20 minutes of the debate, when Trump interrupted Biden while responding, the latter asked the former to 'shut up'. “Will you shut up man?", Biden said to Trump.
Trump responded by saying “If we would have listened to you the country would have been left wide open. Millions of people would have died not 200 thousand. One is too many.” Continuing further he said 'we are weeks away from a vaccine. We are doing therapeutics. Already fewer people are dying when they get sick. Far fewer people are dying. We’ve done a great job.'
2. COVID and the economy- “You’re the worst President the country has ever had"
Trump attacked Biden for wanting to shut down the country to deal with the pandemic and said states should reopen. “People know what to do, they can social distance they can wear masks they can do whatever they want. We have got to open these states,” Trump said. “This guy will shut down the whole country,” Trump said.
“He’s going to be the first President of the United States to leave office having fewer jobs than when he first got elected,” Biden said. “You can’t fix the economy until you fix the COVID crisis,” Biden said.
As Trump interrupted, Biden shot back: “You’re the worst President the country has ever had.”
3. Fight over racial sensitivity training
Moderator Wallace questioned why President Trump’s administration had ended racial sensitivity training, and whether he believed there was systemic racism. Trump replied by saying that he ended the training because it was 'racist' and that it was teaching people to hate our country and that “I’m not going to let that happen.”
To which Biden said of Trump 'He’s the racist' and said there is racial insensitivity, people have to be made aware what other people feel like, what insults them.
4. Trump, Biden drag their families into the debate fight
Trump brought up Biden’s son Hunter, whose business dealings in China and Ukraine have been the focus of Republican criticism. Trump mentioned a finding from a recent Senate Republican investigation saying that the mayor of Moscow gave Hunter Biden $3.5m. “What did he do to deserve it,” Trump asked Biden? “Totally discredited,” Biden said. “My son did nothing wrong.”
Biden then shot back saying if Trump wanted to drag family into this debate, they could talk about the Trumps “all night.”
Trump responded saying what he’s said throughout his Presidency: that he and his family have “lost a fortune” with their public service.
5. Law enforcement and racism
Trump accused Biden of not supporting law enforcement. “If he ever got to run this country and they ran it the way he would want to run it. Our suburbs would be gone,” Trump said, noting that law enforcement unions have been endorsing him. Biden pushed backed accusing Trump of racism. “I was raised in the suburbs. This is not the 1950s. All these dog whistles and racism don’t work anymore. The suburbs are by and large integrated,” Biden said.
Trump wants to “rile everybody up. He doesn’t want to calm things down. I’m saying let’s get everybody together, figure out how to deal with this. What he’s doing, he just pours gasoline on the fire constantly at every single solitary time,” Biden said.
WATCH THE FULL DEBATE HERE:
Updated 11:01 IST, September 30th 2020