NASHVILLE: Democrat Joe Biden renewed his attacks on US President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic at Thursday’s final debate before the Nov. 3 election, while Trump leveled unfounded corruption accusations at Biden and his family.
Trump, a Republican, initially adopted a more restrained tone than he did during their first presidential debate in September, which was quickly derailed by his constant interruptions. But Thursday’s clash still featured plenty of personal attacks between two men who evince little respect for each other.
The televised encounter in Nashville, Tennessee, represented one of Trump’s last remaining opportunities to reshape a campaign dominated by a pandemic that has killed more than 221,000 people in the United States. Opinion polls show Trump is trailing Biden, though the contest is tighter in some battleground states likely to decide the election.
“Anyone who’s responsible for that many deaths should not remain president of the United States of America,” Biden said.
Trump defended his approach to the outbreak and claimed the worst of the pandemic was in the past.
“We’re rounding the corner,” said Trump, who has played down the virus for months. “It’s going away.”
Trump also claimed that a vaccine was potentially “weeks” away. Most experts, including administration officials, have said a vaccine is unlikely to be widely available until mid-2021.
Several US states, including the election swing state of Ohio, reported record single-day increases in COVID-19 infections on Thursday, evidence the pandemic is accelerating anew.
After an opening segment on the pandemic, Thursday’s clash pivoted to rapid-fire exchanges over whether either candidate had improper foreign entanglements.
Trump repeated his accusations that Biden and his son Hunter engaged in unethical practices in China and Ukraine. No evidence has been verified to support the allegations, and Biden called them false and discredited.
Trump’s effort to uncover dirt on Hunter Biden’s Ukraine business ties led to the president’s impeachment. The president and his children have been accused of conflicts of interest of their own since he entered the White House in 2017, most involving the family’s international real estate and hotel businesses.
