Washington: US President Donald Trump and his challenger Joe Biden clashed over COVID-19, immigration, race relations and climate change during their final debate, just ahead of the November 3 presidential election, presenting Americans with sharply divergent views of where they would lead them over the next four years.
The two leaders traded barbs during the debate that lasted just over 90 minutes, attacking each other’s positions on controlling the raging coronavirus pandemic and curbing the country’s world-leading death toll of over 223,000.
The prime-time debate in Nashville, Tennessee, was a less acrimonious and more substantive affair than their previous showdown on September 29, which devolved into insults and name-calling.
This prompted the debate organisers to put in place muted microphones during the candidates’ opening statements on each topic to minimise disruption. The debate, moderated by NBC’s Kristen Welker, saw plenty of personal attacks between 74-year-old Trump, a Republican, and his 77-year-old Democratic rival, Biden, whose mutual dislike was quite evident.
The coronavirus dominated the opening minutes of the Trump-Biden face-off with President Trump terming the contagion a worldwide problem .”This has been a worldwide problem, but I’ve been congratulated by many countries on what we’ve been able to do, he said. (PTI)
Trump, Biden talk COVID, climate change in final presidential debate
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