Trump vs Biden debate: who won the first head-to-head for the US presidency?
A debate that was "the political equivalent of a war with food."
This is how the BBC's North American analyst, Anthony Zurcher, describes what happened Tuesday night in the first face-to-face meeting of Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
"The winner was the man who ended up the least covered in debris," says Zurcher.
The president of the United States and his Democratic opponent met in Cleveland, Ohio, in the first of three presidential debates ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
Biden fared better "if only because his main goal was to show Americans that he could withstand the pressure, that he has not lost a step due to his advanced age."
"He had to show that he could take a smack, metaphorically speaking, and stay calm," says Zurcher.
"He did that most of the time, although it was at least in part because Donald Trump, through his constant intimidation and interruptions, rarely gave the former vice president the opportunity to say something really damaging to his own cause," he adds.
Trump needed this debate to shake off a campaign that was leaning against him, but one in which he has remained remarkably stable, even in the face of economic, health and social adversity, he explains.
"It seems unlikely that anything about this brawl will alter the dynamics of this race or change the opinion of one in 10 American voters who say they are still undecided (although they may not want to see a debate again)."
From the very beginning it became clear that Trump would seek to shake Biden with constant disruptions and attacks. A CBS News account says the president interrupted his rival 73 times.
That led to a "chaotic" face-to-face, Zurcher notes, in which Trump questioned Biden's intelligence and he called his rival a "clown" and even said, "You want to shut up, man?"
Time and again, Trump attacked Biden, who just laughed and shook his head in disapproval.
When moderator Chris Wallace announced that the coronavirus was going to be the next topic for comment and that both candidates would have two and a half uninterrupted minutes to respond, Biden joked, "Good luck with that."
The pandemic
The issue of covid-19 was always difficult terrain for the president and the topic came up early in the debate. Trump had to defend his management of the pandemic that has left more than 200,000 Americans dead.
He did so by saying that the steps he has taken prevented more deaths and suggested that with Biden there would have been "millions" of deaths.
Biden's response was to speak directly to the camera, asking viewers if they could believe Trump. "A lot of people died and a lot more are going to die, unless he gets a lot smarter, a lot faster," Biden said.
"This give and take demonstrated a fundamental difference in the way the two candidates view the pandemic and whether the situation is getting better or worse," Zurcher said.
47 years
One message that the Trump campaign wanted to stick in the minds of Americans is that Biden has had nearly half a century in public service to solve the country's problems without success.
"In 47 months, I have done more than you have done in 47 years," Trump told the former vice president, to which Biden responded: "With this president we have become weaker, sicker, poorer, more divided and more violent ".
Who is ahead in national polls?
"In 2016 Trump successfully took on Washington and the status quo. Doing it again, after spending three and a half years in the Oval Office, would have been a challenge. The way he could do it was by using Biden's longevity. in public life against him, "says Zurcher.
Racism and white supremacists
The debate brought together racial issues and urban violence, and that led to exchanges that made it clear that Biden was more comfortable talking about the former, while Trump wanted to speak about the latter.
Biden accused the president of fomenting racist divisions, while Trump lashed out at his rival, citing Democrat support for a 1993 crime bill, which led to higher rates of incarceration for African-Americans.
The moderator offered Trump an opportunity to openly reject violence by white supremacists and militias, but the president backtracked by linking the leftist organization Antifa with Democrats.
"Wallace had given both candidates the opportunity to attack their own bases, which can sometimes be a smart political strategy. But they both avoided doing so," Zurcher says.
Biden didn't take advantage of the tax issue
When the New York Times report on the taxes of Trump - who has allegedly paid almost nothing to the treasury for years - came to light, political analysts wondered how he would handle this during the debate.
Trump defended himself as he did in 2016, when he bragged that he knew how to handle the tax code and bragged about being smart for paying little.
"Biden tried to turn the issue into a condemnation of Republican-approved tax reform. While noting that Trump paid less federal taxes than teachers, that message, which could have been a powerful attack, was buried in the verbal fight that he continued with the president, "says Zurcher.
"If Trump's tax returns carry any weight as an issue in this campaign, it will not be because of this debate," he added.
"This will not end well"
The closing segment of the debate was on the integrity of the elections and the concerns, on both sides, that the election will not be free and fair.
"This will not end well," Trump said at one point, a sentiment many Americans on both sides will agree with, albeit for different reasons.
Biden asked that all ballots be counted and promised to respect the election results. It seemed like he had a few more points to conclude, but Trump interrupted him again and then Wallace announced that the debate was over.
"It was the sudden end of a chaotic evening that can hardly be called debate in the traditional sense of the word. These events rarely influence an election in one way or another, and this was such a confusing mess that it seems unlikely they have changed. the perception of some, "says Zurcher.
"This is probably bad news for Trump, given that one of his real weaknesses is that many voters in the suburbs dislike the sometimes rude manner of the president," he continues.
"On the other hand, if Trump's goal was to turn this campaign into a nasty fuss, leaving voters alienated and uncertain whether there will be some kind of clarity or resolution at the end, well, it was a job well done."
