What points made the difference between Trump and Biden in the final debate?
The management of the pandemic, how to recover economic growth and immigration policy were some of the topics at the center of the discussion.
Amid the tension of the last stretch of the campaign, just 12 days before the elections, the two US presidential candidates, President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, clashed in the last debate and exposed their main differences : the management of the pandemic, how to recover economic growth and migration policy.
Both candidates entered this latest debate at Belmont University, Nashville, moderated by NBC journalist Kristen Welker, with a clear advantage in favor of the opposition in most presidential polls and with a record number of early voting.
With the pandemic reaching a third peak of infections in the United States, the precautionary measures once again marked the dynamics of the debate, even when Trump, 74, tested negative for a new coronavirus test. Unlike the previous debate, this time both met the times and, despite some moments of tension, Trump maintained a cordial treatment with the moderator and accepted most of the times that she cut him off.
The pandemic, Russia and Iran
The first topic of the night, again, was the pandemic, which has already caused more than 8.4 million cases and almost 223,000 deaths in the US. Trump was confident that the country is "turning the pandemic around. It's going to end ", he said that Americans" are learning to live with the virus "and assured that" there is no other option but to open the economy. "
"We cannot lock ourselves in a basement like Joe does," challenged the president after his rival, 77, spent much of the beginning of the pandemic at home. Immediately, Biden replied: "He says that we are learning to live with it (the virus) but we are learning to die from it," and assured: "Whoever is responsible for not being able to control this pandemic should not be the president of the United States. ”.
Biden warned that the country is heading "to a dark winter" and, although he rejected a total closure of the territory and the national economy, he did warn that "if there is a very high level of positivity, it is necessary to close down to stop the circulation of the virus. And when it opens you have to do it with rules ”.
Although the next topic focused on the intelligence services' allegations of attempts at electoral interference by China, Russia and Iran, the discussion immediately turned to cross accusations of corruption and complicity with some of those foreign states, mainly Russia.
"Anyone who messes with the elections is going to suffer the cost ... But I'll say it ... They give their lawyer (Rudolph) Giulani information about Russia so that I won't be elected president of the United States because they know me and I know them. ”, Denounced the opposition leader. Trump countered with another complaint: “Joe, you made millions with China and Russia. On the other hand, with me there was never a president tougher with China. I imposed sanctions and tariffs, ”the president replied and accused Biden's son of having done business in Ukraine while his father was vice president.
Foreign policy and health
They also discussed another foreign policy point that marked these last four years. Trump vindicated his negotiations with North Korea - "There is no war now" - and stressed that during the Barack Obama and Biden administrations the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, never wanted to meet. Biden immediately responded: “The reason why Kim was not meeting with Barack Obama was because we told him that we were going to discuss denuclearization. I would meet him if he committed to that. "
Biden promised to promote a health system like the one Obama enacted but with a public option, that is, a coverage option guaranteed by the State. "With my plan, no person will lose their coverage," he said and added: "The difference is that I believe that health is a right, not a privilege." Of course, Trump accused him of proposing "a socialist health" and launched his main question of the night: "He was decades in the Senate and eight years in the vice presidency not so long ago and he did nothing of what he is promising now."
He also targeted the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, for not wanting to approve a new stimulus package to alleviate the economic and social consequences of the pandemic to harm him in the weeks leading up to the election.
The issue irritated Biden, who generally remained calm. "We are promoting a package, but they do not support it!" He assured, annoyed, and demanded to approve a minimum wage of $ 15 an hour. Trump defended the Republican refusal: “Not all states are the same. We cannot do something that will bankrupt businesses, it must be an option for each state. "
Immigration and environmental plan
Biden warmed up again when Trump hinted that he had continued the immigration policy of the Obama and Biden administrations.
"Within the first 100 days of the government, I will send a bill to Congress to create a possibility of regularization for 11 million immigrants," he promised.
The current president, on the other hand, defended his immigration policy of stopping the arrival of immigrants before they enter the territory - even asylum seekers - and highlighted: "Only people with a low IQ will return" to try to enter the States United.
In the end, the discussion took on a more aggressive tone and the exchanges escalated. The current president rejected being racist and once again rejected the opposition's environmental plan to fight climate change because "it will destroy the economy" and wind energy "kills all the birds."
Biden, for his part, supported an "energy transition" and acknowledged that passing drug laws as a senator in the 1980s "was a mistake" - because of the regulations that increased the mass incarceration of black youth. “We must not send anyone to jail on a purely drug or alcohol addiction charge. They must go to treatment to be cured, "said Biden and Trump responded with his catchphrase of the night that allowed him not to make proposals of his own:" Why didn't you do it before?
