Personal attacks between the contenders for the presidency took center stage. Joe Biden and Donald Trump's positions on issues important to Americans have been clouded by accusations of misdemeanors and insults.
"The crimes you're still charged with -- and think of all the civil penalties you have. How many billions of dollars do you owe in civil penalties for assaulting a woman in public? For committing a whole host of things? For having sex with a porn star at night - while your wife was pregnant?" US President Biden asked.
Last month, Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business documents related to a 2016 hush money payment to an adult film star. And last year, a grand jury found that Trump sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll in the dressing room of an upscale department store in the spring of 1996 and awarded her $5 million for assault and defamation.
Biden turned to Trump and continued: "You have the morals of an alley cat."
Trump has denied having sex with a porn star.
"You're the cheater, you're the loser," the US president said at another point in the debate.
Trump responded that Biden "has become like a Palestinian, a bad Palestinian at that."
The candidates differed greatly in their political messages.
Social Security:
Biden said he would "make the wealthiest start paying their fair share" to keep Social Security solvent. He said he would not raise Social Security costs for anyone making less than $400,000 a year. "Then I start getting the wealthiest to start paying their fair share," Biden said.
Democracy:
Asked about his actions and inactions on Jan. 6, Trump tried to deflect the question and then said, "I saw -- I basically had nothing to do. They asked me to go give a speech."
He said violence during the US presidential election in November would be "completely unacceptable", but also refused to accept the results unconditionally.
Biden pointed out that Trump had encouraged people to go to Capitol Hill and sat in the Oval Office for three hours, "watching, being begged by his vice president and a number of his colleagues and on the Republican side to do something, to call for a stop, to terminate".
Immigration:
On the border issue, Biden highlighted the bipartisan border deal he negotiated that was defeated in the Senate. He also called Trump's policy of separating families. Trump repeated claims that he blamed Biden's immigration policies for violent crime in the United States.
Foreign policy:
Trump called Biden's withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan "the most shameful day in the history of our country."
Trump did not directly answer whether he would support the creation of an independent Palestinian state to end the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Meanwhile, Biden has floated a proposal he supports to exchange hostages held in Gaza in exchange for the release of Palestinian prisoners and the continuation of the "ceasefire with additional conditions."
Trump said the terms Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered to end Russia's war in Ukraine are "unacceptable."
The age of the candidates: Biden pointed out that his opponent is only a few years younger than him, but "much less competent." He urged voters to look at his record. In his response, Trump challenged Biden to a cognitive test. The two then argued about golfing skills.
Abortions:
Trump said if elected he would not block access to abortion drugs, reiterating his position that abortion rules should be up to the states. Biden fired back, saying that leaving abortion up to the states is like leaving civil rights protections up to the states.
Biden called the overturning of Roe v. Wade a "terrible thing" and responded to Trump's claims that the landmark case allowed doctors to kill babies "in the ninth month," saying, "That's just not true."
Economy:
Trump said job growth during Biden's presidency was a "bounce back" after the pandemic shutdown. But the jobs won are not all "bounced" positions - not all people simply returned to their previous positions.
The candidates have traded accusations about inflation, with Biden saying the economy he inherited is partly to blame. In response, Trump said Biden inherited "almost no inflation."
Closing remarks: Trump touted his accomplishments during his first term as president, called Biden a "whiner" and said "the whole country is blowing up over you because they don't respect you." Biden focused on taxes and promised to reduce inflation.
After the debate, criticism of Biden's performance rained down from Democrats. Two Democratic representatives, one of them a senior official, expressed concern about the president's performance, CNN reported. After Biden's hesitant moment, when he seemed to lose his train of thought, one staffer said of the president's performance: "no good."
Officials pointed to other moments later in the debate when the president appeared to pull some punches, particularly about Trump sleeping with a porn star.
But officials also questioned why Biden missed other opportunities to hit on Trump's comments, particularly on the abortion issue.
Conservative commentator Scott Jennings declared that "Biden's candidacy has fallen".
"I'm worried about the president. We have to pray for the president," said Jennings, a former aide to President George W. Bush. "I think his advisers, the White House and his family have a lot of explaining to do to their party and to the American people."
"Everything we were told about his mental acuity by these Democrats was a lie," he added. | BGNES
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