The debate was divided into six topics, but many Americans who tuned in on it would have had a hard time clarifying the positions of each candidate.
(CNN) -
The first presidential debate turned into chaos and a relentless barrage of personal attacks Tuesday night when President Donald Trump derailed the event by repeatedly speaking interrupting former Vice President Joe Biden, who responded with attacks on the president, in a moment calling him a "clown" and "the worst president the US has ever had."
Trump attacked Biden and interrupted him during his responses on all topics.
The technique led Biden to lose track of his thoughts on key points early in the debate, though he grew increasingly accustomed to Trump's attacks as the night progressed.
During the discussion of the explosive
New York Times
reports
that Trump paid little or no federal income tax for much of the past two decades, Biden tried to veer toward an argument about fairness, noting that a teacher of Average school paid more in taxes than Trump.
However, the president derailed him with his interruptions.
'Donald, could you shut up for a minute?'
The dynamic emerged during the first strong exchange on the health system and continued throughout the debate.
"Donald, could you shut up for a minute?" Biden said.
He repeatedly criticized the president for trying to overwhelm the debate, saying he would not even try to verify Trump's array of falsehoods.
"Everything you're saying here is a lie," he said.
Frustrated with the inability to carry out a coherent thought, he burst into Trump's retorts at one point, saying, "You wanna shut up, man?"
At one point, moderator Chris Wallace berated the president, who repeatedly tried to intervene while Biden spoke.
Wallace reminded him that his campaign had agreed rules that allowed everyone to speak uninterruptedly for two minutes.
"Mr. President," Wallace said.
“His campaign agreed that both parties have two-minute responses.
Uninterrupted.
His part agreed.
Look at what your campaign agreed to, ”he said.
"He never keeps his word," Biden said for his part.
The debate was divided into six topics, but many Americans who tuned in to it would have taken a lot of work to clarify the positions of each, since the debate turned into shouting, grudges and crossed conversations that sometimes made it impossible to follow what anyone of the two were talking.
A messy start
Trump entered the debate seeking to change the contest in which he is trailing in the polls, but instead played to his most basic instincts by attacking from the opening.
The president entered this first of three presidential debates in a much more vulnerable position than in his 2016 encounters with Hillary Clinton, when he had no presidential record to defend, and attempted to shake up the former secretary of state with frequent interruptions and teasing, including joke in a debate that if he had been in the White House "you would be in jail."
Many voters have already made up their minds about Trump, giving him poor marks for his handling of both the pandemic and the strain on race relations and police violence this year.
Trump returned to that 2016 script on Tuesday.
Unsurprisingly, Trump repeatedly insulted Biden during the first 30 minutes of the debate, interrupting him at one point when he used the word smart.
"Never use the word smart with me," Trump said.
"There's nothing smart about you, Joe," he added.
The differences between Trump and Biden
Trump's performance was a microcosm of his entire life and career: he breaks all the rules and seeks to dominate every room and personal interaction with an overwhelming personality.
Biden, a much more conventional politician, seemed nervous at first and struggled to score his own points with Trump interrupting.
He finally found a moment to fight back, criticizing Trump for trying to get rid of Obamacare.
He doesn't have a plan.
The fact is, this man doesn't know what he's talking about, ”Biden said.
Trump's strategies to oust the former vice president, including his unproven allegations of corruption against Biden's son Hunter, which he plans to raise on Tuesday, have so far been less effective than those he launched on Clinton.
The president may also have miscalculated by setting a low bar for Biden Tuesday night when he repeatedly questioned the former vice president's mental acuity and called him "dumb as a stone."
Biden criticizes Trump for handling the coronavirus
When the conversation shifted to pandemic, Biden criticized the president's handling of the coronavirus, noting that more than 200,000 people have died and some 40,000 people still contract COVID-19 each day.
The president has no plan.
He hasn't submitted anything, ”Biden said.
Trump questioned Biden's comparisons to the number of cases in other countries and vowed that a vaccine and life-saving treatments were just around the corner.
It's China's fault.
It should never have happened, "Trump said.
"We have done a great job," Trump added, accusing "fake news" of distorting his record on the virus.
Turning to Biden, he accused, "You would have lost a lot more people."
Biden told Trump to get out of his bunker and "get out of the sand trap and out of your golf course" to unite Democrats and Republicans and do whatever it takes to save lives.
Trump tried to deflect criticism that he rarely wears a mask and has drawn thousands of people to his rallies without social distancing, stating that Biden could never draw crowds like him.
He also repeatedly accused Biden of wanting to keep the country closed at the expense of companies across the country.
"This guy will shut down the whole country and destroy this whole country," Trump said as Biden laughed at the suggestion.
Trump on the defensive over taxes
During an exchange about new disclosures about Trump's tax returns in
The New York Times
, which showed that the president has not paid federal income taxes in 10 of the last 15 years, Biden noted that Trump paid less taxes than the most schoolteachers, but he seized the opportunity to instill in the president his tax obligations and questionable business record, given that Trump largely evaded taxes by presenting his losses.
"You are the worst president America has ever had," Biden said.
Trump questioned the
New York Times report
by stating that he has paid millions in taxes, but also defended his approach of paying as little in taxes as possible as one aspect of his keen business acumen.
Biden used the
New York Times report
to try to dismantle Trump's claim to be a champion of the working and middle classes in key Midwestern states.
The former vice president argued that Trump's actions in the White House have primarily benefited him and his super-wealthy allies.
In a preemptive strike to use the tax return issue to its advantage, Biden's campaign released the former vice president's 2019 tax returns early Tuesday, which showed he paid nearly $ 300,000 in federal income taxes for the year. past.
Donald Trump 2020 United States Elections Joe Biden