A sharp Joe Biden with well-prepared retorts came out to attack Donald Trump in the last presidential debate before the November 3 election.
The Democratic candidate took advantage of the discussion on the pandemic to hit the president, impeccable in form but implacable in the background, and came out to the jugular when the evening entered the mud of accusations of corruption.
The Republican, more restrained than usual, defended himself without shrillness from the blows of the Democratic candidate, which improved his image after the chaos of the first meeting, but also made it clear that, without the noise, he loses part of his aura.
Trump and Biden met in Nashville (Tennessee) 12 days before
D-Day
to fight for the last undecided votes, to incite supporters who are not sure whether to go to the polls or demobilize their adversaries.
Unlike the first crossing, this time the Democrat did not let the Republican escape from the biggest crisis hitting the country, the pandemic that has already claimed nearly 223,000 lives in the United States.
"This is the same guy who said this was going to end by Easter, but we're heading into a dark winter and he doesn't have a plan," he said.
The president replied that the virus was the responsibility of China, the country where the outbreak began and exposed his own contagion to insist on reducing the severity of the health crisis, insisting that "99% of the people recover."
"He says people are learning to live with it, no, people are learning to die with it, you have an empty chair in the kitchen," Biden replied.
The winner or loser of an electoral debate is decided based on expectations.
In reality, the candidates compete against themselves.
Biden, 77, is not a good debater or a great speaker, but this Thursday he dealt some good blows to Trump, spoke with more poise than at the first crossing and made no big mistakes.
The Republican, 74, a television creature, went from less to more throughout the night, especially when he began to label Biden, disparagingly, as a "politician" of clichés and set himself up as that man outside the rules. from Washington who speaks to them with raw frankness, the aspect most valued by his followers.
However, when he began attacking his rival for his son's business, Hunter Biden, in Ukraine, what was promised the most turbulent chapter of the night, he failed to destabilize.
Biden's son was hired by a Ukrainian gas company, Burisma, on a gold salary at the time his father was vice president of the Obama Administration.
The signing aroused suspicions and criticism, but neither the Ukrainian justice nor an investigation of the Republicans in Congress ever found evidence of any crime.
Trump has nevertheless found a vein to pull to try to associate Biden with corruption, just as he did in 2016 with Hillary Clinton, whom he always called "Hillary the corrupt."
Without specifying, he accused Biden of collecting from China, Russia and Ukraine.
"His son did not have a job in his life and as soon as he is vice president they hire him," he criticized.
Biden then jumped on the president's neck.
"I have not received a penny from any foreign source in my entire life," he said, adding: "You are the one who had a bank account in China [data published a few days ago by
The New York Times
]." Second, I have delivered all my tax returns for 22 years and you have not delivered a single one. What are you hiding? Russia pays you a lot, China also pays you a lot in your businesses. "
Despite the scuffle, it was a completely different debate from the first one, so bitter that it forced the next one to change the rules.
This time, in each thematic block, the candidates could make their initial presentation, lasting two minutes, without interruption because the organizers turned off the microphone of the opponent.
But then, in the questions and replies, there was an orderly discussion, to which the Obama-era vice president seemed to arrive more prepared.
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