Far was the chaos of the first debate in the last meeting between the two White House candidates, President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden, before the November 3 elections.
With a new format that included a mute button to silence candidates when they spoke out of turn, the debate was calmer, more orderly, and with far fewer interruptions.
Thus, they managed to address critical issues for the nation 12 days before the election: the coronavirus, immigration, foreign relations (especially with China) and Obamacare.
[This is how we count, minute by minute, the last presidential debate]
This meeting was the last chance President Trump had to lift his low numbers in the polls, in which
Biden continues to lead
by nine points (51% vs. 42%).
This is largely because of how voters rate the president's management of the pandemic.
The coronavirus, the first topic of the debate
COVID-19, a central issue in the lives of most Americans, opened the night.
As has happened in the campaign, Trump had to defend himself against criticism from health experts that it is his management that has made deaths and new infections not give up, while most wealthy and industrialized countries have managed to contain the virus.
The mute button implemented in the last discussion allowed for fewer interruptions and a more thorough discussion of the topics.
AP
In the United States, more than 222,000 people have died of coronavirus.
The country is the world leader in confirmed cases, with more than 8.4 million infections, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Trump is betting on the vaccine as the flagship of his response to the virus.
Tonight he promised, again, that a vaccine will be ready in weeks and will be mass distributed immediately.
We verify it and that is unlikely.
"We are turning the corner," Trump said.
"It's going to go."
In fact, more than 30 states currently have an increase in cases.
The total new cases on Wednesday, October 21, amounted to 63,735.
The president also said that "we are learning to live" with the virus and that there was "no other option."
To which Biden replied,
"People are learning to die" with him.
In addition, Biden accused that the current Administration "still does not have a plan, no comprehensive plan" and added that it would work on national standards on reopening business and improving the testing strategy.
These are the truths and lies that were told in the last debate between Trump and Biden
Oct. 23, 202001: 46
The issue of the coronavirus remained in the background.
The plastic spacers between the candidates were removed, as they both tested negative hours before meeting.
This was key: this should have been the third debate and the second should have taken place on October 15 in Miami, Florida.
But when the Committee on Presidential Debates announced that it would be virtual instead of face-to-face after the president's COVID-19 infection, he declined to participate.
The second debate was canceled and both candidates held parallel forums in different states to answer questions from undecided voters.
Migration policy, absent in the first debate, a central issue today
Two crucial issues for the Hispanic community, whose vote both candidates know will be defining in the elections, sneaked into the last one face to face: the DACA program and families separated at the border.
During the five minutes dedicated to immigration, Biden said that if he wins, he would allow young people with DACA to remain in the country without fear of deportation.
He highlighted that more than 20,000 of them fight the coronavirus on the front lines of the battle.
"We are indebted to them," he said.
Trump has tried to suspend the benefits that protect from deportation to more than 650,000 undocumented young people, known as
dreamers
and who came to the United States in childhood.
Another hot topic in the conversation: that the government has not been able to find the parents of 545 separated children at the border, according to a recent report.
Two-thirds of his parents were deported to Central America.
"Children are brought here by coyotes and a lot of bad people, by cartels," replied the president when asked how they were going to reunify separated families.
Immigration and separated children at the border returned to the electoral debate
Oct. 23, 202003: 11
Trump maintained that minors are used to enter the country and defended the reinforcement of the southern border, a rhetoric on which he built his campaign in 2016 and which has marked his Administration with the so-called 'zero tolerance' policy.
Welker insisted on whether the families would be reunited, and Trump said: "We are working very hard on that."
The president also accused the government of former President Barack Obama of "building" the cages to detain migrant children, who met in 2019.
"They were built in 2014," Trump said, adding "it was him," pointing to Biden, then vice president of the country.
One moment that left many cold was when, when discussing the
Obama Administration's
catch and release
policy
, the president said: “We have to send ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and the Patrol Border to find them ... When you say they come back, they don't come back, Joe.
They never come back.
Only the really - I hate to say this - but (only) those with the lowest IQ would come back, ”she
added, before the moderator intervened.
Trump vs. Obamacare, while Biden proposes his own health plan
Healthcare is a top issue for voters, and the two candidates clashed about it.
Trump said Obamacare must die: that has been a campaign promise and a goal of Republicans for the past 10 years, since the Affordable Care Act was passed under Obama.
Biden responded to Trump that he will strengthen it and turn it into what he called 'Bidencare'.
"What I'm going to do is pass Obamacare with a public option, make it 'Bidencare,'" said Biden, who was vice president when the law was passed.
Trump and Biden Make Their Priorities Clear in Latest Debate, Analysts Say
Oct. 23, 202001: 18
He used the word twice to describe his proposal to extend Medicaid coverage, expand federal subsidies, and allow those with private insurance plans the option of a government-administered policy (the public option).
China, taxes and secret bank accounts
After President Trump made several unsubstantiated claims about Biden's personal finances, the former vice president responded by citing the recent New York Times report that revealed that
the president maintains a secret bank account in China.
"I have not taken a penny from any foreign source in my life," Biden said.
“We learned that this president
paid 50 times more taxes in China (than he paid in the United States)
.
You have a secret bank account in China, you do business in China, and are you actually talking about me accepting money?
I have not taken a penny from any country, never ”.
Other winners of the night
Welker generated reactions on Twitter for his professionalism and the way he handled the debate, much calmer than the previous one.
And while there were no famous flies in this debate, Biden's glances at Trump caught the attention of users on social media, who compared the style of Biden's running mate, Kamala Harris.
https://twitter.com/JournoRyan/status/1319452996493860864?
Jorge Carrasco contributed to this report.
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