Last debate between Trump and Biden was more civilized 2:19
(CNN) -
Everyone expected a fight Thursday night and a debate broke out.
The main conclusion of the final showdown of the race for the White House was that the president of the United States did not catch fire, metaphorically speaking, an indicator of how low has been needed during the last four years.
But in his last chance to change the dynamics of his reelection race against Democratic candidate Joe Biden, even President Donald Trump seemed to have concluded that a rerun of his first rude and untamed debate would be a disaster.
This is a day covering a Donald Trump campaign event
This is how Trump used his first two minutes in the final debate 2:29
Trump's incessant interruption was replaced by rolling his eyes and grimacing.
When Trump got nervous, he made his trademark accordionist gesture with his hands.
As the president recited another falsehood, Biden kept his eyes closed as if praying silently.
The former vice president, however, managed to avoid his opponent's traps, although he had to clean up a response on the transition from fossil fuels that the Trump team will use against him until Election Day in just 11 days.
Thanks to Trump's restraint and NBC's Kristen Welker's authoritarian restraint, Americans were able to hear more about the contrast between the president and his rival in character, values, and policies on immigration, climate change, race, economics. and criminal justice to find out about a fateful election.
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Trump controlled himself in the debate but kept telling falsehoods
Trump may have modulated his outbursts, but he did not reject the torrent of falsehoods, especially when he denied that a "dark winter" was coming.
In reality, the pandemic is on the rise again with nearly 2,000 new deaths reported in the past two days alone in a tragedy that has now seen 223,000 Americans die.
The first words that came out of Trump's mouth were disinformation (he said that 2 million people had been predicted to die in the United States from the virus), but that figure was only true if the government or the public did not try to stop the virus.
7 conclusions from the final debate between Trump and Biden
Biden criticizes Trump's handling of pandemic at 1:55 start
"It will go away and as I say, we are turning, we are turning the corner, [the virus] is going," Trump said, giving assurances and calling for general state openings as fantastically out of touch with reality as ever.
Biden took advantage of the arrival of the dreaded surge in coronavirus infections to promise to bring America back, saying, “Folks, I'll take care of this.
I'm going to finish this.
Looking into the camera at millions of viewers who have been trapped at home for months, he said, "Anyone responsible for so many deaths should not remain president of the United States of America."
The exchange underscored that an election that unfolds in the worst internal crisis since World War II and the deepest public health emergency since World War I is far more likely to be decided by Trump's handling of the disease and consequent economic plague of the last nine months than by a debate that occurred when more than 40 million people had already voted.
"It's too late?
Could be"
If Trump makes one of the big political comebacks on November 3, his subdued performance Thursday night could be one of the reasons.
But strategically, it also seems a risk to think that his best performance and Biden's more consistent effort when he was not interrupted every two seconds as he spoke will appreciably change the shape of the electoral contest.
The Democrat is in the lead on most battlefields and Trump is relying on massive grassroots participation.
But at least the president gave his campaign team something to work with after taking his advice to tone down the antics that excite his supporters but alienate many other voters.
"Finally," a top Republican adviser told CNN's Jeff Zeleny.
"It's too late?
It could be, ”said another aide, but added that the president's performance would inject optimism into Republican ranks that had been absent for weeks.
Trump's attacks on Biden during the debate
Trump's less offensive conduct may have convinced some hesitant voters not to abandon him at the last minute.
With his most effective attack on Biden, he reprized the role of anti-Washington outsider in which he has always felt most comfortable.
You had eight years to do it.
Now you're saying you're going to do it, because you're talking and taking no action, Joe, "Trump said in a series of variations, setting the former vice president's two-term term and marking him as a lifelong politician.
His assault on Biden's record in the Senate, on criminal justice bills of the 1990s, seemed designed to help him on the sidelines of black male voters in swing states.
But the lesson of the Trump presidency is that momentary discipline can be damaged in the days that follow through furious actions and controversies that derail their own political aspirations.
It's also hard to see how Trump's cruel decision on more than 500 undocumented immigrant children, separated from their parents at the border and who the administration cannot find, could help the president's already losing support among crucial suburban voters. .
"They are so well cared for, they are in facilities that were so clean," Trump said, leaving a great opportunity for Biden, who frequently equates his own humanity with the president's callousness, to deliver a well-rehearsed line.
“The children were torn from the arms of their parents and separated.
And now they can't find more than 500 of those parents, and those kids are alone.
They have nowhere to go.
They have nowhere to go.
It is criminal.
It's criminal, ”Biden enraged.
Biden's campaign may celebrate that the former vice president escaped largely unscathed from two highly dangerous engagements with the most unpredictable debater in modern politics.
And it also probably came out stronger.
For a favorite, that is priceless.
And the president's decision to withdraw from what should have been a second virtual debate after catching COVID-19 now feels like a huge mistake.
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Biden dodges Trump's trap
The president's hard line on immigration reflects the way he has always conducted himself in office, as if he were running in a Republican primary.
The same happened with his corruption allegations against Biden and his son for alleged business in Ukraine and China.
The two men offered markedly different visions for the coming months at a time when Covid-19 cases are on the rise in more than 30 states. (Morry Gash / Pool / AFP / Getty Images)
Complaining about the "laptop from hell" and asking Biden to "clear it up and talk to the American people" may have been understandable to Fox News viewers who were prepared for the latest conspiracy theory, but it probably baffled everyone. others.
And Trump's tactic only opened the door for Biden to slam him for his refusal to release his tax returns and raise questions about the president's own trade disputes.
What are you hiding?
Why are you not willing?
… What's going on here? ”Biden asked Trump.
The exchange underscored two things.
First, that Biden didn't fall for Trump's trap by losing his cool when his son was attacked in a way that could have distracted him from his path to Election Day.
He also emphasized how the president's attempt to charge his enemy with an email scandal in the final days of the race is not having the same resonance it had at the end of his duel with Hillary Clinton, whose 40-year fight with the Conservative and the media machine left its reputation for honesty and reliability worse than Biden's.
The former vice president also seemed to improve his performance from the first debate.
Most importantly for Democrats, it was nothing like the cartoon that the Trump campaign has been building for months.
Biden could actually put words together and he was sharp and not wavering.
To a large extent he conquered his senatorial habit and recovered from his babbling.
He has had a successful campaign in which the pandemic shielded him from Trump's scrutiny and attacks for months.
But when he has needed him at major events, he has exceeded previous expectations for his political abilities: during the Democratic National Convention, in a speech at Gettysburg, and in both debates.
Biden proposed himself as the antidote to the division the president has fostered as a tool of government.
"This Abraham Lincoln"
Like Trump, Biden avoided the yelling and personal insults that marred the first debate.
But he was quick to despise the president when he got a chance.
For example, when Trump, who has consistently exacerbated racial divisions, declared that he was the "least racist person in the room."
"This Abraham Lincoln is one of the most racist presidents we've ever had in American history," Biden replied.
"Add fuel to every racist fire."
Biden's lines featured much newer material than the President, whose ubiquity means everyone has heard it before.
But the Democrat's jokes reflected the benefit of practicing for a debate even when the Trump campaign mocked him for doing so, and the president, as always, prided himself on improvising.
Biden had his own collisions with the facts.
He, for example, manipulated the president's position on taxes.
He falsely denied Trump's allegations that he had opposed fracking in the past, even though he is not currently proposing a total ban on the practice.
But his comparative loyalty to the truth suggests that a Biden presidency would not be built on the same mountain of misinformation as Trump's.
The president's team believes that Biden gave them an opportunity to restore their position on the crucial battlefields of the Midwest and elsewhere when he said he was in favor of a transition from a fossil fuel economy to fight the climate crisis.
What he is saying is that he is going to destroy the oil industry.
Will they remember Texas, will they remember Pennsylvania, Oklahoma… "Trump said, though his own reflections on Democrats planning buildings with smaller windows and how" wind power can kill all birds "hinted at the banality of his own climate policy.
The final words of the debate summed up the temperamental and political differences between the two men, one of whom will take office for a four-year term on January 20, 2021.
Trump's appeal showed how the billionaire and former real estate mogul tends to see everything through an economic prism.
We are on the road to success… He will destroy it.
If he wins, they'll have a depression like they've never seen before, "Trump said.
"Your 401K [savings plans] will go to hell and it will be a very, very sad day for this country."
Biden framed the election as central to the soul of America.
“What's on the ballot here is the character of this country.
Decency, honor, respect, treating people with dignity;
I'll make sure everyone gets the same chance, and I'll make sure they understand.
They haven't had this for the last four years. "