Trump, Biden trade barbs in unruly first presidential debate

Sep. 30--CLEVELAND -- President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden hurled angry insults and interrupted one another continuously in their first general election debate, a bitter meeting that pitted the candidates against one another on the economy, coronavirus, and racial unrest.

In the rare moments when they weren't talking over one another or the moderator, Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, they were unsparing with their barbs.

"You're the worst president American has ever had," Mr. Biden told Mr. Trump.

The debate was divided beforehand into six segments, but Mr. Wallace struggled to keep the debate on track.

"Will you just shut up, man?" Mr. Biden shot at Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump attacked Mr. Biden's intelligence: "Did you use the word smart? You forgot the name of your college, you didn't go to Delaware State. You graduated either the lowest, or almost the lowest in your class. Don't ever use the word smart with me."

The two candidates didn't see eye-to-eye on any topic, from the President nominating conservative jurist Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court vacancy created by Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death, to the coronavirus pandemic that has killed 206,000 Americans and 4,700 Ohioans.

"You should get out of your bunker and get out of the sand trap ... and go into the Oval Office and bring together the Democrats and Republicans and do what needs to be done to save lives," Mr. Biden said.

"If we would have listened to you, the country would have been left wide open. Millions of people would have died," Mr. Trump shot back, referring to his imposition of travel restrictions on China.

Regarding Judge Barrett's nomination a month before the election, the President said, "I was not elected for three years, I'm elected for four years." Mr. Trump insisted he had every right to select Judge Barrett.

"We won the election. Elections have consequences," Mr. Trump said. "We have the Senate. We have the White House and we have a phenomenal nominee, respected by all."

Mr. Biden responded that Judge Barrett seems like "a very fine person" but that her nomination after "tens of thousands of people have already voted" was troubling.

Moving on to health care, Mr. Trump suggested Mr. Biden supported abolishing private insurance.

Mr. Biden noted that he won the Democratic nomination partly by arguing against single-payer health care that many of his rivals sought. The former vice president has instead proposed expanding the Affordable Care Act to provide a public option that people could buy into.

Mr. Trump responded that Democrats still want to abolish private health insurance and suggested the party would force Mr. Biden to do their bidding.

"My party is me," Mr. Biden replied. "Right now I'm the Democratic Party."

During one segment, Mr. Wallace asked Mr. Trump if he was willing to denounce "white supremacists and militia groups" and tell them to stand down, rather than add to the violence seen at anti-racism protests in some cities.

Mr. Trump on Tuesday initially replied by blaming "the left wing" for violence, before saying he was "willing to do anything."

"Then do it, sir," Mr. Wallace said, as Mr. Biden brought up the Proud Boys, an organization that describes itself as a club of "Western chauvinists" but has been categorized as a hate group by the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center.

"Proud Boys, stand back and stand by," Mr. Trump said

At least one Proud Boy organizer, Joe Biggs, celebrated the group's mention on the social media platform Parler, saying: "President Trump told the proud boys to stand by because someone needs to deal with ANTIFA ... well sir! we're ready!!" according to screenshots posted by a New York Times reporter on Twitter.

The venue choice highlighted the pandemic's toll. The debate was hosted by the Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University at their joint Sheila and Eric Samson Pavilion at the Health Education Campus. The audience was limited. Guests and other participants needed to take coronavirus tests beforehand. The candidates also skipped the customary handshake.

Mr. Trump also addressed The New York Times' report on his tax returns revealing that he paid only $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017. The President refuted the newspaper's reporting, but declined to release his returns. He claims to have paid "millions" in income taxes.

"You'll see it as soon as it's finished," Mr. Trump said of his returns, which have been under audit for a decade.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Biden's campaign sought to keep attention on the issue of Mr. Trump's taxes during the day, releasing his 2019 returns that showed he paid $300,000 in federal taxes.

Both sides engaged in one-upsmanship in the hours before the debate.

The Trump campaign accused Mr. Biden of refusing to comply with an earpiece check and claimed the Biden camp asked for several breaks during the 90-minute event. The Biden campaign told reporters on a pre-debate conference call that it was pure fiction designed to distract from Mr. Trump's performance.

"His staff seems concerned that he may not do well tonight and they're already laying the groundwork for how they're going to lie about why," said Kate Bedingfield, Mr. Biden's deputy campaign manager and communications director.

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, a top surrogate for Mr. Biden who's from Cleveland, called him the most "pro-labor, pro-worker nominee in either party in a generation" and dismissed the pre-debate gamesmanship.

"Of course they want to change the subject because they know that people are very unhappy with their incompetence and their wrongheadedness," he said.

Mr. Biden is scheduled to campaign in Ohio for the first time as the Democratic nominee on Wednesday. He's beginning a day-long rail swing through eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania in Cleveland and Alliance, Ohio, that Republicans said was too late coming.

"We all knows he's been hiding in his basement," Ohio Republican Party Chairman Jane Timken said. "He refuses to answer questions from the press. He really hasn't been out on the campaign trail. He's not giving any real speeches on the campaign trail. We don't see him here in Ohio."

Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, offered his thoughts on during his coronavirus briefing Tuesday. Ohio has exceeded 4,700 deaths and 147,000 confirmed or probable cases, but hasn't seen a surge like some other states.

"Look, I never bought into this argument that Ohio would become a Republican state," said Mr. DeWine, who was elected amid a GOP sweep in 2018. "I mean, Ohio's a swing state. The President won last time by [8] points ... that was a big, big surprise. I think he's going to win this time in Ohio. I think it will be close but I think he will win."

Each campaign brought several symbolic guests to the scaled-back debate, held in front of an estimated live audience of 60 or 70 guests.

The Biden campaign chose to send a message with two northeast Ohioans: Gurnee´ Green, a small-business owner from Cleveland Heights, and James Evanoff, Jr., a union steelworker. Mr. Trump chose Alice Johnson, a criminal-reform advocate whose life sentence he commuted, and Ann Dorn, the window of a retired St. Louis police officer who was fatally shot during a protest in June.

Information from The Blade's news services was used in this report.

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