President
Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden battled fiercely over Trump's
record on the coronavirus pandemic, healthcare and the economy in a chaotic and
bad-tempered first debate marked by personal insults and Trump's repeated
interruptions. Trump bulldozed his way through the 90-minute debate, trying to
goad Biden nearly every time he spoke, claiming that Democrats were trying to
steal the November presidential election with mail-in ballots and declining to
condemn white supremacist groups when asked to do so. Moderator Chris Wallace
of Fox News never established control of the debate, with Trump repeatedly
ignoring his calls to let Biden speak. The two White House contenders talked
over each other and lobbed insults in a breathtaking political brawl that made
it hard for either to make a point. The stakes were enormous as the two
candidates took the stage five weeks before the Nov. 3 Election Day. As of
Tuesday evening, more than 1.3 million Americans already had cast early
ballots. With time running out to change minds or influence the small sliver of
undecided voters.For Trump, 74, Tuesday's debate represented one of the few
remaining chances to change the trajectory of a race that most opinion polls
show him losing, as the majority of Americans disapprove of his handling of
both the pandemic and protests over racial injustice. Biden, 77, has held a
consistent lead over Trump in national opinion polls, although surveys in the
battleground states that will decide the election show a much closer contest.
It was hard to determine whether the debate would move the needle.
