Personal attacks set tone for Trump-Biden faceoff

US President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden sparred on Tuesday over the Supreme Court, the coronavirus, the economy and election integrity in a 90-minute presidential debate marked by interruptions and personal attacks.

With the debate split-screen format, TV viewers often had difficulty following what the two contenders were saying, because they often talked simultaneously while moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News called for order and calm. Held in Cleveland, Ohio, it was the first of three faceoffs scheduled for the candidates before the Nov 3 election.

In the first segment of the debate, Trump defended his effort to swiftly nominate Judge Amy Coney Barrett to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court little more than a month before the election. Ginsburg, a liberal voice on the top court, died on Sept 18.

"I will tell you very simply we won the election, elections have consequences. We have the Senate and we have the White House and we have a phenomenal nominee respected by all," said Trump, 74, of the conservative justice.

Biden said the seat should be filled after the election, and a more conservative Supreme Court would endanger the Affordable Care Act.

As Trump consistently interrupted Biden during the first segment of the encounter, the 77-year-old former vice-president hit back: "Will you shut up, man? This is so unpresidential."

"I guess I'm debating you, not him," Trump told Wallace, whom he also repeatedly interrupted.

At times Wallace seemed like the gentlemanly host of a party who was trying to keep the peace between two unruly guests.

Trump and Biden have been trading insults for months, and the debate seemed to reveal a genuine dislike between the two men, with no pretense of decorum.

"You're the worst president America's ever had," Biden said.

Trump retorted: "I've done more in 47 months than you've done in 47 years."

During a segment on race relations, Trump deflected a question on whether he was willing to denounce "white supremacists and militia groups" and tell them to stand down. He briefly told one group to "stand back and stand by "before turning to attacking left-wing activists.

On the COVID-19 pandemic, which has claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people in the US, Biden said: "He (Trump) knew all the way back in February how deadly it was. You don't panic. He panicked. How many of you got up this morning and had an empty chair because of COVID?"

Trump, referring to the pandemic, said: "This guy will close down the whole country. We don't need someone to come in and say, 'Let's shut it down'."

Tax controversy

A New York Times report on Sunday claimed that the president paid only $750 a year in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017, and no income taxes in 10 of the previous 15 years. "I paid millions of dollars in taxes, millions of dollars of income tax," Trump said when asked about the report.

National polls show Biden leading Trump, though surveys in the battleground states show the margins are narrowing.

"While there are a few voters left to be convinced one way or the other, it would take an epic collapse by one or the other of these candidates to change the trajectory of this race," said Cal Jillson, a political scientist and historian at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution's Governance Studies Program, said Biden wanted to project competence and calm at the debate to preserve the political status quo, while Trump wanted to disrupt a situation that is working against him.

"I don't think that these tax returns will have a major impact. This is a character issue, and most voters have already made up their minds about Trump's character and Biden's," Galston said in an email interview.

On Wednesday, China's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin, answering questions about the debate, said that Beijing is strongly opposed to US politicians making China a subject of election campaigns, and the US accusations against China are groundless.

The next presidential debates are on Oct 15 and Oct 22, with a vice-presidential debate on Oct 7.