A clear contrast was evident this past Thursday at the third and final presidential debate held at Belmont University in Nashville between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.
NBC White House Correspondent Kristen Welker moderated the evening asking about the COVID-19 pandemic, American families, race in America, climate change, national security and the candidate’s leadership.
One change brought on was the Commission on Presidential Debates’ decision to possibly mute microphones after the candidate’s time had expired. Welker explained this at the start of the debate.
“At the beginning of each section, each candidate will have two minutes, uninterrupted, to answer my first question,” she said. “The debate commission will then turn on their microphones only when it is their turn to answer and the commission will turn it off exactly when the two minutes have expired.”
Welker went on to explain that after both candidates had responded, the microphones will be turned back on but asked the candidates to speak one at a time on behalf of voters.
A main point on the topic of COVID-19 dealt with a timeline on vaccine availability and public confidence. Trump stated he expected to have over 100 million vials available and the military would be distributing the vaccine. Walker asked Biden how he would assure confidence in the vaccine to the public.
“Make sure it’s totally transparent. Have the scientific world see it, know it, look at it, go through all the processes,” Biden said. “And by the way, this is the same fellow who told you this is going to end by Easter last time.”
Biden further stated there would be a dark winter with Trump having no clear plan. Trump responded by recalling the H1N1 virus response when Biden was Vice President.
“And frankly, he ran the H1N1 swine flu, and it was a total disaster,” Trump said. “Far less lethal. But it was a total disaster. Had that had this kind of numbers, 700,000 people would be dead right now, but it was a far less lethal disease.”
In the section on national security, Welker stated Iran and Russia had infiltrated voter information in certain states and asked both candidates how they would put a stop to interference in the election. Biden was first to respond.
“I made it clear that any country, no matter who it is, that interferes in American elections will pay a price,” Biden said. “They will pay the price.”
Trump said he “knew all about that” stating Director of National Intelligence John Radcliffe had told Trump it was to make him lose the election.
“He said, the one thing that’s common to both of them, they both want you to lose,” Trump said. “Because there has been nobody tougher to Russia. Between the sanctions, nobody tougher than me on Russia.”
At the 36 minute mark of the debate, Biden responded to Trump’s claim of Biden receiving payment from Russia and China through his son, Hunter, and spoke directly to the camera.
“This isn’t about me,” Biden said. “There’s a reason why he’s bringing up all this malarkey. There’s a reason for it. He doesn’t want to talk about the substantive issues. It’s not about his family and my family. It’s about your family, and your family’s hurting badly.”
On the topic of the Affordable Care Act, Trump stated that he had done a historic move by eliminating the individual mandate of the act and told his officials to run the act “as best as they can”.
“Here’s the problem,” Trump said. “No matter how well you run it, it’s no good. What we’d like to do is terminate it. We have the individual mandate done. I don’t know that it’s going to work. If we don’t win, we will have to run it and we’ll have Obamacare, but it will be better run. But it no longer is Obamacare. Because without the individual mandate, it is much different.”
Welker asked Biden to respond to Trump’s accusation that Biden was pushing for socialized medicine.
“What he’s saying, it’s ridiculous,” Biden said. “It’s like saying that, you know, we’re the idea that, the fact that there’s a public option that people can choose, that makes the socialist plan? Look, the difference between the president — I think health care is not a privilege, it’s a right. Everyone should have the right to have affordable health care.”
On unemployment, Welker asked the president why he has been unable to pass a second stimulus bill. Trump simply stated:
“Because Nancy Pelosi doesn’t want to approve it. I do,” Trump said.
Welker stated “But you’re the president.”
Trump stated he still had to get congressional approval and that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was using the stimulus bill for political gain.
“Nancy Pelosi does not want to approve it,” Trump said. “We are ready, willing and able to do something. Don’t forget, we’ve already approved three plans. And it’s gone through, including the Democrats, in all fairness. This one she doesn’t want. It’s near the election, because she thinks it helps her politically. I think it hurts her politically.”
Moderator Welker asked Trump to respond to a report that the parents of more than 500 immigrant children could not be found to reunite them.
“Children are brought here by coyotes and lots of bad people, cartels, and they’re brought here and it’s easy to use them to get into our country,” Trump said. “We now have a stronger border as we’ve ever had.”
Welker asked a second time how Trump planned to reunite the parents of the children.
“Let me just say,” Trump said. “They built cages. You know, they used to say I built the cages. And then they had a picture in the newspaper. There was a picture of these horrible cages and they said, ‘Look at these cages, President Trump built them.’ And then it was determined they were built in 2014. That was him.”
Trump then gave a response when Welker asked for a third time if he had a plan to reunite children.
“Yes, we’re working on a very — we’re trying very hard,” Trump said. “But a lot of these kids come up without the parents, they come over through cartels and the coyotes and through gangs.”
Welker asked the former vice president his thoughts on the situation.
“These 500 plus kids came with parents,” Biden said. “They separated them at the border to make it a disincentive to come to begin with. Big real tough, really strong. And guess what? They cannot — it’s not coyotes that bring them over, their parents were with them. They got separated from their parents.”
Welker asked Biden why Americans should trust him with immigration reform when his term with former President Barack Obama failed to deliver.
“Because we made a mistake,” Biden said. “It took too long to get it right. Too long to get it right. I’ll be President of the United States, not Vice President of the United States. And the fact is, and I’ve made it very clear, within 100 days, I’m going to send to the United States Congress a pathway to citizenship for over 11 million undocumented people.”
The president responded to Biden’s statement.
“He had eight years to do what he said he was going to do,” Trump said. “And I’ve changed without having a specific — we get rid of catch and release, got rid of a lot of horrible things that they put in and that they live with. But he had eight years he was vice president. He did nothing except build cages to keep children in.”
In the section on race in America, Welker mentioned an experience to people of color known as “the talk” — a conversation that POC may be targeted, regardless of class or income, for the sole color of their skin. She asked Biden to speak directly to families if he understood what the conversation meant.
“I never had to tell my daughter if she’s pulled over, make sure she puts, for traffic stop, puts both hands on top of the wheel. And don’t reach for the glove box because someone may shoot you,” Biden said. “But a Black parent, no matter how wealthy or how poor they are, has to teach their child, when you’re walking down the street, don’t have a hoodie on when you go across the street, making sure that you, in fact, if you get pulled over, just Yes or No sir, just hands on top of the wheel. Because you are in fact, the victim, whether you’re a person making $300,000-a-year person, or someone who’s on food stamps.”
Trump was asked to respond to the same question.
“Nobody has done more for the Black community than Donald Trump,” he said. “And if you look, with the exception of Abraham Lincoln–possible exception, but the exception of Abraham Lincoln, nobody has done what I’ve done. Criminal justice reform, Obama and Joe didn’t do it. I don’t even think they tried because they had no chance at doing it.”
Welker asked Trump if he believed that his statements against Black Lives Matter and athletes expressing first amendment rights led to a climate of hate and racial divide.
“I don’t, I don’t know what to say,” Trump said. “I got criminal justice reform done, and prison reform, and opportunity zones. I took care of Black colleges and universities. I don’t know what to say. They can say anything. I mean, they can say anything. It’s a very– it makes me sad because I am the least racist person.”
The former vice president responded to Trump’s statement.
“Abraham Lincoln,” Biden said. “Here is one of the most racist presidents we’ve had in modern history. He pours fuel on every single racist fire, every single one. He started off his campaign coming down the escalator saying he’s gonna get rid of those Mexican rapists. He’s banned Muslims because they’re Muslims. He has moved around and made everything worse across the board.”
On the topic of climate change, Trump stated that the United States had become energy independent. He also stated alternative energies such as wind was expensive, killed birds, and led to an increase in carbon emission from their production and solar energy was too weak to power factories.
He asked Biden his stance on fracking, stating the former vice president had wanted to ban the controversial process. Welker asked Biden if he would rule out banning fracking.
“I do rule out banning fracking because the answer we need– We need other industries to transition to get to, ultimately, a complete zero emissions by 2025,” Biden said. “What I will do with fracking over time is make sure that we can capture the emissions from fracking.”
Welker closed the evening asking both candidates what they would say on inauguration day to the voters who did not vote for them. Trump was first to respond.
“We have to make our country totally successful, as it was prior to the plague coming in from China,” Trump said. “Now we’re rebuilding it and we’re doing record numbers, 11.4 million jobs in a short period of time etc. But I’m cutting taxes and he wants to raise everybody’s taxes. And he wants to put new regulations on everything. He will kill it. If he gets in, you will have a depression, the likes of which you’ve never seen. Your 401K’s will go to hell and it’ll be a very, very sad day for this country.”
Biden stated he would be an “American president”.
“I will say, ‘I’m the American president,” Biden said. “I represent all of you whether you voted for me or against me. And I’m going to make sure that you’re represented. I’m going to give you hope. We’re going to move. We’re going to choose science over fiction. We’re going to choose hope over fear. We’re going to choose to move forward because we have enormous opportunities, enormous opportunities to make things better.”
Welker closed the evening thanking both the candidates for their participation and Belmont University for hosting the debate.
Early voting ends on Friday and Election Day will be Nov. 3.
I’m Justin Elizalde for Vaquero News.
