The first 2020 presidential debate between President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival former Vice President Joe Biden fuels chaos to the already unsteady, tumultuous climate of election season. The ill-tempered debate filled with persistent interruptions, bickering, and insults triggered a national and near-universal condemnation from viewers around the world. Many commentators and journalists sounded off on the lack of professionalism on stage, with some wondering if the rules will change to ensure that the remaining planned debates maintain more order and structure. While Trump interrupted three times more than Biden, according to the Washington Post, many viewers across the country were surprised to witness the former VP hurling insults back at Trump. Among the most circulated videos of the debate, Biden is seen calling the sitting U.S. President a “clown” and telling him to “keep yapping, man.”
After the debate, the candidates embarked on campaigns, Biden on a train tour to Ohio and Pennsylvania, while Trump held a campaign rally in Minnesota. President Trump praised himself on the trail and told his campaign rally that he defeated Biden in the first debate. In Ohio and Pennsylvania, Biden cast Trump as a president who abandoned working Americans.
The fate of the remaining two presidential debates remains uncertain after President Trump and the first lady tested positive for the novel Coronavirus Friday (10/2). The Commander in Chief has been admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he is said to be “fever-free” and in “exceptionally good spirits” according to his doctors. Critics of the Trump administration say the positive diagnosis comes after the President spent months downplaying the severity of the fatal virus that claimed more than 200,000 lives in the U.S. Since the start of the pandemic, the President often refused to wear a mask in public. Most recently, he mocked Biden for wearing facial coverings at campaign events during Tuesday’s debate.
A New York Times report showed that President Trump has largely avoided paying income taxes for years. In 2016 and 2017, President Trump paid just $750 in federal income taxes. The Biden campaign quickly jumped on these reports and released a video ad on Twitter comparing average taxes paid by teachers, firefights, and nurses, which are all more than $750.
Biden’s campaign called for Facebook to remove posts from President Trump and his oldest son, who posted a video constraining an unsubstantiated claim that the “radical left” was planning to “add millions of fraudulent ballots that can cancel your vote and overturn the election.” Biden’s campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillion, wrote that “removing this video should have been the easiest of easy calls under your policies, yet it remains up today.”
Betting markets appear to be moving in favor of Biden, after news of Trump’s infection of COVID-19. However, it’s unclear how – or if at all – the President’s diagnosis will affect public sentiment and opinion. For British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who contracted the Coronavirus earlier this year, a boost in ratings followed weeks after he came down with the virus.
Guest Post by Fox News Reporter Sharon Song
