Chris Wallace Asks Trump to Stop Interrupting Biden at Ohio Debate
President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden hurled insults and repeatedly interrupted and talked over each other in their first debate, sparring over topics ranging from health care to the economy and their families as moderator Chris Wallace tried mostly in vain to control the conversation.
Biden repeatedly called Trump a “clown” and told him to “shut up” as Trump talked over his answers. He called the president a “racist” after Trump defended his orders to end racial sensitivity training in the government.
Trump insulted Biden’s intelligence and jabbed the former vice president over unsubstantiated allegations about his son Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings. Biden called Trump “the worst president America’s ever had.”
The back-and-forth quickly degenerated after Trump answered the first question, about his nominee to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Trump said he had the right to move swiftly to replace her, while Biden said U.S. voters should weigh in first.
“We won the election,” Trump said in answer to the first question, about his nominee Amy Coney Barrett. “Elections have consequences. We have the Senate, we have the White House and we have a phenomenal nominee.”
Biden said that Trump and Barrett want to strike down the Affordable Care Act, costing 20 million people their health insurance.
“The American people have a right to have a say over who the Supreme Court nominee is,” Biden said. “What’s at stake here, as the president’s made it clear, he wants to get rid of the Affordable Care Act. He’s in the Supreme Court right now trying to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, which will strip 20 million people from having health insurance now, if it goes to the Supreme Court.”
The debate moderator, Fox News host Wallace, tried to intervene as the two candidates squabbled over their respective health policies, and Trump complained: “I guess I’m debating you.”
“Folks, do you have any idea what this clown is trying to do?” Biden, who frequently spoke directly into the camera, said as Trump talked over him. “Will you shut up, man,” he grumbled moments later.
Wallace subsequently asked about Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 200,000 Americans so far, and why voters should trust Biden to handle the response better.
“You don’t panic. He panicked,” Biden said. “He still doesn’t have a plan.”
“Wrong,” Trump interjected.
“You could never have done the job that we did. You don’t have it in your blood,” he told Biden, alleging “millions” of Americans would have died with the former vice president leading the country.
“I know how to do the job,” Biden said. “I know how to get the job done.”
After enduring Biden’s criticism of his coronavirus response, Trump seized on a Biden remark that his management of the crisis would be “smart.”
“Don’t ever use the word ‘smart’ with me,” Trump said, accusing Biden of forgetting where he went to college.
Biden chuckled. “Oh give me a break.”
“There’s nothing smart about you, Joe,” Trump added.
Trump and Biden even argued about whether Americans should wear masks to combat spread of the virus. Many people in Trump’s entourage in the audience didn’t wear one, and when an official from the Cleveland Clinic, which is co-hosting the debate, came by to offer them masks, they refused.
Biden’s entourage wore masks. He noted that the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said earlier this month that near-universal mask wearing would end the U.S. outbreak. Trump said other officials had claimed the “opposite.”
“No serious person said the opposite,” Biden said.
“I think masks are OK,” Trump said. “I mean I have a mask right here. When needed, I wear masks. I don’t wear masks like him.”
Hours before the debate began, Biden released his most recent tax returns, signaling that he wanted new revelations about the president’s taxes at center stage for their first face-to-face encounter.
“Is it true that you paid $750 in federal income taxes” in 2016 and 2017, Wallace asked Trump, a reference to New York Times reporting beginning Sunday on tax records the president has kept secret.
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