Biden Calls Trump a ‘Clown’ as Candidates Spar in First Debate
President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden squared off Tuesday night in their crucial first debate of the 2020 campaign, the most pivotal opportunity yet for them to outline starkly different visions for a country facing multiple crises.
It began with a contentious exchange over the Supreme Court with Trump defending his nomination of a new justice barely a month before the election. Declaring that “I was not elected for three years, I’m elected for four years,” Trump insisted he had every right to select Amy Coney Barrett to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died earlier this month.
“We won the election. Elections have consequences,” said Trump. “We have the Senate. We have the White House and we have a phenomenal nominee, respected by all.”
Trump and Biden arrived in Cleveland hoping the debate would energize their bases of support, even as they competed for the slim slice of undecided voters who could decide the election. It has been generations since two men asked to lead a nation facing such tumult, with Americans both fearful and impatient about the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 of their fellow citizens and cost millions of jobs.
The pandemic’s effects were in plain sight, with the candidates’ lecterns spaced far apart, all of the guests in the small crowd tested and the traditional opening handshake scrapped. The men did not shake hands and, while neither candidate wore a mask to take the stage, their families did sport face coverings.
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