President Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden tangled over the government's response to the coronavirus pandemic and other issues, as the two contenders for the White House met Tuesday evening in a chaotic and messy debate.
Biden, the Democratic nominee for the presidency, attacked the Trump administration's response to the deadly disease, which has killed more than 200,000 Americans. Biden said Trump had ignored the advice of experts and lied to the American people in an attempt to conceal the severity of the health crisis.
"The president has no plan," Biden said during a heated exchange. "He hasn't laid out anything."
Trump countered that a vaccine would be available soon and charged the death toll from the disease would have been worse had the former vice president been in charge.
"If we had listened to you, the country would have been left wide open," Trump said, directing his statement toward Biden. "Millions of people would have died, not 200,000."
The unusually sharp exchange set the tone for an already odd debate, the rules for which were influenced by the ongoing pandemic. The debate was conducted in front of a small in-person audience estimated at 75 people, all of whom were tested for the virus before attending the event. The Trump and Biden campaigns agreed not to shake hands, forgoing the traditional greeting. Neither candidate, however, wore a mask.
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