pictures created on September 29, 2020 shows US President Donald
Trump (L) and Democratic Presidential candidate and former US Vice
President Joe Biden during the first presidential debate at Case
Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio,
on September 29, 2020. (Photos by SAUL LOEB and JIM WATSON /
AFP)
Democrat Joe Biden branded election rival Donald Trump a
“national embarrassment” on Wednesday for failing to explicitly
denounce white supremacist groups, as the president moved to quell
the storm sparked by his remarks on the debate stage.
The bitter adversaries returned to the campaign trail one day
after their off-the-rails showdown in Cleveland made headlines less
for the substance than for its unrestrained chaos.
The toxic shout fest — with Trump constantly interrupting and
Biden launching personal attacks — even prompted the overseeing
Commission on Presidential Debates to announce it would be imposing
new measures to help moderators “maintain order” at the upcoming
two debates.
After his assertive performance, Biden launched a whistlestop
train tour Wednesday through battleground states Ohio and
Pennsylvania where he renewed his criticism of Trump.
“The president of the United States conducted himself the way he
did — I think it was a national embarrassment,” Biden said in
Alliance, Ohio.
pictures created on September 29, 2020, shows US President Donald
Trump during the first presidential debate with Democratic
Presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden at Case
Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio,
on September 29, 2020. (Photos by SAUL LOEB / AFP)
He fiercely attacked Trump’s failure to make a clear and
forceful denunciation of white supremacist groups or the far-right
Proud Boys, instead giving a shout-out to the male-only militia
group by saying they should “stand back and stand by,” and that the
real problem is “far-left” extremists.
“My message to the Proud Boys and every other white supremacist
group is: cease and desist,” Biden said. “That’s not who we are.
This is not who we are as Americans.”
Trump, in an apparent attempt to tamp down outrage over his
comments, called on the group to “stand down”.
“I don’t know who Proud Boys are but whoever they are they have
to stand down,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “Stand
down, let law enforcement do their work,” he said. “Whoever they
are, stand down.”
Trump ‘misspoke’
Biden also knocked Trump for failing to speak directly to the US
public about their plight during the COVID-19 crisis, which has
killed more than 206,000 Americans.
“Does your president have any idea or understand what you’re
going through? Biden asked. “Or does he just ignore you, look down
on you, lie to you?”
After the president failed to explicitly condemn white
supremacists, Senator Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the
US Senate, said Wednesday that he believes Trump “needs to
correct” his comments.
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“White supremacy should be denounced at every turn. I think the
president misspoke, and he needs to correct it,” Scott told
reporters.
“If he doesn’t correct it, I guess he didn’t misspeak,” Scott
added.
pictures created on September 29, 2020 shows Democratic
Presidential candidate and former US Vice President Joe Biden
during the first presidential debate opposite US President Donald
Trump at the Case Western Reserve University and Cleveland Clinic
in Cleveland, Ohio on September 29, 2020. (Photos by JIM WATSON /
AFP)
Trump spent much of the debate time interrupting Biden, accusing
him of being controlled by the “radical left” and trying to get
under his skin with comments about his son Hunter’s past business
affairs.
The former vice president mostly kept his composure and went
toe-to-toe with Trump for the full 90 minutes, attacking his
handling of the pandemic, race relations and the economy.
Tuesday’s showdown in Cleveland allowed Biden, 77, to rebuff
Republican claims that he doesn’t have the stamina for the White
House job.
Trump earlier had insinuated that Biden is too old for the job
and his mental faculties have been diminished by age.
An exasperated Biden variously described Trump as a “clown,” a
“liar” and “Putin’s puppy” while telling him at one point to “shut
up, man.”
Snap polls on the debate performances of the presidential
candidates leaned towards Biden, who withstood a barrage of barbs
from the 74-year-old Trump while delivering some of his own.
A CBS sampling of 1,039 likely voters who watched the televised
debate had Biden edging Trump by 48 percent to 41 percent — a
margin similar to that of national polls heading into the November
3 election.
‘Meltdown’
While Biden’s camp was praising their candidate’s performance
Wednesday, Trump took to Twitter to lash out at Fox News host Chris
Wallace, the moderator, claiming he had joined forces with Biden
and ganged up on him.
Biden responded with a tweet depicting Trump as a crying
baby.
The Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy
Pelosi, said Trump’s debate behavior demonstrated why she had
recommended that Biden not debate him at all.
“You saw a political nervous breakdown, a meltdown,” Pelosi said
on MSNBC.
Trump “has never respected the dignity of his office and he
demonstrated that last night.”
The Cleveland debate was scheduled to be the first of three
before the election but the acrimonious debacle led to calls by
some commentators for the two others to be cancelled.
In an interview with CNN, Biden’s running mate Senator Kamala
Harris suggested it was unlikely that the Democratic nominee would
bow out of the next debates.
“Joe Biden’s never going to refuse to talk to the American
people,” Harris said.
Trump was to attend a fundraiser Wednesday and address an
outdoor campaign rally in Duluth, Minnesota, a Midwestern state
narrowly won by Hillary Clinton in 2016.
The next debate is scheduled for October 15 in Miami.
-AFP
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