Donald Trump or Joe Biden: Who won the final presidential debate

The final debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden has wrapped up. Here’s what the experts are saying.

The final debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden has wrapped up.

The Republican President and his Democratic rival went head to head for last time before Americans go to the polls on November 3.

The Thursday night debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee was far more orderly than the chaotic first outing last month.

While traditionally the third presidential debate has been wholly dedicated to foreign policy, the topics selected by moderator Kristen Welker were “Fighting COVID-19”, “American Families”, “Race in America”, “Climate Change”, “National Security” and “Leadership”.

Mr Trump had vowed to go off script and hammer Mr Biden over revelations about his son Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings. While the issue did come up, there was less focus on it than some had expected.

In attendance as a special guest of the President was Tony Bobulinski, a former business associate of Hunter who this week released a bombshell statement implicating the former Vice President in his son’s foreign deals.

Here’s what the experts and pundits are saying about the debate.

Fox News host Chris Wallace, who moderated the first debate, said he was “jealous” and “would have liked to moderate that debate”.

“I thought it was a good debate with two competing visions,” he said.

“I thought Biden had many more specific plans, whether it came to dealing with COVID, climate change, healthcare. I thought the President’s presentation was more fluid, there were clearly times when Joe Biden seemed to falter a little bit in making his point or finishing his sentence.”

Wallace said the topics “played more to Biden’s advantage” and often put Mr Trump on defence.

He said he was “struck” by Mr Biden’s response to the questions about his son, saying he was “very successful in countering it” by immediately attacking Mr Trump on his Chinese bank account and failure to turn over his tax returns.

“In terms of key moments, the President talked a lot about, ‘You’ve had all these years in Washington, you’re all talk no action,’” Wallace said.

Wallace said Mr Biden’s strongest moment was hitting back at Mr Trump’s claim that he was the “least racist person in the room” who had done more for black Americans than any President since Abraham Lincoln.

Donald Trump and Joe Biden square off. Picture: Jim Watson/AFP

Donna Brazile, former interim head of the Democratic National Committee and now Fox News commentator, conceded that “this was not the Twitter Donald Trump, okay, amen”.

“The tone was different but it was still the Donald Trump that refuses to release his taxes, once again claiming he has an audit – what are you hiding?” she said.

“The second thing is he said he had a healthcare plan. Well, where is it? It’s been 10 years. I think the most important thing Joe Biden said was ‘I (couldn’t) get it through Congress’ – well, that’s gridlock, whether you’re a Republican or Democratic President, the American people are tired of gridlock.”

Conservative commentator Brit Hume said Mr Trump “gave his best debate performance perhaps ever, but I thought the Vice President fought him to at least a draw”.

“Trump was most effective when he was demanding why Biden hadn’t done all the great things he was promising to do,” he said.

“Biden held up well, I think he did falter at times, but he didn’t have a really bad moment.”

CNN host Jake Tapper mocked Mr Trump’s racism claim, saying he was “pretty sure Kristen Welker is less racist than Donald Trump”.

Tapper argued Mr Trump didn’t speak enough about the economy and instead was “off in Breitbart land talking about laptops”.

CNN political correspondent Abby Phillip said there was a “key moment that really encapsulates” that Mr Trump doesn’t understand how to talk about the coronavirus pandemic.

“He kept repeating that we’re ‘learning to live with it’,” she said.

“And Joe Biden came back and said, ‘Actually we’re dying with it.’ I think that was the key moment. The President only wants to focus on reopening, he doesn’t want to acknowledge the sacrifices Americans have made.”

Rick Santorum, a former Republican politician and now CNN commentator, argued Mr Trump “completely skewered Joe Biden”.

“You guys watched a very different debate, I think Trump was right on his game, I think he completely skewered Joe Biden,” he said. “Here Biden is, just looking in the camera, being a typical politician.”

Joe Biden ‘didn’t really have a bad moment’. Picture: Brendan Smialowski/AFP

Former Obama administration official Van Jones said Mr Trump “did his best ever and his best was not good enough”.

“It was the same stuff, just a little bit less volume on it, but no plan for the future,” he said.

“A big apology for a bunch of failures and then smacking Joe Biden all the time. He sounded better, he looked better, but there was nothing there.”

Jones said Mr Trump “needed two things tonight”, neither of which happened.

“Trump needed to not come across like a deranged madman, and he needed Joe Biden to completely bomb,” he said.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he had “never felt better about President Trump being re-elected than I do now”.

“The President soared tonight, Biden struggled,” he told Fox News host Sean Hannity.

“The stunning news to me tonight is Vice President Biden is going to destroy the oil and gas industry in the United States, that came out of his own mouth.”

Hannity said Mr Trump had “called out the left on lie after lie after lie”.

Podcast host Dan Bongino argued that “millions of Americans heard for the first time tonight due to a media blackout about the Biden crime family and what really happened”.

“There are a bunch of people tonight who are going to go put that into a search engine,” he told Fox News.

CNN host Wolf Blitzer said the “lowest moment” was Mr Trump’s claim to the be the least racist person in the room.

The network asked its panel of undecided North Carolina voters about the comment.

“I was quite shocked honestly, I thought by this time people would teach him what to say and what not to say,” one African-American man on the panel said.

Asked for a show of hands, none of the panel said Mr Trump won the debate, nine raised their hands for Mr Biden, and two said it was a draw.

CNN’s instant poll of debate watchers gave the debate to Mr Biden.

“The winner of this debate was Joe Biden, 53 per cent to 39 per cent,” CNN political director David Chalian said.

Republican pollster Frank Luntz said words his focus group used to describe Mr Trump were “controlled”, “reserved”, “poised”, “con artist” and “surprisingly presidential”.

Mr Biden was described as “vague”, “unspecific”, “elusive”, “defensive” and “grandfatherly”.

Former Fox News host and 2016 debate moderator Megyn Kelly, who was targeted by crude comments from Mr Trump suggesting she was on her period at the time, gave the night to the President.

“Trump won this debate, handily,” Kelly tweeted. “Biden wasn’t a force at all. Trump was substantive, on-point, well tempered. Definitely helped himself, when it mattered most.”