US election 2020: Joe Biden and Donald Trump in unedifying Presidential ‘debate’

Donald Trump and Joe Biden displayed utter contempt for each other as they jostled to sell vastly different visions of the US.

Joe Biden, left, and Donald Trump during their heated first debate of the US presidential campaign. Picture: AFP

Donald Trump and Joe Biden have squared off in Cleveland in their first debate, with the US President lambasting his rival for “doing nothing’’ in 47 years in public life and his challenger describing Mr Trump as “the worst president that America has ever had’’.

In a debate that descended into a chaotic shouting match unlike anything seen on such a prominent political stage, the pair traded political blows over the management of the coronavirus, the economy, racial unrest and violence and the make-up of the US Supreme Court.

With more than 80 million Americans watching on, the President and his Democrat opponent displayed utter contempt for each other as they jostled to sell their vastly different visions of America.

In a remarkable political moment, debate moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News pleaded with both to abide by the rules and he often lost control as Mr Trump and Mr Biden talked over each other.

Wallace repeatedly called out Mr Trump for interrupting, prompting the President to say he was debating the moderator rather than the former vice-president.

On the outcome of the election, Mr Trump warned that the result might not be known “for months” because of voter fraud with mail-in ballots.

Mr Biden responded: “He’s just afraid of counting the votes.”

The first US presidential debate prompted a sell-off on the Australian stock exchange with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index closing down 2.29 per cent, its biggest fall in four weeks.

Mr Biden attacked the President’s leadership across the board but especially on his management of the coronavirus and the resulting economic recession.

“Under this President, we’ve become weaker, sicker, poorer, more divided and more violent,” Mr Biden said. “It is what it is because you are who you are.”

Mr Trump accused Mr Biden of being a puppet of the left, opposing police and law enforcement and being a career politician with nothing to show for it.

“In 47 months, I’ve done more than you did in 47 years, Joe,” Mr Trump said. “There’s nothing smart about you, Joe. Forty-seven years, you’ve done nothing.”

Both threw insults at each other, with Mr Biden calling Mr Trump “the worst president America has ever had” and at one stage saying: “Shut up, man. It’s hard to get any word in with this clown.’

Mr Trump tried several times to inject Mr Biden’s son Hunter into the debate, asking Mr Biden to explain his son’s work in China and Ukraine.

In one tense exchange, Mr Biden brought up the claim that Mr Trump once called soldiers “losers’’ and said of his late son Beau, “my son was in Iraq. He spent a year there. He got the Bronze Star … he was not a loser, he was a patriot.”

Mr Trump turned the issue back to Hunter Biden, who was thrown out of the military, saying: “He didn’t have a job until you became vice-president. Once you became vice-president, he made a fortune in Ukraine, in China, in Moscow and various other places. He made a fortune and he didn’t have a job.”

Mr Trump dodged a direct question about whether it was true he had paid just $750 in federal taxes in 2016 and 2017, replying only that he paid “millions of dollars in taxes; millions of dollars in income tax”.

He defended his push to have a new Supreme Court judge confirmed before the election, saying “we won the election and elections have consequences”.

Mr Biden did not press the issue but instead pivoted to claim that a new conservative justice would attack Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, stripping millions of their health insurance. He also claimed it would lead to an assault on the landmark Roe v Wade ruling guaranteeing legal abortion.

On the economy, Mr Trump accused Mr Biden of wanting to shut down the economy again for the coronavirus.

The second of the three presidential debates will be in Miami on October 15. Vice-presidential candidates Mike Pence and Kamala Harris will debate next Tuesday.