There is nothing like a good fight.
In a lip-smacking start to the presidential debate on Wednesday, Donald Trump and Joe Biden were at their name-calling best, shouting each other down and heaping insults.
An exasperated Biden finally asked Trump to ''shut up'' as the president kept butting in incessantly. And, about 15 minutes later during a discussion on the COVID pandemic, he told Trump again: ‘‘Will you just shush for a minute?’’
There was no holding back Biden either in the 90-minute showdown as he termed Trump a "liar" and a "clown." Trump fired back, telling Biden, "There's nothing smart about you, Joe. Forty-seven years, you've done nothing."
Biden further called Trump a 'racist' when the two men debated race relations and said he is ‘‘the worst president America has ever had.’’ It was apparent that Biden, determined not to get dragged down, came armed with his own insults. But what became a bitter personalised exchange, Trump raked up Biden's son Hunter's past cocaine use and inaccurately accused him of getting a dishonourable discharge from the Navy.
Biden has entered the debate leading in national polls and in key battlegrounds. That mounted the pressure on Trump to raise doubts about Biden.
INDIA’S COUNT INACCURATE?
India, too, found an ignominious mention in the debate with Trump saying that it does not give a "straight count" on the COVID-19 figures. Defending the United States’ performance in managing the coronavirus pandemic, he compared the number of deaths in the US to figures put out by China, Russia, and India. Trump said: "When you talk about numbers you know how many people died in China? You know how many people died in Russia? You don't know how many people died in India. They don't give you a straight count."
