US President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden exchanged heated barbs during the first US Presidential debate on Tuesday. The two candidates attacked each other’s competence and credibility, in a fiery debate 35 days ahead of the most tense US election in recent memory.

There was no handshake as the two men took the stage and while this was due to COVID-19 restrictions, the absence of the traditional greeting symbolized the bitterness engulfing the country in the final countdown to November 3.

Just minutes in, the debate turned into an all-out and personal brawl as they raced through issues from a Supreme Court vacancy to the coronavirus pandemic to the US health care system.

Also Read: Chaos, name-calling, yelling: US Presidential debate had it all

On Coronavirus response

Biden on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on Trump over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, saying that he “has no plan”.

“Seven million people are infected in the United States, we have five percent of the world’s population, 20 per cent of its deaths. When he presented that number, he said ‘it is what is it’ because you are who you are. The president has no plan,” Biden said.

“This is the same man that said by Easter this would be gone away. By the warm weather, it would be gone like a miracle, maybe you can inject bleach into your arm,” Biden said.

In reply Trump said Biden failed during his handling of the outbreak of Swine Flu in the US, while also highlighting the success of his strategy to handle the pandemic.

“If we would have listened to you, the country would have been left open, millions would have died. You never could have done the job that we did, you don’t have it in your blood.” Trump said.

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On Integrity of elections

Trump said the result of the November 3 election may not be known for months, and deflected when asked if he would accept the outcome.

“We might not know for months,” Trump said of the results, adding later: “This is not going to end well.”

“I’m urging my supporters to go into the polls and watch very carefully,” he said.

Democratic challenger Joe Biden pledged to accept the vote results and said, “If it’s me, if it’s not me, I’ll support the outcome.”

On Race violence

During the debate, host Wallace asked Donald Trump to disavow white supremacists. Trump’s response, while talking about the race protests, was, “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by… I’ll tell you what, somebody’s gotta do something about Antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem, this is a left-wing problem.”

Also Read: Donald Trump says ‘India, Russia and China don’t give out real COVID-19 death numbers’

Tax feud

On reports that he had paid only $750 in federal taxes in 2016, US President Donald Trump said that he had actually paid “millions of dollars” in taxes.

On being asked a pointed question by moderator Chris Wallace, Trump said, “I paid millions of dollars in tax returns.”

To this Biden asked, “Show us the tax returns.” At this point Trump said, “go to the board of elections…” and then diverted the debate going into his business details and that he was “totally under leverage”

Trump — who has broken longtime presidential transparency by refusing to publish his tax returns — reportedly used loopholes to pay just $750 in federal tax during the first year of his presidency.

Hours before the Cleveland showdown, Biden published his own tax returns — and at the debate demanded that Trump do likewise.

Also Read: Not $750, I paid ‘millions of dollars’ in taxes: Donald Trump during Presidential debate

Supreme Court trump card

Donald Trump went to Cleveland with what he hopes will be a silver bullet — his nomination of conservative Judge Amy Coney Barrett to replace the late liberal icon Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court.

If Barrett is quickly confirmed, as the Republican-led Senate expects, Trump will have tilted the highest court firmly to the right for years to come.

“I will tell you very simply — we won the election, elections have consequences,” Trump said.

“The Democrats — they would not even think about not doing it. The only difference is, they’d try to do it faster.”

Also Read: ‘The president has no plan’: Joe Biden on Donald Trump’s coronavirus strategy

Biden countered that Americans were already voting and should have a say in the Supreme Court justice, raising liberals’ fears that Barrett will vote to overturn the right to abortion.