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Trump, Biden Clash in Chaotic, Contentious Debate

Ken Bredemeier

   WASHINGTON - Republican U.S. President Donald Trump and his Democratic
   challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden,clashedin acontentious,
   chaoticpresidential election debateTuesday night,trying for 90 minutes
   to convince Americanvoters that the other one was unfit to lead the
   United States for the next four years.

   They argued over the world-leading coronavirus death tollof 205,000in
   the U.S., the integrityand honestyof the November 3vote, Trump's
   nomination of conservative jurist Amy Coney Barrett to the
   SupremeCourt, fracturedracial relations in the U.S., environmental
   policies and more.

   Trump disputed aNew York Timesreport this week that he only paid $750
   in federal income taxes in both 2016, when he first ran for the
   presidency, and in 2017, his first year in office. Trump said he paid
   "millions of dollars," but Biden claimed Trump "pays less tax than the
   averageschoolteacher."

   Name-calling, personal attacks

   Mostly they insulted each other with cutting barbs, name-calling and
   personal attacks.

   "He's the worst president America has ever had," Bidencontended as he
   andTrump stood at podiums on a debatestage ata university in the
   Midwestern city of Cleveland, Ohio.

   Several times, Bidencalled Trump"a clown."

   Trump,seeking a secondfour-year term after his upset 2016victory over
   Democrat Hillary Clinton,retortedto Biden,"I've done more things in 47
   months[as president]than you've done in 47 years"as a U.S. senator and
   vice president under former President Barack Obama.

   Trump argued that if Bidentakes over as president next January,"you
   will have a depression like noonehas ever seen" because of the
   Democrat's plan to raise taxeson corporate earningsfrom 21% to 28%
   andonindividuals whomake more than $400,000 a year.

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