NASHVILLE, Tenn. — President Donald Trump tried to launch a last-minute comeback at his second and final debate with Joe Biden on Thursday night with a flurry of unsubstantiated claims about his rival's financial dealings and promises that a coronavirus vaccine will be delivered on a timetable public health experts dismiss as unrealistic.
Even as the two sparred over policy and programs, many of the president's charges were inflammatory, especially his allegations that the former vice president was corrupt despite lack of any solid evidence.
"He is the vice president of the United States, and his son, his brother and his other brother are getting rich. They're like a vacuum cleaner," Trump said.
"I think you have to clear it up and talk to the American people," Trump said.
Biden responded angrily: "I have not taken a penny from any foreign source in my life ... I have released all of my tax returns.... You have not released a single solitary year of your tax returns. What are you hiding?"
"There's a reason he's bringing up all this malarkey," Biden said. "He doesn't want to talk about the substantive issues."
The debate started in a markedly more civil tone than the Sept. 29 face-off between the two rivals, but it soon grew heated as they attacked each other's integrity. Before the conversation turned to personal finances, the candidates clashed over the coronavirus.
Trump insisted his handling of the virus, which has left 223,000 Americans dead as the nation faces another surge in cases, has been a triumph.
The president asserted a vaccine is only weeks away. His timeline contradicts the nation's top public health experts, who warn that widespread vaccine distribution is many months away.
"This is a worldwide problem but I've been congratulated by the heads of many countries," said Trump, sidestepping that the United States has suffered more deaths than any other country. "We're rounding the turn. We're rounding the corner. It's going away."
Biden called such assertions reckless and took aim at Trump's handling of the pandemic.
"Anyone who's responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the United States of America," Biden said, offering the most direct case against Trump.
The former vice president warned that "we're about to go into a dark winter" with "no clear plan."
Organizers of the 90-minute debate were determined not to allow a repeat of the unruly last face-off between Trump and Biden, which devolved into an incoherent shouting match largely because of Trump's repeated interruptions.
The meltdown of decorum moved the independent Commission on Presidential Debates to add a precaution to its format: a mute button.
A candidate's microphone can be silenced during opening statements, or during the start of questions, if he tries to talk when it is not his turn. The precaution made for a far more orderly and comprehensible exchange.
Before the debate, other Republicans urged Trump to strike a calmer, more serious tone this time in an effort to reassure wavering voters, but the president went in a different direction.
Trump brought as his guest a former business partner of Biden's son Hunter who is accusing the Biden family of corruption. In a pre-debate news conference held by the Trump campaign, the businessman, Tony Bobulinski, accused Joe Biden of lying about his financial dealings but offered no evidence.
Biden denies any impropriety and has accused the Trump campaign of seeking to divert voters' attention from the president's mishandling of the COVID-19 crisis and his failure to fulfill promises to overhaul roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure.
Trump branded the mic shutoff switch part of a conspiracy against him, telling Fox News earlier Thursday, "The whole thing is crazy."
He condemned Welker, who is not in charge of turning Trump's or Biden's mics on and off, which was controlled by a debate commission official. Trump also stepped up his broader crusade against the mainstream media in the run-up to the event.
"Look at the bias, hatred and rudeness on behalf of 60 Minutes and CBS," Trump wrote on Facebook, as he tried to preempt the popular CBS newsmagazine broadcast of his interview, planned for Sunday, by posting his own clips from it. "Tonight's anchor, Kristen Welker, is far worse! #MAGA."
In their "60 Minutes" exchange, reporter Leslie Stahl challenged Trump on multiple fronts, including his numerous false statements, his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, his failure to release a long-promised healthcare plan and the lack of social distancing and mask-wearing at his rallies.
The president entered the debate roughly 10 percentage points behind Biden nationwide, according to polling averages, and he is trailing in almost every battleground state.
While the president's die-hard supporters cheer his attacks, little evidence indicates they are impressing the moderate voters, especially suburban women, whom he needs to lure back into his coalition.
Even so, Democrats are on edge as they watch the debate.
Despite his lead, Biden is far from locking up the race and Democrats have not forgotten that at this point in the 2016 campaign, Trump appeared finished.
His surprise victory has haunted Democrats ever since. With the pandemic upending voting patterns and potentially undermining the reliability of preelection polls, plus concerns about possible intimidation at the polls or suppression of ballots, the party's operatives are anxious.
The Trump and Biden campaigns said the candidates tested negative for the coronavirus before the debate, a point of concern after Trump may have been contagious at the Sept. 29 debate.
The Trump campaign has been unable to provide evidence that the president was tested before he entered the debate hall that night, as the rules required. He was diagnosed one day later and rushed to the hospital Oct. 2 with COVID-19.
"Hopefully he'll play by the rules," Biden said before boarding his plane to Nashville on Thursday. "Hopefully everyone's been tested."
Thursday night's debate at Nashville's Belmont University follows the cancellation of the second presidential debate, which was scheduled for last week, after Trump refused to participate when the event was moved online because he was still under care for the coronavirus.
