WHAT’S THE STORY?

THE pro-Trump press and media are telling the people of the USA that President Donald Trump “won” the final television debate of this presidential election, set for November 3. But most neutral observers and immediate polls of viewers concluded that the verdict went to Joe Biden. Trump, of course, only tweeted the social media results of polls of his own fans ...

Held at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee early yesterday morning (BST), it was much less of a shouting match than the first awful cringe-inducing encounter. Both candidates made scoring points, but the Republican Party is dismayed that Trump never landed a real knockout blow. The Democrats, meanwhile, are happy that Biden continued to stick it to the President over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which continues to be the main talking point across the USA.

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To lose the advantage he has in the polls, Biden would have had to make horrendous errors. He stuck to his lines, and not even his weakest point – the alleged involvement of his son Hunter in dodgy overseas deals – proved too troublesome, not lest because he was able to question Trump over his involvement in would-be deals in China.

WHO REALLY WON THE DEBATE?

NO question that the moderator, Kristen Welker, came across as supremely professional. Consequently she has massively boosted her standing as one of the USA’s top broadcasters, so she was the real “winner” of the night.

The 44-year-old Harvard graduate is a White House correspondent of NBC and hosts several programmes. She controlled the debate well, kept the two men to their timings and even Trump, who had castigated her prior to the debate, took the time to say: “By the way, so far I respect very much the way you’re handling this.”

WHAT WERE THE BEST LINES FROM TRUMP?

“JOE, I ran because of you. I ran because of Barack Obama. Because you did a poor job. If I thought you did a good job, I would have never run.”

On the pandemic: “I take full responsibility. It’s not my fault that it came here. It’s China’s fault. And you know what, it’s not Joe’s fault that it came here either.”

As ever he downplayed the seriousness of the virus, pointing to his own recovery and claiming “we’re learning to live with it”.

AND THE BEST FROM BIDEN?

HE took full advantage of Trump’s admission of responsibility: “220,000 Americans dead. If you hear nothing else I say tonight, hear this … anyone that’s responsible for that many deaths should not remain president of the United States of America.” He hit Trump with another pandemic zinger: “He says we’re learning to live with it. People are learning to die with it.”

MOST TELLING EXCHANGE

PROBABLY this about the child separation policy at the US-Mexico border: “Children are brought here by coyotes and lots of bad people, cartels. They used to use them to get into our country. We now have as strong a border as we’ve ever had,” said Trump.

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Biden replied: “Coyotes didn’t bring them over. Their parents were with them. They got separated from their parents. And it makes us a laughing stock and violates every notion of who we are as a nation.”

SO WHAT HAPPENS NOW?

WITH no mistakes by Biden and no progress by Trump, both men will have to resort to television adverts – Biden has several times the war chest of Trump – as well as rallies and personal appearances. The evidence so far is that only the hardcore Trump fans are turning out to cheer him on.

It’s Joe Biden’s election to lose, and if he wins, that’s when the real “fun” might start.