Interrupted repeatedly by US President Donald Trump in their presidential debate on Tuesday, an exasperated former US vice president Joe Biden resorted to insults and name-calling against an opponent who built his political career by coining belittling nicknames for his rivals.
“You’re the worst president America has ever had,” Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, said during a back-and-forth on taxes.
The insults featured heavily during a chaotic encounter in which Trump often talked over Biden and moderator Chris Wallace.
“Will you shut up, man? This is so unpresidential,” Biden said to Trump during a segment on the US Supreme Court.
“The fact is this man doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Biden said during a discussion on healthcare.
Biden called the US president a “clown” — twice. At one point, he apparently thought better of it.
“It’s hard to get any word in with this clown, excuse me, this person,” Biden during an exchange about taxes.
Biden called Trump a “racist” for banning racial-sensitivity training in his administration.
He called Trump “Putin’s puppy,” needling him for not confronting Russia about allegedly putting bounties on US soldiers.
Trump tried to object, but was reprimanded by Wallace for speaking out of turn.
On Twitter and at campaign rallies, Trump, 74, has called Biden “Sleepy Joe,” an apparent dig at the 77-year-old Democrat’s vitality.
However, in their first of three scheduled debates, Trump had plenty of disparaging things to say about his rival, whom he trails in national opinion polls ahead of the Nov. 3 US presidential election.
The US president brought up Biden’s son’s struggles with drugs and mocked his opponent’s academic performance at the University of Delaware, where, according to the Washington Post, Biden graduated 506th in a class of 688.
“He was the lowest or almost the lowest in your class. Don’t ever use the word smart with me,” Trump said. “Because you know what, there’s nothing smart about you, Joe.”
Biden said that he was proud of his son Hunter for overcoming addiction.
Trump also suggested that Biden could not drum up enough interest to hold large in-person rallies, when Biden criticized him for flouting social distancing regulations at campaign events.
NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt said that the debate “could have been a low point in political discourse.”
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