Trump and Biden clash on immigration and coronavirus during final debate

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 23, 2020 / 12:30 pm

Immigration and the coronavirus pandemic took center stage on Thursday's final debate between President Donald Trump and former vice president Joe Biden, while issues like abortion and religious liberty were not up for discussion, as the candidates enter the final two weeks of the presidential campaign. 

The debate, hosted by Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, featured new rules designed to improve the flow of discussion. Because of COVID-19 concerns, the candidates were spread apart and had a plexiglass barrier in between them. 

The night started off with moderator Kristen Welker of NBC questioning the two candidates about how they would lead the country through the "next stage" of the pandemic. 

Trump defended his record, saying he "closed the greatest economy in the world" to fight the disease, and noted that the excess mortality rate was "way down" compared to other countries. He also said that a vaccine is "coming" and "ready," and will be "announced within weeks." 

When pressed, Trump said that there was "not a guarantee" on the timeline but that he thinks there is a "good chance" a vaccine will be announced "within a matter of weeks." 

Biden attacked the president for not encouraging mask wearing earlier in the pandemic, and said that he had "no comprehensive plan" for tackling the virus, which has caused the deaths of more than 250,000 people in the country.

"What I would do is make sure we have everyone encouraged to wear a mask, all the time. I would make sure we move in the direction of rapid testing, investing in rapid testing. I would make sure that we set up national standards as to how to open up schools and open up businesses to be safe, and give them the wherewithal and financial resources to be able to do that," said Biden. 

Biden said that a vaccine process must be "totally transparent" in order for Americans to be willing to actually take the vaccine. He also defended calling Trump "xenophobic" when the president restricted travel from China at the beginning of the pandemic, and then added that the president "did it late." 

The former vice president said that while he would not immediately endorse another shutdown, he had not ruled out the possibility, should a community experience a high rate of cases. 

Trump, conversely, pressed for the increased opening of schools, and stated that "we're not going to shut down." 

Following the discussion of coronavirus, the debate shifted to national security and foreign policy, and then onto health care reform. 

Trump was questioned about the recent claim that more than 500 children separated at the border from their families could not be reunited as their parents could not be located. 

During the approximately two months that the administration enforced its "zero tolerance" policy, which included family separation, was in effect, about 3,000 children were separated from their parents, plus an additional 1,000 children who were separated from their parents during a pilot program of the policy in 2017.

Catholic leaders, both domestic and international, have repeatedly criticized the family separation policy. 

At the end of June 2018, the court ordered that the children be reunited with their families.

The president appeared to deflect the question, saying first that "Children are brought here by coyotes and lots of bad people, cartels, and they're brought here and it's easy to use them to get into our country." 

Trump said that he was "working" on a plan to reunite these children with their families, but said that this was difficult as "a lot of these kids come up without the parents" via a cartel or coyote. 

 A "coyote" is a slang term for a person paid to smuggle people into the United States. 

Biden objected to these claims, saying that "these 500 plus kids came with parents" and were separated from them at the border. He also rejected the idea that coyotes were responsible for bringing children across the border, saying that "their parents were with them." 

Biden and Trump sparred on the topic of the now-infamous "cages" that temporarily housed children who were separated from their parents at the border. 

Trump noted that the "cages" were built during the Obama administration,during which time President Obama was referred to as the "deporter-in-chief" for the record-high number of deportations during his time in office. 

Biden countered that the policy of separating families made a "laughingstock" of the country, and said the failure to achieve immigration reform during his vice presidency was "a mistake" and that he would create a pathway to citizenship for "over 11 million undocumented people" within the first 100 days of his presidency. 

During exchanges on healthcare, Trump credited himself with "terminating" the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act, which he called "the worst part of Obamacare." 

"Now [the ACA] is in court, because Obamacare is no good," said Trump. "No matter how well you run it, it's no good. What we'd like to do is terminate it." 

(Story continues below)

The president said that if Obamacare were "terminated," he would "come up with a brand new beautiful healthcare" policy that would continue to protect people with pre-existing conditions. 

Biden said that, if elected, he would "pass Obamacare with a public option." He referred to this as "Bidencare." This public option would cover people who qualify for Medicaid but "do not have the wherewithal...to get Medicaid." 

Biden said that he would not eliminate private insurance.